I don't want to register before downloading
Okay I just wanted to try the "community edition" of some software. So I clicked on the big download button and then... I had to login. Because I don't have an account yet I had to register first. So I filled in all required field like my email address and a free to choose password without any help message about it's strength and then I got this error message:
Password not strong enough. Please use at least 3 of the following prerequisites:lowercase (a-z), uppercase (A-Z), numbers (0-9), and special characters (!^%#$@*.,)
Come on, I just want to try some software. Just let me download it without creating an account I will probably never use again. When I want to post on your support forum that's the right moment to create an account. I wonder if these companies have ever looked into their website statistics to see at which point people quit.
10 comments
Heavy Battle Wombat said
Just to make a point for Martin above. Personally, whenever I find that downloading a trial version or free/community edition some software requires me to give out my personal information, I will start looking for alternative software. If I cannot find any, I will fill out fake information with a one time fake email (just to be on the safe side whenever the company goes bankrupt and the client list goes to the highest bidder).
If you want my personal information as payment for your software, say so upfront and don't call it free. And it has nothing to do with software being open or closed source.
I don't think I am the only one to hold such opinions.
18 May 2009 20:15
Anonymous said
And thus there's http://www.bugmenot.com/
18 May 2009 16:50
zak said
It's OK to ask for whatever you want before letting people download YOUR software.
That said, it's really bloody stupid. There's a good chance I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try your software. If you make it require any more of my effort than absolutely required, I may decide not to try it at all.
Happy trial users are more valuable than sales leads.
18 May 2009 16:42
Carl Seleborg said
Martin,
It is *not* ok to ask people to create an account before downloading a demo. There are plenty of reasons, annoyance being the first of them.
I use Xecrets to store my account information. Guess how many entries I have? 102. Yep, 102 accounts. That's either 102 passwords, that I could not possibly remember without the use of an external tool, or that's 102 times the same password. Now, since you mention security, please consider the security implications of such a situation.
There is something you have to understand: if people have to register to try your software and they don't like it (for whatever reason), there's nothing you can do with that contact information to change that. On the other hand, if people can try your software without hassle, and they think it fits their needs, they will come back to you. At some point or another, you will see them again.
There is absolutely *no* difference between what you are doing and asking customers to fill in a form at the supermarket's cash desk the first time they come. Would you like that? I doubt it...
18 May 2009 15:27
Anonymous said
It's policies like this that make people register as "Dave" using mailinator.
18 May 2009 15:09
Anonymous said
10minutemail.com is your friend.
it generates a fake email which you use for registration, and lets you monitor that fake email 'account' to watch for the inbound "click here to download" email. Then the email account self-destructs after ten minutes.
18 May 2009 15:00
Igor said
Welcome to Apple's open source software (and you need to pay for a subscription and also be a mac user... NOT COOL!)
18 May 2009 14:41
L. Mohan Arun said
You are correct, Registration before download must be optional, I guess they are just trying to get you on the list so they can send marketing and follow-up emails
18 May 2009 14:27
Jasha Joachimsthal said
Hi Martin,
this post wasn't meant just for your download process. There are a lot of software vendors wanting some of your personal details before you can download, like Sun for JDK 5. That's why I didn't explicitly mention your company.
I know it's better to choose a strong password but it would be nice if the password rules would be mentioned before submitting the form.
In the end I did download and install the software and I got it running in Windows 7 RC. The VM is too slow to say anything about performance and I didn't spend much time yet using it.
Jasha
18 May 2009 08:00
Martin said
Hi Jasha
Thanks for having the intention to download our Community Edition :-)
You make a comment about our required password strength, but as a web developer you know that this is very common on any website with registration. We do a lot more with profiles on GX Developerweb so it's very normal to have a basic level of security there.
Somehow I get the feeling that your real point is to have to login at all before downloading our software. I can write a very long story about this, but this is one of those differences between open source and non-open source. In the open source world it's 'not done'. We think it's okay to ask some basic information about the people who want to try our software. For registered users it's easy the post questions on the forum and for us it's possible to send questionaires to people who downloaded our software.
I'd be happy to hear about what you think of our software!
Martin van Mierloo - martinvm@gx.nl
18 May 2009 07:14