A word on Surfulater (today on Bits du Jour)

Posted by Bob Mackreth
May 31, 2007 at 04:10 AM

Neville Franks wrote:

>Unlike other software we allow the Surfulater Free Trial to be restarted at
>any time, as documented on our FAQ page. Allowing new Knowledge Bases to be created
>could potentially enable folks to continue using Surfulater forever by restarting
>the trial, hence this restriction was put in place.
> >No other features are disabled
>or restricted in any way in the trial and the sample knowledge base content can be
>deleted or just simply added to. So I never considered not allowing new KB’s to be
>created as being too onerous and was a reasonable tradeoff to allow the trial to be
>restarted.

Well, speaking purely for myself, I find 30 days to be plenty of time to assess a program, provided I can give the application a thorough workout. Since my preferred way of working involves sorting information into numerous highly-focused databases this limitation really did make it hard for me to see whether Surfulater would suit my needs.

I’ think it would be a better idea to be strict with the time limit, but allow use of all program features.

>There is a Pre-Sales Surfulater forum that anyone can
>read, post on and get replies. The Surfulater Customer forums are provided as an
>added-value area for paying customers.

I always look at reading through user forums as akin to reading the FAQ. I can’t see the point of making potential customers submit queries that you or someone else will have to address when the answer may be already available in a forum that’s blocked off. Pardon me for saying so, but it just does not seem to make business sense.

> They also provide an area where product
>direction and development are discussed away from the eyes of potential
>competitors.

Well, it’s nice that you share this info with registered users, but if I were one of your competitors I think I’d be happy shell out 35 bucks to scope out your plans. :)