I have been an active member of the GOTD community for several years, and have commented now and then, sometimes thoroughly, mostly image manipulation or animation programs, which is my way of thanking for the gifts, beside subscriptions to a few licenses. I have been much more often positive than negative.
Recently, though, I have been raising my voice against SoftOrbits. I am in no way questioning the quality of their products, I had several of them favorably commented and installed. But their giveaways have for long had a recurrent issue: they lose their activation, i.e. they do not even go back to trial: when you open them, you are just given the choice between buy, register… and close.
When, during SO Photo Stamp Remover giveaway on July 16th, I posted a comment starting with “I AM ANGRY” in capital letters, other GOTDers made it clear I wasn’t the only one, and we discussed whether it was a scheme or a bug. Soon after the giveaway had ended, SoftOrbits posted an apology and gave new activation codes for 3 of their programs, with 3 days to activate them. To make sure other commenters wouldn’t miss the offer, I dropped the information on the next giveaway page:
OFF TOPIC (Sorry, Artensoft, I won’t be long): Regarding yesterday’s issue with SoftOrbits software being deactivated, I recommend that you go back to yesterday’s page and have a look at post 10. Kudos to SoftOrbits :)
(Sorry again) – Update: 3 SoftOrbits programs successfully reactivated. I couldn’t enter new keys, so I had to redownload trials from their site, with Sketch Drawer (a.k.a. Photo to Sketch Converter) updated to 3.2. Photo Retoucher can be accessed only through the link “Homepage” on its GOTD page on May 14. If you missed or lost these GOTDs, you have 3 days to catch up.
The number of up votes these two posts and the one by SoftOrbits on the previous day page received shows that people were happy to take advantage of the offer. I mention I did that to make clear that I am in no way campaigning against SoftOrbits, and that I am ready to give them credit for every effort they make.
But, unfortunately, during SO Sketch Drawer giveaway on August 6th, I had to post this:
Two weeks ago, when Photo Stamp Remover was offered here, I complained that most of my SoftOrbits giveaways were inexplicably back to trial, and it appeared I wasn't the only one and we wondered whether that wasn't a scheme to push us to buy the licenses. But just after the end of the giveaway there was a nice post from SoftOrbits apologizing for that and giving us codes (and 3 days to activate them) for 3 of their programs. I was soo happy the following day to reactivate my 3 programs and announce the good news to those who might have missed it! At least we knew of SoftOrbits good faith and good will, if not of good coding. But I realized soon that one after the other, they were surreptitiously going back to trial in my back while I was activating another one, and I spent the 3 days in the endless process of reactivating, because trying to keep all your SoftOrbits programs working is like solving a Rubik's Cube: while you arrange one side, you mess up the others. Now that the 3 days have ended, out of my 5 SoftOrbits giveaways, 4 are back to trial again, including my only 2 weeks old Photo Stamp Remover.
I only hope at least licensed users can reactivated at will, but I am not much tempted to test it and buy. As I am an incurable optimist, I will nevertheless bother to reinstall this one, and when it is gone, well... there will always be FotoSketcher, free, portable, and by far the best in this category.
I received 84 up votes, which I mention not to flatter my ego, but because it showed that my discontent, as evidenced also by some other comments, was shared.
During SO SoftSkin Photo Makeup giveaway on October 8th I reiterated:
Is there a little chance that, after downloading, activating, testing, rating and maybe commenting this software, I don't find out, whenever I wish to use it, that it is deactivated, like all my other SoftOrbits giveaways?
The day SoftOrbits people make their giveaways follow the rules of giveaways, i.e. "1) No free technical support; 2) No free upgrades to future versions; 3) Strictly personal usage", without adding "4) Can be deactivated any minute", I'll be more willing to try - and consider buying - their products, as there are some of them I like, which makes the whole thing all the more frustrating.
This -I admit slightly aggressive- interrogation got 94 up votes, and about half of the 17 comments were about the problem.
When SO Privacy Protector was given away on October 19th, I insisted:
People considering trying this software would certainly benefit from reading comments for the previous SoftOrbits giveaway. This is how I just explained my down vote: SoftOrbits giveaways don't stay activated.
I got 87 up votes in spite of an immediate answer from SoftOrbits: "Problem with activation is fixed, now program keeps it." I trusted them, up voted them, together with 23 other GOTDers, because I appreciate when developers are present on the site and show they value our comments, and happily considered rebuilding my SO giveaway collection.
Twice, during SO Photo Retoucher giveaway on November 19th and during SO Photo Background Remover giveaway on December 9th, I ensured other posters who were still inquiring or complaining about that issue that it had been solved for the best.
But when SO Photo Stamp Remover was offered again last week on December 23rd, I decided, just in case, to have a quick check and….NOOOO!!...
I posted:
Once again, I find all my SoftOrbits giveaways deactivated. Photo Retoucher, Photo Background Remover, SoftSkin Photo Makeup, Sketch Drawer... reinstalled these last weeks, all gone AGAIN!! SoftOrbits people, you said you had solved that issue... Please give me a reason for reinstalling this one!...
I might have been a little vehement, but there was not one word which could make a moderator blink, and my comment, the first one that day, was displayed. Soon another poster, whose username I don't remember, replied he/she was happy not to be the only one with this issue. (He/she probably doesn't read comments often...)
But when I refreshed the page, that second comment had disappeared. Equally bizarre, my votes count obstinately kept on displaying a 0 (again, not an ego thing, but I knew that, at that very same moment, there were plenty of others making the very same discovery). So I checked in Internet Explorer, and guess what? No comment by ouialaraison there! What I was seeing in Chrome was only its ghost left in the cache... (where it still stubbornly remains, which is why I can give it verbatim, for BuBBy who once wrote “So far nobody has provided a verbatim example of this "oppressive" moderation”). Even more bizarre, not one single comment of the 30+ displayed afterwards mentioned any deactivation issue.
Then, last Saturday and Sunday, SO Sketch Drawer was given away on SharewareOnSale, the site run by Ashraf, who earlier made reviews for GOTD. I posted there, advising once more people to use the freeware FotoSketcher instead, firstly because it is much better and secondly because soon they will find their Sketch Drawer deactivated (kudos to Ashraf, who didn't wipe me off!), and I shared my recent experience on GOTD. Another poster, Suze, replied that when, during one of the SoftOrbits giveaways in December, she mentioned the deactivation of a SO program she had, she did not pass moderation, although, after her other posts I read on GOTD, she had most certainly not been rude either.
That makes at least three of us banned from telling people on GOTD an indisputable truth: your SoftOrbits giveaways will not last long. Is it fair to deliberately let them go through the hassle of downloading a giveaway, installing it, registering it, trying it, assimilating its learning curve, overcoming the frustration of finding it deactivated next time they want to use it, and ultimately uninstalling it?
None of the reasons given for deletion or non-publication by BuBBy in his various posts on this discussion [url=http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/832] applies. And, at least regarding the carefully targeted screening of comments on the last SoftOrbits giveaway page, I don't buy the technical glitches or the lazy moderator theories suggested in some other threads. So what had happened?
I haven't been on GOTD page since then... I just don't feel like it... I know I will come back soon -I have never been able to hold grudges very long- but with a hint of suspicion... What if today's giveaway is incompatible with some other software I have, if it crashes precisely my version of Windows, if it contains an undetected malware...? Other commenters are trying to tell me but are prevented to do so…
I really hope this can be discussed on this forum. If not, well... At least I would have vented my frustration to the moderator. :-(