Note to all:
It is significantly more helpful to everyone - that anything other than a "gee nice game/program", or "thanks GOTD" related comment - should be posted to the forums (instead of inside the GOTD daily giveaway comments section). That is anything not specific to the actual program or game giveaway.
Reason: Forum posts can be linked to and referred to, in the future comment sections helping people over any giveaway day. Information buried deep in the comments section is more likely to be lost and is much harder to locate, update, track for updates or comment on in the future.
The best option - you should create a forum topic with the information you want to share. It might be alternative freeware programs that are similar to the current giveaway, support and solutions for common problems (how to correctly unzip and activate a giveaway), interesting software/computing related sites anything that you think someone else might be interested in not only today, but tomorrow or next week.
Then after creating the forum topic - post your comment with a copy of the URL to the forum topic. The beauty of doing things this way - people who comment or add to your idea - have their comments grouped together, and everyone can see when someone updates the "knowlege base".
Also new ideas, comments or products are "broadcast" so everyone can see them - this means new knowlege is discoverable. You can find out about something because it is "in your face" - you don't have to already know that it exists to know you can search on it. (eg you remember having seen it before). This is the most common way people learn something new - few people just search stuff at random to see what turns up (or go to the effort to read a dictionary to see if they can learn any new words).
The beauty of forums posts and topics is that their experience can be reused - it is a lot less annoying posting a link to the forums for a link to a topic FAQ or the "HOWTO activate" document, than to read 5 different explanations of it every day in the comments section.
For Example, next week you want to give someone a link to a useful program or that cool freeware site you mentioned today - you should post in the GOTD comments section - a link to an existing
(or one you have just written) forum post instead. If the freeware site changes or you need to update info - the details aren't scattered over several posts & days.
Also people can reply/comment or add their experience and knowledge to your posts - and you don't have to read through 3 pages of unrelated posts to find it. (A nice side effect of having more than a single thread per day).
Forum topics are centralised, persistent (over time) and grouped with related (hopefully) comments.
Threads can last longer than 24 hours. Just try to go back and add some information about that great site or program you posted in the comments section last week. Once that's done - who is going to notice? Absolutely nobody! Everyone is busy talking in todays comment. Your comments from last week are old news today. Tomorrow your tips and stellar sites will be history also. Please, always use the forums for this stuff.
These forums can (and should) also be used as a reference library to helpful info & sites/programs. Trying to find anything & all of the follow up comments about something that was posted in the giveaway comments two (or was it three?) weeks ago is a PITA (pain in the...armpit).
Putting your useful information in the forums and linking to it in the comments section will encourage others to do the same. Well at least those who feel their suggestions have a useful life beyond 24 hours.
Remember the GOTD comments section is nothing more than a daily bucket of random chat. OK, granted it's a nice bucket - but the forums are "where it's at".
Finally a Forum tip, I'm sure most people don't know about:
At the top of each topic or thread you will see "add this topic to your favorites (?)". Combine this feature with a new option in your "profile" (see "view your profile" - eg: my profile - at the top of the forums) - when you are logged in - there is an option to "edit" when viewing your own profile. On this screen - "Notification by e-mail Send me a message when a new entry is posted in one of my favorites." So you can have GOTD keep an eye on things that really interest you - and will let you know in case you miss something.
With the Comment "bucket"... if you miss something that's just bad luck. <sarcasm>how is it possible to miss something in the comments section?</sarcasm>
Also (and I'm going to be letting the cat out of the bag here) I am putting together a central bookmark repository of useful software (predominantly pure freeware) & computing sites. Most of this information will be coming from users like yourselves. It is a work in progress and I'm always happy to review sites and links to add to the list for everyone else. (Send me a PM)
As my professional background is in the areas of software development and tech support - that flavor will probably be visible in the types of "help" and "training" related sites that I post. But I am sure there will always be new information being added that everyone (at times) will find useful.
Any comments or suggestions - please address via PM.