Ur I.T. Mate Group ceasing product development - sad news

  • Thread starter Thread starter Italy Anonymous Remailer
  • Start date Start date
I

Italy Anonymous Remailer

Sad news for freeware users:

From: Ur I.T. Mate Group - Product Support - Home (http://support.it-
mate.co.uk/index.asp?mode=kb&kbid=19)

Overview

Date: Tuesday 16th November 2004

As Ur I.T. Mate Group is to cease developing new products for public
release, and additionally, cease providing support for products we are
currently making available, this document is intended to provide information
to the public, and our users, as to the reasons for this decision, aswell as
what will and will not be affected.

More Information

Effective immediately, Ur I.T. Mate Group has decided to cease development
of new products for public release, and additionally, cease providing
support for the products we are currently making available, with the
following exceptions;

1. Online documentation

The online documentation shall continue to be updated as and where
necessary, and covers the Frequently Asked Questions, How To's, and any
other documentation currently available on the Product Support website.

2. Knowledgebase

The Ur I.T. Mate Group knowledgebase shall continue to be updated as
and where necessary.

3. Bug fixes

Whilst we will not be updating our current products with new features,
we shall still continue to fix bugs within them, when and if they are found.

4. AB Edit

As this program is for use with Avant Browser, we believe it vital
that it is kept upto date with the latest releases of Avant Browser itself.

All products we are currently making available, shall continue to remain
available as freeware for those that wish to use it. Additionally, all
website's and online services provided by ourselves, shall continue to
remain maintained and updated where necessary.

Though there are several reasons for the decision that has been made, the
deciding factor is quite simply as I am sick and tired of receiving rather
abusive and insulting e-mails and am no longer prepared to put up with them.

Ur I.T. Mate Group is NOT a company, everything that is made available via
our website's (including our software), is developed, maintained and
supported by one person (myself). No charge is made or requested for the use
of said provisions (monetary or otherwise) and as such, I do not feel there
is any possible justification for those that have sent the afformentioned
kind of e-mails, to have done so.

Conclusion

The decision as to whether or not the afformentioned is permanent or
temporary, has not yet been decided. Until such a decision is made, I would
like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience's these changes cause.

I would additionally like to thank all of those that have supported both
myself and the work I have done thus far including (but in no way limited
to); Bob McKenzie, Scott Williams, Ken Howey, Donna Buenaventura, George
Gedye, Mark Ridgway, Dee Hughes, Sandra (Sandi) Hardmeier, Andrew Cole,
Jonathan and Christine Wright, along with all of the moderators and
administrators at the Avant Browser forums. The information in this article
applies to:

1. Ur I.T. Mate Group products (all)

Published: 16/11/2004 20:12:31

Products devoloped by Ur I.T. Mate include:

Products
AB Edit
ACF Notes
ActiveScan Cleaner
B Gone
Bit Defender Cleaner
Black Jack
Chess
Cookie Info
Crack That Password
Cup Holder
DIB-DOS is back
Dir 2 File
DUN AC
File Fetch 2003
File Fetch 2004
FreeScan Cleaner
Freeware Finder
F-Store
Guestbook Generator
Housecall Cleaner
ICQ Pager
IE Interigator
Index.dat QV
Index.dat Suite
ISPs Nightmare
Mercury Editor
Metallica MP3 Player
MJ Browsing Pack
MJ Desktop Theme
MJ MP3 Player
MJ Screensaver
Mouse Mat
MP3 Store
PUI
Quick Compare
Quick Info
Quick Ren
RF Types
Rip Wiz 2002
Rip Wiz 2003
S Lock
Simple News
SKMP3
SMTP Finder
SSP
The Tiscali Connection
Who's There
ZP2 MP3 Player
 
Though there are several reasons for the decision that has been made, the
deciding factor is quite simply as I am sick and tired of receiving rather
abusive and insulting e-mails and am no longer prepared to put up with them.
Click to expand...

dont let it get to you!

the good are not as vocal as the bad!

keep up the good work!

i mean an negative e-mail is so easy to send,

yet hard to take !
 
jo said:
[...]

That's a shame... I thought Steven had been a bit quiet of late :-(

http://support.it-mate.co.uk/index.asp?mode=kb&kbid=19
Click to expand...

Thx, Jo. I appreciate your finding the document that explains the story.

| ANN: Ur I.T. Mate Group statement concerning product and product support changes (KBID# 19)
| Date: Tuesday 16th November 2004
|
| As Ur I.T. Mate Group is to cease developing new products for public
| release, and additionally, cease providing support for products we are
| currently making available
[...]

I would wish that he reconsider. Continue producing freeware. Make a change
instead to redirect his contact emails to dev/nul.

I feel strongly that freeware users should not /demand/ direct access to
an author, and should not /demand/ the author to provide answers to their
support questions. That is merely a bonus, if the author wants to use their
time that way. Many authors might choose that route, especially those who
want feedback. Yet others explicitly do not.

I feel especially that for those users who require direct hand-holding,
they should purchase a shareware license. That is the substantial part
of what the user is buying, support from the developer, when they pay
for a shareware license.

(See alt.comp.shareware.authors - the time spent developing the program
is relative dwarfed, due to amount of time taken up for end-user support.)

| Though there are several reasons for the decision that has been made,
| the deciding factor is quite simply as I am sick and tired of receiving
| rather abusive and insulting e-mails and am no longer prepared to put
| up with them.

In alt.comp.shareware.authors, I have read discussions concerning dealing
with abusive emails. They conclude their options to be (1) try to bend over
backwards to appease the user, if possible. And if that fails, (2) offer
a refund, to get that user out of one's hair.

For a freeware author, the perfectly good third option, it's to set up
mail filters. An auto-reply, saying author too busy/etc to reply, then
dump the mail into an unread (or trash) bin.

Not to ignore that Steven's story doesn't make me sympathetic. Only that
I hope he takes a route less drastic than ceasing production of freeware.
 
Most sorry to hear about the situation. I have greatly appreciated the
software you folks wrote and on the 1 or 2 occasions I emailed you, was
delighted by your prompt and courteous help.

Thank you. I hope that the situation changes for your sake and not just
mine.

Chet
 
Back
Top