Hey guys, that's a good start! Some key issues affecting all users
of "homemade" special-purpose software are already surfacing here.
For example, how many of us tend to assume that just because we
happen to use a particular program, we are somehow entitled to
receive regular updates from some unseen hand, preferably without
charge? Or that the process of improving any software program is
mostly a matter of adding a few more cool features?
How many users, let alone user communities, actually feel some
responsibility for assuring the survival of "their" program on the
software market, or have any appreciation of what establishing and
maintaining the marketability of such a specialized software product
as this one entails?
Theses days we are used to taking our clean water for granted,
without ever coming anywhere near knowing or paying its actual
costs. We are used to grabbing lots of "free" software off the
internet, and lots of "free" music and video and images too. Good
tools are however seldom free, and they tend to evolve slowly, with
significant amounts of help from their earliest users. We may lose
this one if we cannot figure out together how to keep it alive.
-Sterling
