* if you find a bug and don't even bother to tell me so that I can fix it (for free, for #####'s sake!), that's just lame.* You need to read Cialdini's Influen

* if you find a bug and don't even bother to tell me so that I can fix it (for free, for #####'s sake!), that's just lame.* You need to read Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini That will get you in the mindset to understand what is going on here. People are shy about reporting bugs in your free software because they -- perhaps correctly -- sense that to ask you to fix a bug is to subtly demand a favor from you. And they don't want to demand favors from you. Perhaps because they got your work for free, and it feels like being a jerk to take someone's free work and then demand more. Or perhaps just because asking you to do a favor for them will make them feel socially obligated to reciprocate, but they don't know how that's going to work. They can't just give you money, because you aren't asking for it. What are you going to ask for? Are you going to ask for something they don't have -- like time -- or something they don't want to give you, like a signature on a petition that they don't agree with, or the license to some software that they really wanted to hang on to? Perhaps you will ask them to buy some Amway products, or some life insurance, or a timeshare, or an entire box of candy bars for your kid's fund drive. Don't think that this sort of thing doesn't happen. When people offer me free stuff as I walk down the street I usually decline. I've learned better. I believe it was Cialdini who described the classic Hari Krishna trick of starting conversations on the street by giving people tiny flowers. Once you've been given a tiny gift the part of your brain that calculates social debt starts ticking, whether you want it to or not, and you'll find yourself feeling guilty if you just walk away. A lot of terrible products have been sold this way. Indeed, even if you tell people over and over that providing a bug report is doing you a favor, they will still think of it as a demand on you. Because if I walk up to you and do you a favor I am creating a subtle expectation that you will reciprocate. This is why charging money for your software -- even a dollar -- creates a magical change in your customer relations. Suddenly customers understand the rules: You do things for them, they reciprocate with money, and it's all square! Suddenly customers will start calling you up and reporting bugs -- they paid for your bug-fixing efforts! They'll report a thousand bugs -- hey, look at the value they're getting for their dollar! Of course, the terrible flip side is that, once they've paid you a dollar and then cheerfully reported a thousand bugs, your own reciprocity calculator might start to ping, whether you want it to or not. You may begin to resent those bug reports -- the very ones that you are currently begging for -- because you were only paid a lousy dollar for the work of accepting them all. Watch it happen.