The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

To be clear, Registerware (or registrationware) is defined as a program that you cannot download / use until you have provided a working email address. Some examples of this include FreeOffice and ClipDiary. Edit: ClipDiary turns out to have been a bad example -- no email required. Thanks smaragdus.

The origin of this question is a discussion about registerware in the AxCrypt2go thread. To check my assumptions, I decided to generate this poll.

It's already unpleasant enough that Portable Freeware accepts and list software that write to the registry. Why include such privacy-invading software like registerware? No portable software user in their right mind would stoop that low.

It's OK every now and then, especially with software that descends from a commercial "full" version, but on the whole it's very annoying/inconvenient. I think something like this should be examined on a case-by-case basis rather than YES or NO.

I don't think that registerware is necessarily evil. The registration could be needed to provide a service of benefit to the user (I'm thinking of things like cloud storage and webmail here). On the other hand it could be a way of collecting email addresses, and possibly other personal information, for the software provider to do with it whatever they like.

I don't feel comfortable banning all registerware just because some of it will abuse the registrations. It's really up to the person considering using the registerware whether they are willing to register to use it. If users report that the registration has been abuse, I think there should be a quick and simple way to remove the offending software entry from this site.

For these reasons I am voting to allow registerware to be listed here.

Ditto. You stated exactly my reasoning better than I could have done, Craunch.

Craunch wrote:registerware is necessarily evil

Certainly developers have to eat but the same logic is used to justify adware/nagware/etc, none of which we allow because, as the FAQ states:

FAQ wrote:Commercial developers can have an advertising budget and resources available to them to help get their name out. They don't need help the way freeware developers do. Additionally, as a conversation with several bundleware sellers one of our users shared with us, there is a big push in freeware to include some kind of revenue-generating software. For those that resist the urge to add these things, we want to say thanks.

Craunch wrote:If users report that the registration has been abuse, I think there should be a quick and simple way to remove the offending software entry from this site.

I'm worried that we don't really have a system to integrate that. If there's a delay, it's difficult to determine if someone starts getting spam from a registerware source or somewhere else.

A dev has his reasons to make an App registerware. A user has his reasons to consider it interesting and useful. A registerware is always aware that it's not well accepted or well peferred among similar software; that's the way it is. Every portable and free piece of software deserves a chance to be tried and used by anybody, but, "harmware" or "annoyware" disguised as registerware should and will always be rejected and punished by any software site resulting in a useless effort and negative reference for the developer, even so, I think they deserve a vote of confidence.

Now that the poll from webfork is over, the majority has spoken. 60% disagree or strongly disagree that Portablefreeware.com should start allowing registerware. Having said this, I wholeheartedly agree with shnbwmn's comment. Each registerware app must be decided on a case by case basis.

In a PM, webfork asked for my comment on this issue. My own position is "It's complicated". That's because the definition of "registerware" is hard to pin down.

On the one hand, I am not opposed to software that requires an email address to download, since that only requires a throwaway email address.

On the other hand, I am strongly opposed to software that requires some form of activation for no other purpose than just to make it work. That is simply distasteful.

In the grey area are software that connects to a cloud-based service. Obviously, if the software lets you sync with Dropbox or Google Drive, you are going to need to register for an account if you haven't already.

There may be software that do not connect to one of the big names, but to their own server for some specific service, that requires registration. In this case, the service is a core part of the software, and the registration is required for the software to work. However, if the small-name service goes belly up, the software stops working.

Now the above is just my personal opinion. Different people may hold different opinions on this, much like whether all non-stealth apps should be banned, or all apps that write settings to the registry should be banned.

Where do we draw the line? Maybe for the first two cases, we can decide outright (even on that, some people may disagree with me). But for the other cases, it may be best to decided on a case-by-case basis by using the "rock/suck" function.