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Well Prowler. I take no offence at your question although it does surprise me a little. I made it quite clear that I expect no profit or recognition from my hobby. I'll admit that it is nice when anyone is kind enough to credit me for my help, which many have, but that is not a condition nor expected. The point is that it IS a hobby & I would not put myself out to help people who in my opinion are trying to make a quick buck. Not only that but in doing so are illegally using the very same Freeware utilities I taught them to use......!

I will willingly help anyone with a genuine interest who cares to ask & have been doing so continuously for over 4 years. I'm not only talking about the small tips I give here on this forum. I have spent literally hours & sometimes days patiently teaching people how to use various utilities via e-mail.

I hope this clears up what I was trying to say. I won't even mention the occasions when unscrupulous pirates have stolen my work (& that of my friends) & tried selling it with not even a credit to the genuine authors. Unfortunately this is the risk any Freeware author takes. Once their work is posted on the internet they lose all control over it. You can bet that someone, somewhere will abuse this simple requirement posted with all my own files.

I would have thought that was easy enough for anyone to understand.

Hi Katahu. I didn't mean to send this thread off-topic & don't see what this has to to with Payware.

In my experience the only way to GUARANTEE that someone will not pirate your work is not to post it in the first place. When it happens the first time it hurts bad. You get over it & the next time it's not so bad _ & so it goes on. If the thought of this happening to you bothers you that much you might as well give up now.

Just to make this clear. I'm not interested in credit or reward. I do this for pleasure. The thought of some untalented individual profiting from what is & should be free revolts me. That's all.

Long ago someone pointed out that in the past, many people loved the idea of making flight simulator addons for free and as a hobby.

But look at us today. Well, for some of us.

With all my knowledge and my very own checking account [finally], I can easily put a price tag on my addons if I want to.

HOWEVER, I didn't. This is because I feel that it is too early for me to go Payware because A) I feel that I don't have enough design experience to go that path and B) I feel too young to start going payware [I'm 19].

But I douht that I ever will. Going payware will probably make me feel like a heel.

1st we have to realise we are in the early stages of digital entertainment.
2nd - By definition everyone here is a 'payware supporter' - because you have bought your
base sim -from Microsoft.
I'm basically a supporter of progress & if that means paying for it - so be it.... But the greatest progress is more than very often made by genuine enthusiast who are motivated purely by the buzz of this great hobby.
There are several factors that spring to mind in this thread:

Extremely honourable behaviour:
Those who devote considerable time creating a masterpiece or contributing a lot of their time to helping others to get more out FS/CFS - driven purely by enthusiasm & a generous inner attitude. These are the 'good people' of this world & get very little of the appreciation they deserve. (dishonourable behaviour by users who don't think of feeding back...!) - We're talking 100's - sometimes even 1000's hours here..
Honourable behaviour
All those who give without thought of 'what's in it for me' We're talking hours & 10's of hours here ....
Dishonourable behaviour
People who claim they are making freeware - use sites like this & attain a ton of help on false pretences only to release their files through a payware company. Happens regularly. They should be honest from the outset. I even had one guy asking me to buy him FSDS, as he was 'out of work'  - which I did - only to watch him release his multiple work (at least 3 aircraft) through a well known commercial company

Extremely dishonourable behaviour  
Any user who openly complains that a freeware file sucks!(the 'idiot' is highlighted).

Commercial companies who poach freeware sites like this & offer 'exclusive' contracts to active developers they have been watching, with offers of relatively small sums - which means withdrawing previous files (aircab is an example).

At the end of the day - the user SHOULD have the choice. Buy - or have an alternative of freely provided talent .  - We are in a metamorphosis - the Internet is changing & 'digital entertainment' (including FS) is becoming a major form of entertainment. Many good things are happening. Some back street cats are showing their colors. That's human beings for ya!

But at the end of the day - if someone wishes to charge for their work - you have the choice.

How any different is it to buying add-ons for your gleamingly polished car,  RC aircraft, fishing or any other hobby for that matter?

I contribute plenty of time in the forums. However, I never keep track as to how many hours I have spent here. Therefore, I assume that I am in the "Honourable Behaviour" range.

It's very unlikely that a Payware company would offer me a contract. This is because I make cars and not planes for FS. Not that many people are willing to drive in a flight sim.

The same thing goes to Hagar. He makes tanks. I wonder why. This is not a war simulator, you know. But then again, this is not a car-driving simulator either.

I voted No. 2. But personally i prefer freeware. The question shouldn't be if you like freeware or payware. Rather you should ask what purpose do each search. If youre selling your software, as some of those who posted in favor of it, as i admit i would do, that is sell my software, then go for it. But we must remember that the way things are going with the internet we will soon see nothing for free.You would have to pay for everything.The internet will become a giant store where nothing is free. All you would find would be adds, adds and adds. Everything for sale, including email and chatrooms. Sites will charge for logging in to it. Just give this a few years and you'll see it! The only way to share would be on a peer to peer basis and this would also be attacked. Nothing against selling your work, i repeat! But lets give room to sharing and creating communities like the one we belong to, the flight simulator community, and let its purpose continue to be the one it has been until now, to share and make friends. Something money will never be able to buy. A suggestion to Simviation's staff. The fourth question is a tricky one. People do not necesarily hate payware or want it banned. Your forcing people to choose one of the other answers that more or less favor payware. This leads me to think that you will soon be charging to  make downloads from your site and limiting the access to those looking for freeware, like Flightsim.com does. In other words, Flightsim.com charges you for its "premiun membership." But if you logon to it and try to gain access to their library, it tells to come back later thus forcing you to become a pay member because you never get access. Please...dont make the same mistake!
Good luck to all!