My Software Picks of the Week

H

htdefiant

macrumors member
Hey everyone,
I wanted to announce that I will be making weekly software for Windows and OS X. I have already made my first one, located here. You do though, need to be registered to see it, so I've posted my first reviews here. My future ones, however, will only be posted at that topic location. I hope you all will give me feedback :)

Week 1: Productivity

Windows Pick of the Week:
Notepad++
This open-source replacement for Windows' built in Notepad sports many features that you have to pay for in other programs. First off, it's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor. It handles tons of different programming languages, including HTML, PHP, Java, CSS, and many more. You can edit many documents at the same time, in tabs, not seperate windows. It won't hog your bandwith, either, at a tiny 1.4 megabytes. For those who want a stripped down version of Word and Dreamweaver in one, this is the program for you.
Oh, did I mention it's free?
Notepad Plus Website

OS X Pick of the Week:
Smultron
Another Sourceforge product, Smultron is a free text/HTML editor. Not only does Smultron have tabs, it also has a neat document pane on the left. Like Dreamweaver, it supports syntax coloring, a very helpful feature when editing code. Also, Smultron is compatible with FTP clients. Using Smultron, it's easy to keep your documents organized by keeping them in 'drawers'. You can sync this program with your .Mac account, and preview webpages before they go online. Another great program from Sourceforge!
Smultron Website

Thanks,
Harrison
(htdefiant)
 
Smultron is a nice freeware editor, although, I think you really do "get what you pay for" as far as shareware text editors on the Mac are concerned.

Is it a requirement of your posts that the apps be FOSS or donationware?
 
Nope. I try very hard for my picks to be free programs. I explained back on my forums, though, if I were to post a paid app, I'd accompany it with a free one. 'Cause free is always good :)
 
Well, you asked for feedback. I'll give you this one. You say you're gonna make people register before they can view the reviews? Sorry, that's a total non-starter. You can ask people to register if they want to be able to leave comments, but to view :rolleyes: ? This is not going to work.

Why would you do that anyway? What do you get out of folks registering? If you are after eyeballs, or popularity, you're shooting yourself in the foot here. I bet you'll lose 95% of potential viewers if they have to register just to view your site. Which sites do that? Hardly any, unless there's something extra special, usually involving money. Macrumors? AppleInsider? Think Secret? Macnn? You only register if you want to comment, but all can view without registering. None would do anything as crazy as this. What makes you think you'll get folks to do what they won't do elsewhere?

People are more and more reluctant to register anywhere. If I had to register to every site I view, I'd be doing nothing but registering, and soon get lost in all the id/password forest. No way. So, there is high resistance to registering from the public.

Maybe, maybe, maybe you could do it if you are some well-known or specially qualified commentator who really knows his subject inside out and who has a lot of implicit trust from the public... but some random shmo who is going to sound off his random opinions? Not a chance. Since you are starting from total anonymity and lack of brand name, you need all the help you can get to make people want to view your site - and registering is a HUGE hurdle and extra hoop to jump through. Not gonna happen.

I strongly urge you to re-think this aspect of your site if you ever hope to get more than a handful of viewers.
 
OldCorpse said:
Well, you asked for feedback. I'll give you this one. You say you're gonna make people register before they can view the reviews? Sorry, that's a total non-starter. You can ask people to register if they want to be able to leave comments, but to view :rolleyes: ? This is not going to work.

Why would you do that anyway? What do you get out of folks registering? If you are after eyeballs, or popularity, you're shooting yourself in the foot here. I bet you'll lose 95% of potential viewers if they have to register just to view your site. Which sites do that? Hardly any, unless there's something extra special, usually involving money. Macrumors? AppleInsider? Think Secret? Macnn? You only register if you want to comment, but all can view without registering. None would do anything as crazy as this. What makes you think you'll get folks to do what they won't do elsewhere?

People are more and more reluctant to register anywhere. If I had to register to every site I view, I'd be doing nothing but registering, and soon get lost in all the id/password forest. No way. So, there is high resistance to registering from the public.

Maybe, maybe, maybe you could do it if you are some well-known or specially qualified commentator who really knows his subject inside out and who has a lot of implicit trust from the public... but some random shmo who is going to sound off his random opinions? Not a chance. Since you are starting from total anonymity and lack of brand name, you need all the help you can get to make people want to view your site - and registering is a HUGE hurdle and extra hoop to jump through. Not gonna happen.

I strongly urge you to re-think this aspect of your site if you ever hope to get more than a handful of viewers.
Click to expand...

I'll ditto that! :D
 
That is why you have that feature to remember Log In and Password (browser or Firefox Extension) and Bookmark the website so when you look at it you'll want to go take a visit. Its not that hard to be registered to websites (auto fill in the blanks feature) its a matter of being smart on how to handle several things.


I like this post I wanted to know if its gonna be in one post your weekly programs or different posts.
This reminds me alot of Tech TV when they had a small skit on best weekly Apps. Good way to learn stuff and thank you for Smultron I needed something free and HTML.

Appreciate your work
 
OldCorpse said:
Well, you asked for feedback. I'll give you this one. You say you're gonna make people register before they can view the reviews? Sorry, that's a total non-starter. You can ask people to register if they want to be able to leave comments, but to view :rolleyes: ? This is not going to work.

Why would you do that anyway? What do you get out of folks registering? If you are after eyeballs, or popularity, you're shooting yourself in the foot here. I bet you'll lose 95% of potential viewers if they have to register just to view your site. Which sites do that? Hardly any, unless there's something extra special, usually involving money. Macrumors? AppleInsider? Think Secret? Macnn? You only register if you want to comment, but all can view without registering. None would do anything as crazy as this. What makes you think you'll get folks to do what they won't do elsewhere?

People are more and more reluctant to register anywhere. If I had to register to every site I view, I'd be doing nothing but registering, and soon get lost in all the id/password forest. No way. So, there is high resistance to registering from the public.

Maybe, maybe, maybe you could do it if you are some well-known or specially qualified commentator who really knows his subject inside out and who has a lot of implicit trust from the public... but some random shmo who is going to sound off his random opinions? Not a chance. Since you are starting from total anonymity and lack of brand name, you need all the help you can get to make people want to view your site - and registering is a HUGE hurdle and extra hoop to jump through. Not gonna happen.

I strongly urge you to re-think this aspect of your site if you ever hope to get more than a handful of viewers.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your comment, OldCorpse. As you can see by not being registered, the majority of my content is viewable. However, I overlooked the Applications of the Week forum because I wanted a "feature" as an incentive to register. You're correct that on most sites, there is no real benefit to registering, and in my case, there is not one for me having more registrants. So, while trying to get people to register, I did it for no reason. It's now open to the public, along with everything else aside from Premium and Staff forums. Thank you for your feedback, and I hope I can establish a "name" so that, in the future, there is a reason to register. I look forward to hearing you feedback, again :)
 
htdefiant said:
Thank you for your comment, OldCorpse. As you can see by not being registered, the majority of my content is viewable. However, I overlooked the Applications of the Week forum because I wanted a "feature" as an incentive to register. You're correct that on most sites, there is no real benefit to registering, and in my case, there is not one for me having more registrants. So, while trying to get people to register, I did it for no reason. It's now open to the public, along with everything else aside from Premium and Staff forums. Thank you for your feedback, and I hope I can establish a "name" so that, in the future, there is a reason to register. I look forward to hearing you feedback, again :)
Click to expand...

Aaah, htdefiant, you have a brain! Instead of getting defensive, you actually thought about the issue and were flexible enough to re-consider. That bodes well for your aim of becoming a brand name. Good start so far... :)

Keep up the good work, and good luck!
 
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