Mike, I purchased WWL. I understand your reasoning and the committment you have made over the years deserves compensation.
My only question is, do you think we could get an expiration date on the “License” window?
Or does the expiration date have a reminder, say 1 week before it set to expire?
Not that it matters, but I’d prefer it not wait till the final day to let me know.
:D/
jeromy, yes, there is a 7-day reminder. I will be adding that information to the About window.
Mike,
Thank you! (and what a speedy reply, wow!)
Plus you’ll have users helping users with more people getting WWL. We got your back, Mike. 
Hi all,
Yes, Mike made a big mistake.
He wrote excellent software, which I use for many years now.
Mike worked his balls of for nothing (I quote someone, and with nothing I mean without payment).
And he, I am sure of that, put a lot of money in his project(s).
That is stupid! Of course he should have charged for the first Weather Watcher he ever wrote.
He did not, which saved us a lot of money, WW is still running great, WWL is indeed something different.
I decided to buy and skip a visit to a Hamburger place, where I am soon over the $ 9.95 Mike is asking.
Playing around a bit with WWL today, I like it Mike. Thanks!
Rob.
Mike,
Bought a sub. Installed 6103. Got the Ask toolbar window on install. Entered the key. Reinstalled to check if Ask install window popped again – it did. I read in a prior post and update note that you did away with the Ask window for registered installs. I’m not seeing that.
Update: Required a PC restart, for me. Reinstalled to check and got no Ask window. Mike, I’d suggest you might consider forcing a restart at some point.
Thiggy, is your license key displaying in the “License” section of the Weather Watcher Live Options window after restarting Weather Watcher Live?
I too registered specifically to voice my disapproval of charging for the new version, or at the very least, not actually mentioning it til one goes to the website to “update”. You really shouldn’t call it an “update”, you should call it an “upgrade”. It is your software and you can do as you wish, but as a few others have pointed out, the “switch” seems more about pure greed than anything else. Your comment “nothing in life is free” seems to speak volumes about what your real motives are. For one, it sure was free until the latest version and unless you also don’t mention it until actually downloading, you still have several other “free” apps listed. However, the fact is because you are affiliated with Weatherbug and link to their website, maps, etc., it is hard to believe you don’t receive any kind of financial return from them as well as any other click tracked revenues you receive. With all the other "free’ weather apps out there including the ability to simply one click to any of my local TV station’s weather as well as the NOAA, NWS, Weatherbug (without linking through your app…), the Weather Channel, etc., I agree your decision to start charging for the app is a bad one and means I will no longer continue to use it. I have no need or desire for the “new” features you seem to be using to justify the new cost and virtually every feature you offer is readily available without using your app. And again, at the very least you could have let people know there was going to be a charge starting with the “update” notice. I am sorry you seem to have succumbed to “internet greed”…
It sounds more like the “greedy” ones are those expecting everything to be free. Mike has expenses as well as the rest of us so why shouldn’t he be allowed to be paid for his time and effort? 'Nuff said!
You got me on this one. I collect no personal information from my users, so I really didn’t have a good way to get the message out to people. The download page and “Latest Changes” section do talk about the yearly registration.
I don’t think attempting to make revenues meet or exceed expenses is a crime. A business cannot succeed or grow by giving everything away for free. Maybe you like everything as it is now. That’s great. I’m looking to improve my software, develop new software, and gain access to additional weather data sources.
Yes, it was free – for YOU. Developing weather software is certainly not free for me. Not only does someone need to cover the cost of the tools, services and weather data I use, I spend countless hours supporting, maintaining and improving my software.
I do receive a small revenue share from people who link back to their website and click on their ads. That revenue does not even come close to covering my expenses. There is no way that revenue covers WeatherBug’s costs either. I guess that’s why WeatherBug is the only weather company that is experimenting in sharing revenue like this. It’s a system that doesn’t work well.
Nobody is forcing you to install the latest Weather Watcher Live update. If you like the current version as-is, then feel free to use it as long as you’d like. If needed, the last freeware version can be downloaded from this thread.
Ah, now you’ve revealed the real reason of your post. You think everything on the Internet is (or should be) free. That’s just not possible.
imo, Mike should charge for it, but I think the OP was surprised because it was freeware, then turned into shareware.
As Mike (and some of us others) have repeatedly stated, there is a lot more to it than just the writing of the software. The data retrieval itself, the time Mike has spent on both fixing issues as well as developing newer versions with more features, the maintenance of these forums, the super quick responses, all the software that still is free…
This is one of those programs that I simply cannot live without. I gladly and willingly paid the $9.95 USD to get this program - and I am about as miserly as I can be. I cannot count the number of times (although I am sure Mike remembers :D) that I promised to donate, only to forget / get tied up spending my money on something else / making myself broke again.
As for alternatives, there are numerous - both free and shareware - but I have used WW and WWL for so long, none even comes close to the amount of data, features, etc that Mike has incorporated.
The use of WeatherBug data can be unnerving to some - however, if you use the program itself and nothing else, you won’t have to deal with those advertisements. Furthermore, if you want to find maps and such, it is just as easy to keep the BMs of your favorite sites (I personally use wunderground - there is no better for me than that when I am online) instead of trying to view the WeatherBug pages.
Finally, registering to just post in here to express your dissatisfaction, while commendable (as long as you’re not going into an infantile tirade - which, thankfully, I did not see here), will have little effect. It’s like when Mike bundled the additional skins for WW with that search thing - I was not happy - but I just didn’t use the extra skins, I still used WW and later WWL.
Don’t want to pay? Grab the last free version. It’s that simple.
I am testing a couple of free alternatives to WWL, one is Earth Alerts (the author seems to, curiously, only post updates in the summertime - never have asked why) as well as Weather Pulse. EA is pretty kewl b/c it is not just weather it is all sorts of alerts - tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc - so, I feel that, as thins stand now, it complements WWL rather than competes with it. As for Weather pulse, well, I have yet to install it on my new OS, but last time I tried it was not very friendly nor feature-full.
Kudos to Mike for (this time) opting to charge as opposed to bundling with questionableware.
@Mike - if the last free version turns out to have some sort of a major bug, will you ever consider updating the free version to keep the users of the free version safe?
Hmmm… let’s see… If Mike updated the free version , then he’d still be offering an ongoing free version and there would be no need for a sub. No biggie… 0.027 per day or 0.192 per week or 0.833 per month or 10.00 per year. Gosh, what can you get for less than 20 cents a week these days? Oh, yeh… Weather Watcher Live. Now that’s a deal.
No, they will have to purchase a subscription and install the latest version of Weather Watcher Live.
That is the only way to go, Mike.
Now, now Mike, to presume I think everything on the internet should be free simply because of a single statement that in the case of this topic I thought your decision to suddenly and unexpectedly start charging for an app you have been giving away for free for quite a while makes it appear you are succumbing to “internet greed” is really specious at best. Is your ego feeling bruised from the many negative responses? You seem awfully defensive…The fact is, you can charge for whatever you want, but personally, I think your “excuses” for why you are now charging are as shallow as your answers to me. While I truly enjoy freeware, I am more about open source freeware than apps like yours. And I do donate to those companies whose software I use frequently and “can’t live without”. I just don’t like to start suddenly start paying for something that I can get elsewhere for free from someone that isn’t charging for it, which seems to be more a smart economic decision and than a reflection I am some sort of geek that thinks everything on the internet should be free…
Like I said, if nothing in life is free, then why were you able to keep the software free for so long and why do you have other apps you haven’t decided to start charging for? You contradict yourself. The most obvious and logical answer is it is the most popular of your apps and therefore the one you thought you could make some money off of. I mean, let’s be honest here, just how much time do you have to spend making minor “updates” and changes to a product that has essentially already been developed? It isn’t like you are rewriting the program from scratch every time…
Personally, I feel if you want to make money off Weather Watcher you should make an IPhone app and charge for it. You could have plenty of paying customers because many people with IPhones spend ridiculous amounts of money on apps. I simply think the decision to suddenly start charging for a free app, especially in light of the current economic woes is a purely profit driven decision and to me it sort of moves you from the category of one who shares his “hobby” with others to the category of those that are trying to use the internet simply to make a buck. I mean, I always thought one of the purposes of giving away apps like yours is to “advertise” your skills so you can get hired to write code for other people on their projects…so, pardon me for being an “idealist”. But do not make the mistake of thinking I believe everything on the internet should be free…
I personally don’t use the app or enough of its features often enough to warrant paying for it, but I also don’t buy your stated reasons for now charging…It seems perhaps I am not the only one that didn’t use your app enough to donate or else you wouldn’t need to start charging which is more a reflection of the utility and desire for the product than it is a “personal” reflection on me or the others who agree with me. And from others responses, they don’t use it enough or think enough of it to start paying for it now either. I think perhaps you are letting your ego and your notion your app is somehow spectacularly different from or superior to similar apps or means of getting the information elsewhere is clouding your objectivity…but you certainly are right about one thing, I don’t have to use the product and I no longer will…nor will I recommend it to others…
Fair enough. To presume that offering a free software product for a long time was something I was able to do at no cost to myself is ludicrous.
My apologies. I was simply attempting to answer your questions.
Agreed. However, you won’t find weather software elsewhere that offers the same weather data, features, support, etc. as my software.
I was able to do that by covering the cost of the project out of my own pocket. I’m no longer able to do that though, so those interested in taking advantage of the software will have to pay a small fee to help support the project.
A lot more than that goes into a software project like this. I put in an average of 40 hours of my personal time per week.
If I’m putting 40 hours a week into supporting a free project, then which hours should be used to work on projects that generate revenue?
I don’t recall listing any reasons that do not generate expenses. Please feel free to be specific.
If you don’t watch cable TV much, then might not pay to subscribe. If you don’t talk much, then you might not pay a monthy cell phone bill. If you don’t travel much, then you might not own a car. The same idea can be applied to my software. I know it’s not for everyone, so I don’t expect that everyone will want to subscribe and use it.
Mike, why do you even bother with these clowns? You don’t owe them any explanations. Your program sells itself, so it doesn’t matter if they won’t “recommend it to others”. The whiners are starting to sound juvenile now and it is getting a little tiring hearing them put you and WWL down. They are never going be happy no matter what you do. They are only trying to get a free copy and don’t care what they have to say to do it.
Boofo, I know, you’re right… I have nothing to hide though, so I don’t mind answering questions.
It seems like the same people are saying the same thing over and over, just re-worded, though. You’ll never be able to give them the answers they want to hear, is all I’m saying.