MacHeist can’t seem to catch a break in the PR department.
Last year, much of it centered around John Gruber’s critique of the finances (in sum: marketers getting the lion’s share of the profits, developers getting the short end of the stick).
This year there were complaints that such a bundle de-values Mac shareware, other complaints against the organizers, and so forth.
MacBreak Weekly episode #74 brought out several of those complaints, and the following week MacBreak Weekly episode #75: “MacHeist Replies” seemed to alleviate some people’s concerns, while raising others.
Personally, I found the “MacHeist Replies” to be the most troubling. They came on to defend themselves, but didn’t have answers to some of the basic questions and concerns which had been raised, especially about MacHeist 1. They said “Gruber was waaaaaaay off” but refused to give any details. I’m not sure who would be satisfied with that response, and generally speaking I remember the interview sounded like they were completely unprepared, as if Leo had cold-called them for the interview (rather than having a week-plus to prepare).
(I realize that all of the above is subjective and I haven’t thoroughly documented everything. Take it all as my opinion and nothing more, if you will.)
Equal or Not?
One of the things that MacHeist has said, over and over again, is that the licenses that you get for the bundle itself are full, equal licenses. Some of the “loot” that you pickup during the MacHeist might be restricted license software, but the flagship bundle is supposed to be made up of software that you are getting under the same terms and conditions as if you had bought them separately.
That has been MacHeist’s oft-repeated stance for as long as I can remember.
This year, “Speed Download 4” was part of the MacHeist II bundle. Not long after MacHeist was over, “Speed Download 5” came out. You can (and should) read TUAW’s The Speed Download / MacHeist Saga for the full details, but suffice it to say these are some of the relevant points:
1) Speed Download 5 was pushed as an update through the self-update process that most Mac users are now well-familiar with.
2) Speed Download 5 was not a free update, it cost $15.
3) If you purchased Speed Download 4 as part of MacHeist, you did not get a free upgrade.
4) If you purchased Speed Download 4 during the same time as MacHeist, but not as part of MacHeist, you were given a free upgrade to Speed Download 5.
3 in light of #4 seems to have been the “sticky wicket” for most people. If MacHeist licenses are supposed to be equal licenses, then why were they being treated differently?
Again, read the TUAW article above for the actual quotes from both sides, but my recollection of them went something like this:
Speed Download Developer: “We never said anything about giving free upgrades to Speed Download 5 for MacHeist customers, and MacHeist’s organizers never asked us about it. We don’t really have a contract, the whole thing was arranged via email, and since we didn’t stipulate to it, we don’t have to give you anything.”
MacHeist Organizers: “Dude, you’re totally harshing my mellow.”
Look, the MacHeist guys may be great guys, and it’s completely unfair for me to judge them based on not knowing them through anything more than a podcast interview and a few quotes in a weblog.
That said, I have to wonder how they make an agreement with someone without covering such a basic detail such as “How Will Upgrades Be Handled?” That’s a fundamental question that every MacHeist customer is going to be concerned about, and from what we’ve heard from the Speed Download Developers, the MacHeist organizers totally dropped the ball on this. When you are taking money to organize something like MacHeist, missing something of this magnitude does not help your reputation.
Problem Solved. Right?
Recently, TUAW posted MacHeist II and Speed Download 5 Resolution. Read the TUAW article or the YazSoft posting but the highlights are:
1) If you already paid the $15 upgrade fee, you can keep it and get a free upgrade to Speed Download 6.
2) If you haven’t paid the $15 upgrade fee, you can pay it now and get two licenses for Speed Download 5 and a free upgrade to Speed Download 6.
3) If you paid the $15 and now want it back, just ask. Obviously the 2nd license for Speed Download will be deactivated and you won’t get the free upgrade to Speed Download 6.
4) If you want a free upgrade to Speed Download 5, you cheap bastard, you can have it, but when Speed Download 6 comes along, you’re looking at full retail pricing.
OK, they didn’t actually say cheap bastard but the subtext is clear:
Note: You will only get one SD5 license and it will not qualify for discounted or free upgrade to SD6 when it’s released.
In other words: you can have Speed Download 5 for free, but you still won’t be treated as an equal customer who bought Speed Download 4 during the same MacHeist II time period. You won’t be able to upgrade to Speed Download 6, you’ll need to buy a new license.
Response on MacHeist forum post seem to think this is a great solution. One of the MacHeist organizers, “johnred” wrote:
We believe that this solution will satisfy everyone involved. We’re happy because this action by Yaszoft shows that they now have your best interests in mind and they’ve gained my trust back.
This may have been the best compromise that MacHeist could get, and I am glad they’ve gotten it.
Whether or not it should “satisfy everyone involved” is another question. If you were expecting MacHeist licenses to be full, equal licenses, then this should not satisfy you. It is a short-term gain (free Speed Download 5 licenses) but a long-term loss (your license has no future).
YazSoft seems to be doing whatever they can to guarantee themselves some cash flow, either now ($15 and we’ll give you not one, but TWO! licenses) or later (free now, $30 for Speed Download 6).
I’m all in favor of developers getting paid (one of my biggest misgivings about MacHeist) but YazSoft’s handling of this whole matter seems to revolve around “How can we get more money from MacHeist customers?”
But, But….
Sure, you could argue that no one has to upgrade to Speed Download 5, or 6 for that matter. It was, in fact, only one of several apps in the MacHeist bundle, and some might say it is unseemly to argue about $15 after getting such a good price on the bundle as a whole.
But it’s not about the $15. It’s the principle of the thing. If you are a developer who agreed to participate, without knowing what the terms and conditions were (and, as I said, MacHeist has been nothing if not repetitive with the statement that licenses in MacHeist are the same as purchased separately) then that is your fault.
If you’re the organizer of MacHeist, especially organizers who have been criticized for taking a huge slice of the pie, you dang-well better make sure that you’ve lived up to your end of the agreement, including making sure that developers know what is expected of them.
Who’s fault is it? I’m sure there’s plenty to go around, from MacHeist not communicating clearly to YazSoft pushing a unmarked paid update so soon after end of MacHeist.
If they had just waited a little while longer after MacHeist ended, and then offered paid upgrades for MacHeist customers the same as everyone else, they could have avoided the whole thing. Instead it is left to appear as if they tried to leverage their participating in MacHeist to screw the organizers (surely Speed Download 5 didn’t just drop in their laps at the end of MacHeist, they knew the roadmap ahead of time) and get more money out of MacHeist participants.
What about those who want to point fingers at the Mac user base and call them fanatics who blew this out of proportion?
Well I haven’t kept track of the various commenters around the web, and I’m sure that there was plenty of hysteria to be had, but at the foundation of it all was a real complaint: we paid our money for the MacHeist bundle and YazSoft didn’t play by the rules. They can claim all they want that they never agreed to provide free upgrades, but all that does it make them seem greedy and out of touch with the Mac userbase. How did they expect people to react to this news? If this reaction took them by surprise, I would like to offer my consultancy experience to them for future marketing decisions, because even I could have told them they were shoveling a steamy pile of PR-dung at an industrial fan turned on “High.”