> Yesterday a mail arrived in my Inbox from Allen Dick ...  I am now
> aware of that Allan Dick posted his opening letter in Best of Bees! it
> is Okay, if he also had posted the rest of the disputes there.
 
I don't recall any disputes, but at any rate, disputes do not go to Best
of Bee.  What goes to Best of Bee is an attempt at fair representation of
any worthwhile information that comes from disputes here.  Your
description of your development of Bidata will likely go there, since it
is of interest to internet beekeepers, but any reference to Bidata will
still carry a caveat until I hear from anyone who can vouch for it
convincingly. If I get any response from the survey, the results will go
there too.
 
I am truly sorry if you feel trapped. That is certainly not my intent.
 
However if you really want to feel trapped, put yourself in the
place of someone who downloads software from the internet after
hearing it recommended and finds his/her computer does not work... and
then imagine that he/she need the computer to make a living the next
day -- or maybe it isn't even his/her computer....
 
You are *selling* a programme that carries a higher cost than the Windows
95 Operating System and almost as much as an entire Office Suite.  Of
course people are going to want to hear reviews before they even bother
to try it out.  It takes a lot of work to try out new software, and if it
will expire shortly, the work of trying it may be wasted.  I have a
wonderful cardfile software program that I d/led, glanced at and loved,
but will never finish trying because the bother of putting data into, it
will be wasted after 30 uses -- since it turns out that is when the trial
expires.  What if I haven't decided by then?
 
FWIW, I entered into this survey in full expectation of hearing at least
several glowing reports that would allow me to remove Bidata from my
'Avoid' list. I had no idea that *not one* independant person would
come forward to recommend it -- yet.
 
What amazes me about this whole business is that even now, after
requesting favourable testimonials from the almost 800 computer literate
members of this list is that not one person -- other than yourself -- has
written to me or to this list or to sci.agriculture.beekeeping saying that
the software works as advertised.
 
I am still waiting...