What is that Minty taste?

Kosmo

As many of you who have subscribed to Shauns Haveamint mailing list might know already, Mint is running free. I love the Shortstat by Shaun Inman, but Mint just is insane, absolutely the best looking program on the freaking web, Shaun is a god when it comes to this sort of stuff. Also, Shaun apprecieates beauty even if not from his own two hands, he might be using Vanilla as a forum of choice when he puts up the user help and general Mint forums. Mint costs $30 per site and I dont think that is half bad, and you can bet your bottocks that I'm going to be using it, when I get my budget in order.

lech

I was hoping that Mint would be free to use if you just wanted to check it out. Like having a dual license or something, free for the little people, pay for the corps type of license. As much as I would love to check this out, I'm afraid I'll have to pass since there's a default sticker price :(

jaseone

So is it just prettier than the likes of AWStats or what? For those wondering WTF Mint is click here.

It would be good for people that don't have access to any other logging tools via their host but for $30/site wouldn't they be better just paying for a better host or am I missing something again?

Kosmo

Well, my host has a statistics page, but it is no where near the usability and looks as Mint. And if Shaun doesn't cancel the Shortstat project, there is a free version there also, besides, I like the handy feature of adding it to the sites I want. I got my own siteworks behind my public sites and alot of people who I work with visit the siteworks to check out my progress and comment on things, so I don't really want to track them too, when I only want to see how my public site is doing. Besides, I really don't see the point on the "$30/site wouldn't they be better just paying for a better host", yeah maybe they would, but then again, if they paid 30$ extra for a better host, wouldn't they be better staying on the old host and getting this software? And Mint is single payment, unless you have a host that is single payment I really don't see the connection.

lech

I also just now loaded the mint compatibility test, and mint requires curl to be on your server? that seems a bit lame, I wish I could see the source to know what mint is accessing with curl and offer an alternate solution for it.

jaseone

Well only real cheap hosts don't provide logging tools and an extra $30 would be plenty to upgrade for at least a year to one that did. I'm guessing this is mainly going to be a hit with those like my girlfriend who use external site tracking sites because they don't like AWStats and the like, to each their own I guess. :)

Minisweeper

it does look very nice but likewise i'm not up for paying $30 (even though it is very little in terms of time taken to have developed the software) for the stats.

lech

Needs (more cowbell) dual licensing.

Kosmo

I guess it appeals more to people who have used Shortstats, and people who just love things that look nice, I really can't say anything about the functionaly, but watching the video really made it seem pretty nifty. I mean, as far as forums go, Vanilla is actually on the short end of the plethora of functions that many mainstream forums offer, but I'm drawn to it because of the simplicity, additivity and good looks. And like Shaun, I'd like Mark to go fulltime developing Vanilla, FB and maybe some more proggies he has cooking in his head, and I'm just thinking that maybe after Mark has some 10k users using Vanilla and he has just used few years wokring on his applications, I just think that he might want something for it. Or would you say "why I would buy Vanilla or FB, I can get similar but not nearly as good and pretty programs for free"?

Minisweeper

i wouldnt pay for vanilla as a program because i have no need for it. likewise with the stats app (though i didnt look into it in a great deal cause i'm meant to be pretending to work) I fully agree that mark deserves something for it and i'd love him to go fulltime because i believe it is where his passion lies (if it wasnt i'm sure he'd have given up by now?!) but if i donate (which i probably will at some point) it'l be more as a gesture of how much appreciation i have for his programming abilities and the manner in which he creates his programs than because i really want to use his app. The two do go hand in hand but i hope you can understand what i'm getting at.

jaseone

"Or would you say "why the I would buy Vanilla or FB, I can get similar but not nearly as good and pretty programs for free"?" Well forum software is something that is presented to the outside world so how it looks & performs matters a great deal where statistics is just something I look at and at most that is only once a day so I don't really care how it is presented to me as long as I can get the data that I want, which is usually just the search keyphrases and referrers to see where my traffic is coming from.

Kosmo

I understand you, donation being act of appreciation towards the developer, and buying a program being a necessity that isn't viewed nothing more than a normal action when someone is going to use the program for his needs. But Mark could go in to other direction, Vanilla and FB being free for personal use and nonprofit sites like communities, and a nominal fee for commercial use. If something is free, I can't talk my boss in to donating money for a program I view suitable for our needs, but I don't think he has nothing against a small fee, like I have already talked in to the use of Mint (btw, our host doesn't have statistics logging for reasons utterly insane).

Minisweeper

stats logging can use a lot of space but not *that* much. And yeah, i'm happy to pay for programs for company use myself, but as a single user i feel less obliged.

Ben

After all the hype, I was rather dissapointed when I found that it wasn't free.

Mark

I have started plans on my first non-free service (just planning, not programming). Don't get too excited, because chances are that most of you will not need it or use it. But I anticipate that there will be thousands of others who *will* want to use it, and it will be a very nice application to use :)

nathan

Mark... how about you make a FREE statistics program? That would be useful. :P Any clues as to what you are planning?

Minisweeper

i know what he's planning.

moe

so, what is he planning? :P

FLC

He's planning on kicking mini's ass if he tells...

nathan

Awww... I guess a suprise would be better than waiting for it to be done.

lech

hahaha!