Perhaps when implementing a new option in to Impulse like this, make Impulse inform the user about it and give the option of disabling it at the beginning?

I'm not sure how much of an issue its going to be, the concept is good, but here are a few comments:

1- Try and find a way to use something other than the windows pop-up (talk to the windows blind team or something).  Make your icon jump 'a la MAC' or blink, but the windows tray pop-up has many negative connotations in people's mind and you may get inadvertently caught doing a good thing via a bad medium (the medium is the message or some crap like that....).

2- For future options that you introduce, make it clear you're introducing something and turning it on.  I applaud the option to opt out (and honestly if you had done anything less Stardock wouldn't be the company I know it to be), but you should have shown this new feature prior to the impulse upgrade.  I know I don't really have a choice and I have to upgrade Impulse, but do me the courtesy of letting me know what you're doing to my system.  You have transparency as a key tenet of your company's modus operandi, don't lose it here; its one of the many things that take Stardock from a good company to a great one.

3- I have to put it twice, change the look of the pop-up window to something other than default windows pop-up.  It is FAR TO reminiscent of SPAM, bad Tray viruses, and generally ugly stuff.  It invites suspicion of your product just because of what others do with it; don't get caught up in it, move beyond it.  I know your windows UI guys can fix this somehow.

Cheers,

Thanatos.

You heard of e-mail?  You have mine and anyone elses who uses Impule.  Just send a message to everyone selling the feature.

I like the popups. And appreciate the deals. Keep em coming.

Email is NOT the best choice anymore do to spam filters (especially at the ISP point).

The usefullnes and reputation of this feature (and Impulse) will depend very strongly on the offers you make. If they arent good enough for people, you will get very bad rep for it. They really would have to be  much better then the usual weekend sales. In price and items offered.

I would advice against even trying to market games that arent AAA.

Me too. I don't understand why people say they are annoying : they're not huge and disapear really fast.

Cause it is spam?

And people (at least me) are really fed up with spam, so we won't even tolerate a little bit of it. (Especially not in a place where it doesn't have any right to be, in my task bar.)

I would like a 24 hour Stardock! 

I've turned the pop up off, checking the store front every day is already on my agenda.

I'm one of those folks who promptly disabled the tray icon and only run Impulse when I want to check for a game update or get on IRC with Stardock. If I ran the Now thingy, I'd probably be in the "it's spam" camp, but mainly I'm frustrated by the very notion of 24-hour sale prices.

There's already plenty of hurry and bother in the world, and games are supposed to be recreation. I hope that there might eventually be some sort of marketing outreach to us geezer-luddite-conservatives, say a no-expiration-date coupon for X bucks off your next Stardock game on account of how regularly you post on the boards or just keep your current Stardock software updated...

I'd probably appreciate the deals more if they actually worked. This Winter Desktop thing has popped up twice now and each time took me to a site that has a non working icon on it.

Do you not see the irony in what you have just said?

If people have spam filters on and an advertising e-mail goes to the junk folder then guess what?  The spam filter just did it's job.

If a company tells me it deliberately didn't send an e-mail and used some other method* instead to circumvent spam filters they can get stuffed.  As it stands I had no problems receiving Stardock e-mails with coupons and weekend deals before through my spam filter so what's wrong with that?

*The other method being they turned the little app they sold to me as a game update checker as an advertising on my desktop program....

There isn't any.

You can turn off the feature, and you could turn off the e-mails, the problem is that spam filters will catch it whether you want to or not.

To be honest, I'd prefer for the window to last longer and be more noticeable, if anything; I have trouble getting to it 'in time' sometimes.

I am quite aware concerning the irony of what I just said (laugh).

Nevertheless, it is still true. I read recently in a tech newsletter that only 40% of emails are arriving at their destination, due to ISP filters (I am not talking about spam filters moving individual messages to a spam folder in an email client). I think the EMAIL spam problem makes a company want to find a sufe fire method of contacting their customers. Is a balloon popup spam when one is using their program is the REAL question here. I can understand both sides of the arguement.

I have the icon shut off after hearing about it. If I can shut it off I do not believe it is spam. It is certainly a compromise since some customers will feel the way you do and do not want the baloon mesages at all - and other customers will be fine with it.

Knowing how spam i s affecting EMAIL these days, and the fact that a filter may take a message out that I may want to read and will never have the opportunity to see, I feel that the balloon popping up once and allowing it to be shut off is a good compromise for everyone concerned. I do not like balloons notes either - just do not believe it is as unreasonable as you feel (because I do use Impulse).

I do agree that customers should be told in the balloon that it can be shut off (at least the first time that it appears).

Sigh....

I installed Impulse and was one of those people that couldn't understand all the stress heads who thought it was the worst thing in the world to have to patch their game.  I then allowed that little app to sit resident in RAM just to check for updates to my games, right next to Steam / Skype / MSN / everything else that wants to make sure you are using it as often as possible.  The next thing one of those apps has the cheek when I wonder my mouse over that area of the screen to put advertisements on my desktop.  When the hell did I allow it to do that?  I didn't, they changed the purpose of the app without telling me and only because I read forums did I know I could turn it off.

Stardock listen to your fanboys jumping to your defence or listen to a loyal customer who nearly uninstalled your app because your methods appeared underhand, I'm trying to be helpful here.

Agree a warning to switch off would have been a good idea.

I will be keeping my tray program running until the new year in case any sweet deals do pop-up for me. I have a list ready

BTW, I agree that the information that it can be turned off must be displayed prominently - there are a myriad of options there in the 'settings' and many people won't bother to read and find it - they will just switch off the tray program permanently. This should be considered seriously, because Impulse is not Steam. Impulse Now is not an "essential" program.

All right second time its happened, so I am not sure it ia coincidence anymore. The second promotion never work for me. It just takes me to this site which shows nothing.

http://promos.impulsedriven.com/images/56.ico

Now if it's just an information piece, aka data, why does it link to anything at all?

This should be "opt-in" not "opt-out".  Also let the user specify interests.  I wouldn't bother with IconPackager if you paid ME the purchase price, but I am interested in knowing when games are on sale.

I can't seem to get the tray icon even if I want it.  I even tried uninstalling/reinstalling Impulse, ran "impulse now", "impulsenow", and "impulse tray" from the command line to no (useful) effect, tried installing the Impulse Dock (apparently totally different)...  I guess it's so highly targeted that some people aren't even allowed to have it at all. : )

Impulse Now has its own folder in the Impulse program directory

32-bit: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Impulse\Now\ImpulseNow.exe
64-bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Impulse\Now\ImpulseNow.exe

I am excited for the AAA tiltes, when should we see them?

I just got Space Rangers 2 for 1,38 €  EUR. What is not to love?

A small bubble appears with the deal, it fades or can be closed. There are deals you can take or leave. I picked up CursorFX+ for

$1.99.

One possible problem, though...if Impulse isn't functioning correctly, one can miss a really good deal.

I would suggest to all: If you have a problem with Impulse, fix it quickly or notify about the problem and write SD sales to find out the deals by email.

You wouldn't want to miss out on a good deal, and if sales knows about your problem, I'm sure they'd make allowances.

I also got that offer - I had no intention of buying it, but now I just might. Surely the $2 won't be wasted!

But I have been observing that the USD to INR (Indian Rupees) ratio is always shown higher than it is at that time or even during the last 48 hours or so. I hope that is not intentional!