Tucows makes me sick!

[Didier]

After submitting our latest game to tucows (and waiting a very long time like usual), i received this mail from tucows today:

Dear author,

Thank you for submitting your software for distribution on
www.tucows.com. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your
program at this time because the home page listed is a competiting download site.

Please resubmit your program once this issue has been resolved.
Further information on our policies and review criteria can be
found in the Author Resource Center.

Competiting download site??
Today they removed all our previous games from their site too.

I can't believe what a junk tucows has become!
And the best of all:
Please resubmit your program once this issue has been resolved.

How can i do that?
I believe these people smoke too much.

Anyone had the same problem lately?

Didier

[Nexic]

That is completely stupid, they are expecting developers not to sell games on their site?

They are getting silly now, they rejected XA2 because the although you could choose to run the game in windowed mode, you couldn't select how big that window is...

Forget them, they won't make you any sales anyway.

[princec]

Er, does anyone actually get any traffic at all from tucows any more...?

Cas :)

[Robert Cummings]

I certainly never use tucows any more. I think they are a waste of time. I rarely ever see tucows links on sites that matter.

[Abscissa]

I've never even used them as an end-user. Their navigation was always crap.

[Savant]

Er, does anyone actually get any traffic at all from tucows any more...?
No, Tucows is a complete waste of time these days. I'm not submitting Dr.Germ there as I have better ways to spend my time/money.

The best, the absolute best, you can expect from a Tucows submission is about 15 minutes on the "What's New" list before the flood behind you pushes you off.

Ignore Tucows. It's dead, it just hasn't realized it yet.

[lakibuk]

Er, does anyone actually get any traffic at all from tucows any more...?Hard to tell if your game gets downloaded there because they are hosting the file. Or am i wrong?

[cliffski]

put it this way, if YOU wanted to download some software, would you go to tucows?
Me neither.

[tentons]

I got rejected because my .dmg file (the compressed Mac version) wasn't zipped! I never took the time to correct "the issue" and resubmit, and now I'm glad I didn't.

[Nexic]

"Hmm we've got a huge submission queue to work through, and too be honest I can't be bothered. Lets just reject 80% of submissions randomly, based on trivial matters!"

[Didier]

Yeah, i think it's something like that in their office :mad:

[Andy]

Er, does anyone actually get any traffic at all from tucows any more...?

Cas :)

Pardon for oneliner guys - don't know why but some mods hate them so much. But I'm with Cas - does anybody still submit the games to Tucows?! Whoa... :eek:

[simonh]

I was foolish enough to actually pay to submit my game there. Such a waste of money :(

[Black Hydra]

Nexic - They rejected XA2 because of a windowed mode issue?

Its no wonder they don't bring much traffic in anymore....

[ErikH2000]

Pardon for oneliner guys - don't know why but some mods hate them so much. But I'm with Cas - does anybody still submit the games to Tucows?! Whoa... :eek:
It's not that big of a deal. Takes 5-10 minutes to submit a title to Tucows. If they don't list it for some random reason, I just move on. Fire and forget, I say.

I do wonder with some of these large game download sites like Tucows if people don't end up getting there by Googling for a specific title they want to download. So it's a popular site, maybe, but getting your game on it won't result in many downloads because people used other sites and media to learn about what games they wanted. When I look at Tucows from the front page it seems like a terrible place to find a new game to try, so it's hard to imagine lots of people coming in through the front door.

-Erik

[Savant]

It's not that big of a deal. Takes 5-10 minutes to submit a title to Tucows. If they don't list it for some random reason, I just move on. Fire and forget, I say.
Well, that opens up a whole discussion of the merits of 'fire and forget' submissions which, frankly, I've lost a lot of faith in over the years. Dr.Germ will not be power sprayed across the internet. I don't believe that those programs that submit your game to 2,000 shareware sites or whatever really offer any value in the end. Your game is thrown into an automated queue, loaded into a database and presented in a generic format with no marketing support of any kind - not sure it's gaining you anything.

You know what they say about the company you keep...

[Coolhand]

...because the home page listed is a competiting download site.

And they can't even spell competing properly...
:rolleyes:

[simonh]

Well, that opens up a whole discussion of the merits of 'fire and forget' submissions which, frankly, I've lost a lot of faith in over the years. Dr.Germ will not be power sprayed across the internet. I don't believe that those programs that submit your game to 2,000 shareware sites or whatever really offer any value in the end. Your game is thrown into an automated queue, loaded into a database and presented in a generic format with no marketing support of any kind - not sure it's gaining you anything.

You know what they say about the company you keep...
Agreed. It does seem a little useless. You might as well just create some flyers for your game, throw them into a strong gust of wind, and hope for one or two people to pick them up. The net effect is probably the same.

[Andy]

It's not that big of a deal. Takes 5-10 minutes to submit a title to Tucows. If they don't list it for some random reason, I just move on. Fire and forget, I say.

Erik. Check the title of topic. Didier said it makes him sick. ;)
Forget and don't fire any more, I say in opposite. :)
Savant said pretty well on the explanation of this my opinion.

REM: We've got 130 affiliates at Regnow. Just one of them (namely!!!) makes some sales. So...

[ErikH2000]

Well, that opens up a whole discussion of the merits of 'fire and forget' submissions which, frankly, I've lost a lot of faith in over the years.
I guess you could set a value on your time or look at opportunity cost for other things you could be doing. I think there's a fair chance that 5 minutes of work submitting to Tucows (or other high-traffic game sites) will produce at least 1 sale for you. "One sale? What a waste of time!" Yeah, I'd work 5 minutes for a $20 sale. I submit to about 50 sites and then stop after that.

-Erik

[Nexic]

You won't even get one sale! Even if there were 12 sites identical to tucows in traffic and user demographic and you spend an hour submitting to them all, you wouldn't make 1 sale :D

Well you might ^.^

[Savant]

It's not so much a matter of the time required. Using one of those submission programs I can do hundreds of submissions in very little time. The problem I have is being associated with tons and tons of games that I don't feel are as good as mine. Sounds shallow maybe, but it's a matter of image.

Throwing your game into the ocean that is Tucows is setting it adrift and admitting to the world that it's just another one on the pile. Limiting where it appears (as much as you can, anyway) gives it a better image IMO and presents it as something that might be worth your time to look at/buy. "I didn't see that game at DownloadSiteX but it was featured on apple.com ... might be worth checking out!"

Then again, I might be an idiot. YMMV.

[Yarlen]

People may not think much of Tucows, but its Alexa ranking is still 1100 (which is _very_ good), plus they're the download provider of choice for broadband providers like Road Runner (Time Warner Cable), so they're still a force in the market.

[Savant]

I would say they're more of an institution than a force. Not really a driving factor in anyone's success anymore.

[Robert Cummings]

A force for other people with different needs. They are useless for us.

[Frozen In Ice]

We're not the only ones that feel this way. A various amount of developers from all aspects seem to think the same way. I know they are a downloader provider for quite a few cable internet providers, but to really know the stats of your listing with them, you have to pay for it. I do the free listing and have received some traffic from them in the way of someone clicking on the listing that brings them to my site. It's definately not something to write home about. Tucows really needs an overhaul,especially the interface. However, like anything else, they are in it to make money from those of us willing to pay for listings. I'm sure the "big" companies probably give them reasonable numbers as well as their domain registration service, but I don't see them changing their ways any time soon.

[Andy]

I'm sure the "big" companies probably give them reasonable numbers as well as their domain registration service, but I don't see them changing their ways any time soon.

This is all is just up to them really. I just say my personal: don't waste your time and efforts on such houses.

REM: OK. We were trying to advertise there and were checking downloads. 10 downloads per day in December. Is it really what would you hunt for? Not sales guys - almost no any connection to game quality (to make you feel better about the quality of your games ;) ) - downloads...

[James C. Smith]

I find this issue of “competing download site” to be ridiculous. If they are going to jerk you around with BS like this then they are not worth your time.

[Didier]

I agree with you James, but on the other hand, if submitting to a particular download site cost lets say 5 minutes of your time and this 5 minutes can bring you around $17 a few weeks later, i think it was well worth the 5 minutes.

$17 for 5 minutes of work is not bad (not many people make this in 1 hour with their normal day job)

Didier

[Savant]

The time/cost ratio isn't always the relevant issue.

[ErikH2000]

Wow, I actually looked at my web logs and it's about 10 visits a month from Tucows with my free 2 listings there. And I don't have the sophisticated tracking set up that James does (yet!) but offhand, I'd say that I'll average 1 sale every 10 years for my 5 minutes of work. Bleh.

I will stop automatically thinking of high-traffic websites as important referrers. I actually seem to do a lot better when I get a real review or favorable mention on a small site.

-Erik

[Anthony Flack]

$17 for 5 minutes of work is not bad


$17 isn't a high price to pay to say "screw you" to someone offering a rotten service, either.

[arcadetown]

I find this issue of “competing download site” to be ridiculous.
Rediculous or not, it's one of the costs of mini-portalizing your site that people don't look at. Originally back in 99 our site was just our games and we got exposure on some of the larger sites. As we started portalizing our site we saw a lot of previous partners run away and pull our exposure. Honestly I can see Tucows point, why give something exposure when it's to a site featuring tons of games that could potentially suck away their already waning traffic.

[Robert Cummings]

The problem I have is being associated with tons and tons of games that I don't feel are as good as mine. Sounds shallow maybe, but it's a matter of image.

I am the same. I have no intention of allowing anyone to host my game beyond whom I think are of similar quality.

Popcap are like this as well, they do not allow anyone to host their demo versions without permission. I think is good. Imagine if doctor germ was hosted on a site next to a big banner with pumping, heaving porn?