To Price or Not to Price?

From: crc - at - iris64.biosym.com (Clifford Randall Cannon)
Subject: To Price or Not to Price?
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 12:37:05 PDT

	 I can understand people being uncomfortable with prices being
 	 mentioned, but let's remember too that we are all sensitive
 	 to price, whether we are academic or commercial users.  The
 	 second question (after "What can the software do?") is "How
 	 much does it cost?", in nearly every case.  (The third ques-
 	 tion is, "What discount can you give me?").  And we are all
 	 busy.  A listed price often tells a reader at once whether
 	 he/she should spend ANY time finding out more.
 	 Again, I ask readers: if the announcement is SHORT (so you
 	 can quickly ignore it if it doesn't interest you), truthful
 	(obviously), and factually informative (not puffery or a knock
 	 on a competitor), what's the harm?  Let's put our energy into
 	 making useful things happen, not editing the information flow.