If your fixed costs are high and your marginal costs are low as is usually the case with software, your incentive structure is often strange.
Giving stuff away doesn't cost you much. The downside is that if people already got it free, they won't want to buy it. So, vendors look for little worlds where they can give away software without cannibalising other sales. Let people use it, get comfortable to it and develop a preference for it. When they move on, the vendor hopes they will keep using the product, even if they have to pay.
1) It's insanely effective for SEO and as reputation-building.
2) They're active developers, they have client/employer work that can't be public but needs coordination, and they're the ones who will be setting that up. It's as old as sending free samples to purchasing agents, but much more effective.
You can also "follow" an entire forum or sub forum and even specific people. You will get an as it happens email.
Would you like to try it out as Django's forums? We can of course bring in the mailing lists in as well.
Feel free to contact me at dhan@zohocorp.com - will be glad to assist you in anyway.
