Welcome to EverySoft

Official distribution site of EveryAuction and EveryChat

Downloads

The final EverySoft releases of EveryAuction (online auction software) and EveryChat (online chat software) are available below. EveryAuction and EveryChat are both copyrighted and released under the GNU General Public License, Version 2. As of April, 2007, EverySoft no longer provides any support or security updates for this software. Use at your own risk!

• EveryAuction 1.53 (Feb 16, 2002) [zip] [tar.gz] [readme.txt]
• EveryChat 3.61 (Jan 20, 2001) [zip] [readme.txt]

In order to use this software on your own web site, you need to have administrative rights to a web server running Perl.

End Of Life (EOL) Statement

EveryAuction and EverySoft were originally developed in 1997, back when I was first learning Perl. Web technologies were much different in 1997 than they are now. Now more than ten years old, the code base of EveryAuction and EveryChat is very dated. Put simply, there are new and better ways to do most things.

Along with an obsolete code base, the software itself has become dated. Online auctions are different now that they were back when EveryAuction was first released. Sites like eBay and Yahoo! have redefined the rules and user expectations for online auctions. Flash and JavaScript allow chat software to do more things while still supporting most platforms.

My own priorities have also changed, and I have been working on different projects that are more relevant to my current interests. While rewriting EveryAuction is something I have considered, I believe that there are others out there who have already produced good Open Source alternatives to EveryAuction. I encourage you to evaluate and support their products.

Almost all of EveryAuction and EveryChat's success can be attributed to a vibrant and supportive community of users and developers, many who continue to actively use and support the software to this day. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who was a part of that community for your support throughout the years.

I have already received information about new communities building around software based on EveryAuction, and there many derivative products out there now, proving that Open Source software never really dies. If nothing else, I hope EveryChat and EveryAuction served as a way to get people interested in Perl and Open Source software.

Thanks again for your support and contributions!

Matt Hahnfeld

History of EveryChat and EveryAuction

EveryChat (originally called QuikChat) was first officially released in February, 1997. The software was developed to allow users to chat on any web site, without using plugins or JavaScript. It largely accomplished that goal using then-new frames and the "meta refresh" tag. Internet Explorer and Netscape were both supported. As browsers evolved, so did EveryChat. New releases in the late 90's added a non-frames mode and experimented with "server push" technologies. In 1999, EveryChat was released under the GNU General Public License. The final EverySoft version of EveryChat was released in early 2001, supporting the final pre-Mozilla versions of Netscape and IE 5.

Following the successful launch of EveryChat, EveryAuction was first released in late 1997. Online auctions weren't overly common at the time, but quickly gained popularity in the coming years. Around the time when EveryAuction was released, ActionWeb changed their name to eBay, making the idea of online auctions commonplace. Many of EveryAuction's initial features such as sniper protection and "dutch" auctions (an add-on) were responses to features found in early internet auction sites like OnSale and Haggle Online. In the shadow of EveryChat, a major goal of EveryAuction was easy installation, and EveryAuction never required a database connection or complex configuration.

As online auctions became more commonplace on the Internet, the EveryAuction forums were buzzing with add-ons, new ideas for the software, and friendly support, all the result of an active community of users and developers. Despite no paid advertising or commercial sales, EveryAuction became one of the most popular scripts on many download sites. The software was published in a number of books and magazine articles, and the number of downloads exceeded all expectations (estimates in excess of 200,000). Some of the more active add-on developers built entire businesses around installing and customizing EveryAuction for clients.

Early 2000 brought the release of EveryAuction 1.5, a complete rewrite of EveryAuction released under the GNU General Public License. EveryAuction 1.5's shift from freeware to Open Source and broken backwards compatibility caused dissension among the community, but eventually the advantages of the new version and license agreement and most 1.0 users made the switch.

The final EverySoft release of EveryAuction was in 2002, fixing a security issue found in previous versions. The final version supported most features required by a small auction site, and we estimate, based on search engine results, that well over 1000 publicly-accessible web sites currently use EveryAuction.

In late 2006, the forum and add-on database server was taken down after a security hole in the php banner ad software we were using was exploited. EverySoft officially stopped supporting EveryAuction and EveryChat as of April, 2007.

Support and Contact Information

EverySoft no longer provides any support for EveryAuction or EveryChat (paid or unpaid), and unfortunately we do not have the resources to answer support requests via e-mail. To contact us directly about other issues, please e-mail matth AT everysoft.com.

Thank you to SourceForge.net for hosting this site and our file downloads.

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