Calibre donations unacknowledged

djstormer · 01-26-2012, 03:17 AM

I like Calibre, use it a lot, and donated twice - probably about $30-$35 all up. However I got no acknowledgement either time.

Is that a system glitch, or are donations taken that much for granted? Just a short, automated note would be enough to show that someone somewhere noticed.

kiwidude · 01-26-2012, 04:15 AM

I can't speak directly for Kovid, but I can for those who have been kind enough to donate for my plugins. A few people made some fairly significant donations and when I tried emailing them I frequently hit some email walls rejecting me as an unknown sender etc (i.e. they had ring-fenced their emails to known senders for spam purposes). So after that I just chose not to try - the time spent emailing can more usefully imho (to the donators and everyone else) be spent actually supporting and maintaining the plugins.

Anyone should hopefully just "know" that every single donation is very gratefully received and brightens my day/week considerably to know that some cared enough to make the effort to donate!

Kovid will have a many orders of magnitude more of a problem - with 6 million users and x% making donations, how much time do you want him to be spending sending "thanks" emails versus continuing to develop the product? I know where I would rather he be spending his time in the long run. It sounds impersonal but from a practical viewpoint unless he builds some software to scrape paypal emails for addresses and respond with automated emails it isn't the best use of a limited amount of time don't you think?

kovidgoyal · 01-26-2012, 05:34 AM

I personally respond to every donation that has a note in it, even if its a simple thank you. (I may occassionally miss one or two during periods when I am very busy). For donations without a note, I don't acknowledge them, as kiwidude points out, doing so will suck up a significant fraction of my time. I don't like the idea of an automated response, as it doesn't really have any meaning, and simply creates email noise.

I am, of course, very grateful for every donation I receive, the evidence of my gratitude is the continued development of calibre, see: http://calibre-ebook.com/whats-new or https://www.ohloh.net/p/calibre/analyses/latest (which shows development activity in calibre).

Indeed, I currently work full time on calibre and that is made possible only by the number of donations I receive.

djstormer · 01-26-2012, 07:18 AM

kiwidude wrote: "Anyone should hopefully just "know" that every single donation is very gratefully received" - ideally, yes, but when every other donation I've ever made online has somehow gotten acknowledged, the silence can seem kind of odd.

But thanks guys for the responses. I now get the picture. Keep up the great work - you deserve all the support you can get.

kiwidude · 01-26-2012, 08:00 AM

I guess I don't use enough donation based services to know what is the "norm" - other than Paypal receipts I don't recall getting any acknowledgment from donations I have made around the place.

With my donator hat on, personally I'm fine with it, it helps preserve my (very much) illusion of anonymity and that whoever is at the other end is not secretly collating my paypal email or putting me on some distribution lists etc. However I can totally understand that to others it might appear that the donation was not personally appreciated without the response.

As Kovid has said, he makes his living from the donations so you can bet he appreciates each and every one for sure! However if you look at the sheer volume of support queries alone the poor guy answers across multiple mediums (forums, bug tracker, emails, patches, facebook, PMs, visitor messages, and probably others I don't know) it is quite remarkable he gets any development done at all...

I could post a picture I guess of the excited little "ooh, nice - thank you..." I exclaim any time a donation email comes in, or a video clip of my happy dance, but that would just scare small children.

jgaiser · 01-26-2012, 04:04 PM

I recently donated a bit to the guy who wrote/supports the Adblock Plus plugin. Got a nice little email from him.

But the places I generally donate to seldom acknowledge those donations and that's alright. Developers have more important things to do then spend their time answering emails. Kovid spends plenty enough time here on MobileRead and developing Calibre.

And I think it's about time for another Calibre donation. Thanks to Kovid and all the plugin developers.

CWatkinsNash · 01-26-2012, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgaiser

And I think it's about time for another Calibre donation. Thanks to Kovid and all the plugin developers.

This thread was a reminder to me that it's been a while, so I did before I forgot.

I also try to contribute in other ways, by providing support or answering questions when I can, and when theducks doesn't beat me to it.

Edited to add: Just to clarify, lots of people do a wonderful job answering questions, it just seems that lately when I'm about to answer one, theducks gets there right before I do.

theducks · 01-26-2012, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

This thread was a reminder to me that it's been a while, so I did before I forgot.

I also try to contribute in other ways, by providing support or answering questions when I can, and when theducks doesn't beat me to it.

Edited to add: Just to clarify, lots of people do a wonderful job answering questions, it just seems that lately when I'm about to answer one, theducks gets there right before I do.

CWatkinsNash · 01-26-2012, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Venus · 01-26-2012, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I personally respond to every donation that has a note in it, even if its a simple thank you. (I may occassionally miss one or two during periods when I am very busy). For donations without a note, I don't acknowledge them, as kiwidude points out, doing so will suck up a significant fraction of my time. I don't like the idea of an automated response, as it doesn't really have any meaning, and simply creates email noise.

I am, of course, very grateful for every donation I receive, the evidence of my gratitude is the continued development of calibre, see: http://calibre-ebook.com/whats-new or https://www.ohloh.net/p/calibre/analyses/latest (which shows development activity in calibre).

Indeed, I currently work full time on calibre and that is made possible only by the number of donations I receive.

People who donate money often do not do it for the Thank you notes. They often just want a thank you so that they know the gift has been received by the rightful recipient. I did not put in a note, so I never knew. Perhaps I should believe in perfect transactions. None the less, I love your Calibre and will donate again, probably without a note because I am too busy to also take time for notes.

TechnoCat · 01-26-2012, 08:53 PM

I also donated this month to both AdBlock and Calibre. Got messages from both. In the case of AdBlock, the author says he'll reply (if it's over some amount, which I apparently was.) For Calibre, I had included in the donation a request for a U.I. tweak; Kovad responded that it would be in the next version.

But I don't donate for the acknowledgement. It's sort of a pay-after rather than the pay-before we do with shrinkwrap SKUs like Quicken, MS Office, etc.

Venus · 01-26-2012, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnoCat

I also donated this month to both AdBlock and Calibre. Got messages from both. In the case of AdBlock, the author says he'll reply (if it's over some amount, which I apparently was.) For Calibre, I had included in the donation a request for a U.I. tweak; Kovad responded that it would be in the next version.

But I don't donate for the acknowledgement. It's sort of a pay-after rather than the pay-before we do with shrinkwrap SKUs like Quicken, MS Office, etc.

In my donations I make no requests ever for anything. And certainly no public acknowledgement, although most often at functions or dinners, one will see their name printed up for large donations. But in this online world that I am a newbie , I have no idea if I donate through PayPal or whatever that the transaction was correct and/ or received. At least with other donations I have a cancelled check or bank statement. I like to make my donations not as a pay after or before. I prefer on a whim.

kovidgoyal · 01-26-2012, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venus

In my donations I make no requests ever for anything. And certainly no public acknowledgement, although most often at functions or dinners, one will see their name printed up for large donations. But in this online world that I am a newbie , I have no idea if I donate through PayPal or whatever that the transaction was correct and/ or received. At least with other donations I have a cancelled check or bank statement. I like to make my donations not as a pay after or before. I prefer on a whim.

You should have received an email from PayPal telling you your donation was succesful.

01-26-2012, 03:17 AM	#1
djstormer Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: Kindle 3, iPad	Calibre donations unacknowledged I like Calibre, use it a lot, and donated twice - probably about $30-$35 all up. However I got no acknowledgement either time. Is that a system glitch, or are donations taken that much for granted? Just a short, automated note would be enough to show that someone somewhere noticed.

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01-26-2012, 04:15 AM	#2
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,637 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	I can't speak directly for Kovid, but I can for those who have been kind enough to donate for my plugins. A few people made some fairly significant donations and when I tried emailing them I frequently hit some email walls rejecting me as an unknown sender etc (i.e. they had ring-fenced their emails to known senders for spam purposes). So after that I just chose not to try - the time spent emailing can more usefully imho (to the donators and everyone else) be spent actually supporting and maintaining the plugins. Anyone should hopefully just "know" that every single donation is very gratefully received and brightens my day/week considerably to know that some cared enough to make the effort to donate! Kovid will have a many orders of magnitude more of a problem - with 6 million users and x% making donations, how much time do you want him to be spending sending "thanks" emails versus continuing to develop the product? I know where I would rather he be spending his time in the long run. It sounds impersonal but from a practical viewpoint unless he builds some software to scrape paypal emails for addresses and respond with automated emails it isn't the best use of a limited amount of time don't you think?

01-26-2012, 05:34 AM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I personally respond to every donation that has a note in it, even if its a simple thank you. (I may occassionally miss one or two during periods when I am very busy). For donations without a note, I don't acknowledge them, as kiwidude points out, doing so will suck up a significant fraction of my time. I don't like the idea of an automated response, as it doesn't really have any meaning, and simply creates email noise. I am, of course, very grateful for every donation I receive, the evidence of my gratitude is the continued development of calibre, see: http://calibre-ebook.com/whats-new or https://www.ohloh.net/p/calibre/analyses/latest (which shows development activity in calibre). Indeed, I currently work full time on calibre and that is made possible only by the number of donations I receive.

01-26-2012, 07:18 AM	#4
djstormer Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: Kindle 3, iPad	kiwidude wrote: "Anyone should hopefully just "know" that every single donation is very gratefully received" - ideally, yes, but when every other donation I've ever made online has somehow gotten acknowledged, the silence can seem kind of odd. But thanks guys for the responses. I now get the picture. Keep up the great work - you deserve all the support you can get.

01-26-2012, 08:00 AM	#5
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,637 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	I guess I don't use enough donation based services to know what is the "norm" - other than Paypal receipts I don't recall getting any acknowledgment from donations I have made around the place. With my donator hat on, personally I'm fine with it, it helps preserve my (very much) illusion of anonymity and that whoever is at the other end is not secretly collating my paypal email or putting me on some distribution lists etc. However I can totally understand that to others it might appear that the donation was not personally appreciated without the response. As Kovid has said, he makes his living from the donations so you can bet he appreciates each and every one for sure! However if you look at the sheer volume of support queries alone the poor guy answers across multiple mediums (forums, bug tracker, emails, patches, facebook, PMs, visitor messages, and probably others I don't know) it is quite remarkable he gets any development done at all... I could post a picture I guess of the excited little "ooh, nice - thank you..." I exclaim any time a donation email comes in, or a video clip of my happy dance, but that would just scare small children.

01-26-2012, 04:04 PM	#6
jgaiser Omnivorous Posts: 3,281 Karma: 27978909 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Rural NW Oregon Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1	I recently donated a bit to the guy who wrote/supports the Adblock Plus plugin. Got a nice little email from him. But the places I generally donate to seldom acknowledge those donations and that's alright. Developers have more important things to do then spend their time answering emails. Kovid spends plenty enough time here on MobileRead and developing Calibre. And I think it's about time for another Calibre donation. Thanks to Kovid and all the plugin developers.

01-26-2012, 08:53 PM	#11
TechnoCat Zealot Posts: 131 Karma: 150390 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Pacific NorthWest Device: Kindle Fire	I also donated this month to both AdBlock and Calibre. Got messages from both. In the case of AdBlock, the author says he'll reply (if it's over some amount, which I apparently was.) For Calibre, I had included in the donation a request for a U.I. tweak; Kovad responded that it would be in the next version. But I don't donate for the acknowledgement. It's sort of a pay-after rather than the pay-before we do with shrinkwrap SKUs like Quicken, MS Office, etc.

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