After some discussion, we have decided to extend Roktober since we are so far away from our goal and we think that maybe part of the problem is not enough promotion, so if we extend a few weeks maybe we can get this going.
Not everyone follows the developer blogs, so if anybody missed the blog entry put up by our treasurer regarding Roktober, here are some highlights (or read the
full entry):
- we have seen a huge fall-off in donations from outside the EU and we're wondering why this is;
- we are planning on giving two prizes this year so we are giving entries in the drawing based local currency;
- towards the end of last year we spent over €2000 to send 12 people to aKademy;
- the project spent about €1500 on technical and administrative items like server hosting, domain administration, develop resources (books) and hardware;
- in addition to aKademy, we spent over €3500 attending free software conferences around the world
- each developer/contributor team member was given two t-shirts. A small thank you for the large amounts of time put into the project by volunteers who are doing this for fun, not profit.
So we in total spent over €7500, and we have bigger plans for next year in terms of moving the project forward, maintaining a presence during free software events and having additional developer meetings, which are extremely efficient in moving the software development forward. Additionally, prices are rising, so overall things will cost more.
So if you haven't yet, please consider contributing.
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Comments
To the amarok team:
believe me, your final GUI is bad, really bad. I am sorry you went for this approach, but maybe you should give a look at Winamp interface. I'm sorry to say this, but or you keep to the amarok 3 GUI or change what you're doing. Why? So much wasted space. The library query is really old now, that has to be changed to the Winamp style, it's very inadequate and limited. Also that wikipidia thing in the middle? what's that? are you crazy?? (without offense). who the hell came out with that idea, don't you see that huge space could be used to make a really better library query and/or playlist? Do like Winamp!! put the info window inside a tab and not on the main window!! that's the worse thing!!!
There's also a serious esthetic issue. The library,the wiki thing and playlist windows, seem to be all inside the same window. that is very eye disturbing. there has to be a line around them or change the inner color so it looks as if it were inside and not on the same level. you really havent noticed this? it is so disturbing the software GUI seems so much raw. you'de better understand what i'm saying if you don't want to see this software go down .
Last but not least, the shoutcast query sucks really bad compared to Winamp. If you wanna know what's happening, there you go.
if you are a developer and want to talk more with me, bulletxt@gmail.com
I couldn't disagree with you
I couldn't disagree with you more. I find WinAmp completely unusable. It's terrible and has just become itunes on steroids. There are too many ways to browse music and it's just confusing. Sorry.
i didn't say it has to be
i didn't say it has to be like Winamp, I said to give a look at Winamp. And you're blind if you think amarok gui is better than Winamp. As of today, Winamp is way way more powerfull than Amarok, this is a fact and not an opinion. Continue with your ideas and you'll understand why amarok will never be famous in Window environment even when it gets stable running on it. Comparing Winamp to itunes is the most stupid thing i've ever heard. if you don't know how to use software because it has to many options, use Windows media player. Wasn't amarok the player that has to rediscover your music? well, its not donig anything special today compared to other audio players, this is its problem. Like it or not, be realistic and look at the world and your 4x4 room.
Release early, release often.
Thats probably because of the fact that you had no new feature release.Im sure you will rich the goal 'easily' next yeay because you had released 2.0 by then
sadly, the Australian dollar
sadly, the Australian dollar tanked just before I discovered roktober. We were buying 96US cents, and now it's around 65. I'm kind of crossing my fingers that it goes up again soon so i can feel that my money is better spent (and donate then).
Why dont you ask Google for
Why dont you ask Google for the money? After all is just 10k for the whole year.
Release...
...I was waiting for did not happen on time. The wiki page of your (hands down, great) player stated that release date would be October, 23rd. And I waited. Then I got that strange feeling about what was (not) going to happen, and I, most unluckily, was right. But that was okay. Hey, I knew you guys were only going to spend that time to bring a better product to us, users. And I know it now. But... Putting THIS in the release date field?!
"between KDE 4.1 and KDE 4.2"
Look, KDE 4.2 is only going out at the end of January. And this if you trust KDE's roadmaps. Which I personally do not, as I don't trust any roadmaps too much. Nobody should ever trust 'em TOO much. But hey, they are made available to provide people with some information, to feed their expectations' in their hunger, aren't they?
As for me, I had been visiting your homepage and checking all my software-related RSS feeds at least thrice a day for two weeks, looking eagerly for the "released" word. Nothing. Worse than nothing - roadmap's date was only replaced by aforementioned non-definitive line after ten or so days of frustrating waiting. And when that happened, I felt totally punk'd.
I understand this is a small issue and not to be taken that seriously, but... Hell, I love amaroK! I've been waiting for 2.0 ever since it was clear there was going to be one, and when I get smashed in the face with something like "Oops... We're out of roadmap. Should we tell 'em people 'bout it? Naah, they probably won't even notice! Just change the date to something floating and go on", I just don't feel nice.
I donated thirty bucks twice. First when I started using "Fast Forward" and then again when 2.0's development was announced. Each time I had to call my hell-distant relative living in USA, set the deal up, go to currency exchange, buy some dollars, send 'em through Western Union and then spend an evening describing the donating process on-line, all of this because I myself am in Moscow, Russia, and have no other need for $ credit or deposit card. So it's not that I'm lazy or not willing to pay. But next thirty stays with me, because this is worse than waiting for StarCraft II. At least they don't make any dates up.
P.S. I'm still your bitch after all, 'cause there just ain't one player close to yours. Americans will resume donating, as the election buzz ended already and they put their attention back to non-political stuff. Chin up.
Thanks, and no worries
Thanks for donating, and don't worry: We are really close to releasing 2.0 final now. In a few days the Release Candidate is going to hit you already.
And let me assure you: We are working very frantically on getting it out of the door.
I'll donate for Obama
I voted for Obama, so I'm willing to put up some cash for me and my fellow whiny American who posted above. :-) Is there a minimum donation that's "efficient" though? I was thinking of 15 or 20 bucks (which is about 4 Euros, I believe), but I know fees cut into that a lot.
My latest wish though (and I know this isn't the place to ask, but I'm waving money around :-D ): how difficult would it be to create a predictive playlist? What I have in mind is for those times at 2 in the morning, when I'm drunk and in a mood (not like now *cough*), and get on a run of a couple of songs... some little cue that says "after this track, you've played x, y, or z..."
Sounds like a plugin waiting to happen!
Thanks for everything. This is definitely one of the programs that I don't even think about anymore, just because I use it so much. Time to pay up.
\m/
5 dollars a euro!!
Actually, the current rate is $1.2 to $1.4 = €1 , and about $1.8 = £1.
Also, accepting donations in Sterling might encourage some, since the Euro is officialy in recession, and people may think that the money they donate would quickly become worthless.
Just noticed
Just noticed, you can use GBP.
Well, my problem is that I
Well, my problem is that I don't have a credit card, so I can't donate any money. You know is difficult to donate money this days, so why you don't give us more chances to donate? Today you can't spect get all the money from a Paypal account, you must give us other pay forms.
You're wondering WHY?!
Since Obama was elected the US economy has been in a freefall, and you wonder why US based donations are down? Seriously?
Cut back on conferences. You don't have to not go at all, but you could send 10 people instead of 12, you can drop a conference or two. Reward the biggest donor somehow, give him or her a custom theme, a pic on your site with a brief thanks, something. Turn it into a contest instead of a beg-a-thon.
Make your amarok gear more prominent. Get a model to wear some of that at some of your conferences. Personally I'd recommend a lithe female under 5'6" wearing your womens string thong, and very little else. Charge extra for the pair she has on. You'll make money, I promise.
I'm not an American but it
I'm not an American but it seems that some Americans are plain dumb.
What does the election have anything to do with the downfall of the American economy ? I assume that, you do know that Obama isn't really the president yet.
Also he wasn't the one that lead your country in the last 8 years, not is he the one that crashed your banking system.
Ah... And you were doing so
Ah... And you were doing so well... For the first 3 words or so :-)
Now, politics aside, I think most people will agree that the US economy was in doing poorly long before the recent election, so claiming that the result of that, which obviously does not please you, is just blowing out hot air. That said, you are indeed right that with the recent economic climate, it is understandable why donations are somewhat down. This is something we have discussed a lot, but might not have been made clear from this blog post.
As for cutting down on conference expenses, that will likely have to be a consequence, but for most conferences we only send a few people, and mostly people who are close by or can get funding from elsewhere. While it might not be obvious, the reason for promoting Amarok at these conferences is to get more users, and in turn, more developers, so it is not something we do ( only ) for the fun of it. But Cutting down on these activities might be a result of us not meeting our goals for Roktober. The Akademy conference is special though. This is not a promotional even, but a 1 week KDE specific event with a 5 day hackathon. So getting as many developers as possible to this conference is very important as Amarok usually moves forward in great leaps at this event.
As for the model in the thong thing, I am sure you can recommend a good model who will work for free? ( Hey, many of us donate tons of our free time to this project by contributing in different ways :-)
Waiting for the final release
Hi,
I have been following the development of amarok now for quite a while. However, while being a big fan of open source and having been involved in another open source project, I still use windows. I would very much like to contribute/donate, but I haven't yet tested amarok 2 (although the new betas can apparently be installed on windows, too). I simply refrain so far from donating because I am not sure if I will really like&use amarok later on (be assured that the reason that I am on this forum is because I believe that I would like amarok 2 once it's out).
Since there are (unfortunately) a lot of windows people out, I would be surprised to be the only "lame-windows-user" who thinks like this. Yes, I don't like to be a lame win-user, I do support open source, I like the features of amarok but I won't donate to software that I haven't even tried.
All this^^ is to say that I could imagine that donations might hopefully rise quicker once the final release is out and doing well and that there might be more people like me who are just waiting to see what comes before donating...
Cheers and good luck with your promising work!
With what looked like a poor
With what looked like a poor response but no word from the developers, I thought the chart on the homepage was a lie or broken.
Reddit
Spread the word:
http://www.reddit.com/goto?id=7ccqv
http://www.reddit.com/goto?id=79jef
I donated, but to be honest
I donated, but to be honest I'd rather the money went to rewarding developers or development fees than travel to conferences (aKademy excepted). Anyway, thanks for all the hard work.
Conferences are where
Conferences are where important personal connections are made and lots of stuff is learned at the seminars. They aren't just promotional. Meeting face-to-face is an important and efficient way to get some stuff done. It's true in my business too. Technology is great, allowing you to communicate constantly and in very efficient ways, but nothing beats face-to-face meeting for establishing rapport and bringing things together.
make it a free linux version
make it a free linux version and sell it to windows and mac users!
It is free for Linux users.
It is free for Linux users. In fact, it's free for everyone. Donate if you want to.
Maybe it was thinking at
Maybe it was thinking at xchat. Bad idea though.
Moneybookers
Anything else other than paypal ?
email greg@getamarok.com and
email greg@getamarok.com and I'll send you the info for a bank transfer.
Digg
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Roktober_Extended - digg and spread the word.
I blame the
I blame the financapocalypse.
Agreed, but...
Now is not the best time to ask for donations, true, but I'd also blame how much almost only-anglo-world-focused most FOSS big projects like this are.
Most of non english-"ish" people who use Amarok that I know never visit Amarok's website, even if many of them can read English sufficently. They use to keep informed about Amarok by forums, blogs, etc, in their native languages, which (and that's to blame them, at least the hispanic ones and also italian) don't seem to be very aware of donation campaigns like this or they just avoid them, I dont know if due to the fact that they translate and comment only the news and annoucements they find interesting or because they are just cheap people, who knows, but whichever is the reason the fact is that amarok.kde.org is not the main Amarok "portal" for lots of non anglosaxon people that could donate from time to time but aren't aware of how to do it.
If you don't believe this go and ask all those Ubuntu users from Latin Europe, Asia or Latin America how often do they visit Linux related websites in other languages than theirs and if they have heard about this Roktober thing.
I know resources are very limited, but, in my humble opinion, if those limited resources focus almost exclusively in North American, and european colonies, users, only they will contribute, and we shall be in this vicious circle permanently.
More language and culturally diverse focus and divulgation is needed. Since I don't have enough time I just can contibute with some money (I haven't donated too much in fact, though, I'm also a young worker in permanent economic crisis) but I think webmasters and people who are in charge of "marketing" could ask for help in forums and such.
I bet that the more close people feel Amarok, and not just as a cool software who make "those anglosaxon, and followers, geeks" the more contributions you would have, in money but also in ideas, and collaboration.
Cheers.
our website is translated
We try to translate. We don't always, but we do. :) Do you not notice the links there on the side? If your using a browser that is requesting one of those languages, it should show that site by default.
Our site does see substantial amounts of people coming from around the world. Mostly Europe and the US yes. I think much of Europe would be surprised to know its anglo though. :)
times
Its hard to get money to make a great product, when you cannot show the great product yet..
+1
Yea, no one in america has extra money TO donate.