One thing that I believe would help gather more donations would be some kind of fund raising bar on the Haiku main page. It should be updated every day and show the current months balance of funds in relation to how much is needed to keep developers like Axel on the payroll, and perhaps another level for how much would be needed to hire more developers fulltime. Without seeing a “need” to donate, many people will always just pass by. Give everyone some visible feedback of where you stand and what you need to keep growing. Another thing that comes to mind is making sure developers keep up to date blogs… at least every other day or so. That helps give people a sense of momentum and purpose, and reassures everyone that their donations are being put to good use. 
This has been discussed before and i agree completely. The front page could link to devs blogs and been embellish with some screenies… peeps love 'em 8)
Another thing that comes to mind is making sure developers keep up to date blogs.. at least every other day or so. That helps give people a sense of momentum and purpose, and reassures everyone that their donations are being put to good use. :)
It’s very difficult when you are working on a particular issue that takes more than a day. Axel’s been very busy working on event handling issues for example. It is actually pretty easy to see what he’s been up to by checking what has changed in the source code. For me it’s as simple as typing “svn update” to download the latest code updates. You can also track some of the changes at
http://cia.navi.cx/stats/project/OpenBeOS.
Unfortunately, writing code is not always straightforward. Sometimes you have go off on a tangent to see what doesn’t work, how something else works, etc, before you figure out what to go with. It can be difficult to explain the progress being made until you have a final result.
I also found out about this site yesterday …
This guy is doing summaries of what’s been checking into the SVN. Pretty cool, we’d [admins] always discussed doing this for our Newsletters.
I also found out about this site yesterday ...This guy is doing summaries of what’s been checking into the SVN. Pretty cool, we’d [admins] always discussed doing this for our Newsletters.
neat, i’ll add it to my Haiku links I check regularly!
My apologies, needed to edit my first post.
Stephan Aßmus is working on clipping.
Axel is working on event handling and window code.
Sorry, I got confused with all the stuff that is going on.
I understand difficulties in keeping people up to date while working on projects. The main point I’m trying to press is making it easier for people to follow Haiku and feel included. Having to dig around for links or info to get involved means missed donations and possible help. People need easy, heck even tv commercials these days are adding “easy buttons”. After finding the main Haiku site, the browser needs access to information that makes it exciting to help the project out. Looking over the site should make the browser want to explore more and help if they can.
“Well, they made $$$ last month in donations, and even hired a full time programmer”
“I can even check on their progress right from this page and see what they are doing with their donations.”
“It’s the middle of the month so far and they might not make their quota in donations according to this graph”
“Hmm, I have a little extra now, maybe I’ll donate and help them keep their programmer or maybe even hire another one!”
These are the kind of thoughts that need facilitating, but it takes a very proactive approach, with a very up to date web site.
After finding the main Haiku site, the browser needs access to information that makes it exciting to help the project out. Looking over the site should make the browser want to explore more and help if they can.
Fully agreed
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borg1980
segador wrote:After finding the main Haiku site, the browser needs access to information that makes it exciting to help the project out. Looking over the site should make the browser want to explore more and help if they can.Fully agreed
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borg1980
I agree with this as well (and have written about it in the past, as have others). This would very likely make sense. There have been no reactions from the administrative side of the project, though.