The graphic on the haiku-os.org from page that shows us the current donations and how close we are to goal have not been updated since last march. I noticed the haiku inc. site says the same thing. I can’t find any info on it, so I was wondering if it was broken somehow? Would be nice to know if PulkoMandy at least gets another month of dev time
THanks
it really doesn’t take more than a calculator and half an hour each week. maybe somebody other than a dev should be doing this?
Haiku, inc is managing this and they will appreciate offers to join and help with the non-development tasks.
Hi PulkoMandy,
I really like to help on this front. Let me contact You later to discuss about the details. (I’m travelling now btw.)
Best Regards,
Miqlas
This is an issue that keeps comming back because the devs chose not to address it here: https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/11154
ok so now it’s been over a month
If I remember correctly, this is done by hand by one of the Haiku inc. http://www.haiku-inc.org board members.
I suppose it’s Matt who does it usually, he’s been busy for some time.
I forwarded to the mailing list.
I think this should be one of the top priorities right now to get fixed. If it was done manually by someone; I believe going forward it would be best if this process becomes automated and automatically updates the amount shown on the main page whenever someone donates.
First impressions are everything, and if someone (especially a potential developer) casually checks www.haiku-os.org every few weeks or so and sees that the donation amount has not changed; I believe they’d be less inclined to work on the project,thinking that it was dead.
And when it comes to users who generously donate; this looks really bad. It has been over 5 months since the “Fundraising 2014” amount has been updated. What could this mean? Has the person who kept track of donations stopped doing so? How do I know my money is going to Haiku and not some random person? I personally have only donated a nominal amount once, but have regularly used GoodSearch in order to raise some additional funds. I also use Amazon Smile and have set Haiku, Inc. as my NPO of choice. I’d like to see how much my “donations” have helped, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Also, if I was able to see that Haiku, Inc. has reached about $30k, I’d be more inclined to donate since the target goal is so close. Without knowing how close or how far we are from what Haiku needs to go forward is a huge hindrance; and I’m sure it has stopped some people in the past from donating and will continue to stop more people in the future if this problem isn’t fixed soon.
It looks like the indicator has been updated, but the automation ticket is still open, and neither assigned nor in progress. 
The devs ton’t seem to get the importance of the donation indicator:
Changed 44 hours ago by vooshy
Personally I don’t think linking the donations indicator to bank activity is a safe option. AFAIK a member of Haiku, Inc updates the donation indicator manually by looking through the donations sent since last updated. This seems a more thorough and trusted route than a coding option linked to accounts.
comment:4 Changed 20 hours ago by axeld
bbjimmy: if it would be that easy, we would have done this years ago. Unfortunately, we need to get the information from various payment services, and for example, in case of Amazon payments, we have to manually connect each transaction with the E-mail address of the donator, as they don’t include that data in the account statement.
Most of it is actually automated, thanks to Matt, but there are still some manual steps involved (like getting the statements in the first place).
I can’t believe that a group of programmers able to create such a beautiful operating system can believe that this is just too hard to do.
The meter must be updated regularly … as in once a day or once a week at the longest interval. This is necessary to make the project successful. People like winners, they bet on - read donate to - winners. The Donation indicator is a quick measure of our success, whether we are a winner or a loser. There is a correlation; the more rapidly the indicator is updated, the more rapidly the donations will flow in. look at the recent effort to help pay for travel expenses to help Jessica Hamilton get to the GsOC Reunion. That donation indicator was updated immediately, and the donations flowed in.
People want the feed-back. With positive feed-back the wallets are opened easier. Without feed-back, we look too much like a looser, and the wallets stay closed.
Come-on Haiku Devs, lets make haiku a winner and not a loser.
This is one of the things I brought up when I first came to look at the project - it didn’t change - nor did the recommended download!
The project looks ‘dead’ on first visits to the main page!
(I know better now, having taken the time to investigate, but not many will, they will just go elsewhere.)
First impressions DO count!
For once, those devs don’t have to shoulder the blame…
The donations are managed by Haiku Inc. People interested in keeping things up-to-date should try offering their help to them. WRT stories for the front page: anyone can submit contents. No need to burden those devs with that…
Regards,
Humdinger
If a director has to ask others for help for important issues like handling financial reporting or does not have enough time to devote to the organization, then they probably shouldn’t be a director in the first place. I can understand asking help for other things, but not for the financial standing of the organization.
It is true what the others say though. Having, at the least, quarterly updates would help donors establish where Haiku stands financially and perhaps legitimize further donations to meet a/the target.
I’m sure Axel would be happy to leave the director chair to someone else… if there were some people applying for it. Fact is no one wants to handle these boring administrative tasks.
The same applies for the website team. If you think you can write news about Haiku, and make the website feel more up to date, or if you think you can improve the website design, please contact our website team so they get you set up. This is not something that developers should be doing.
[quote=PulkoMandy]I’m sure Axel would be happy to leave the director chair to someone else… if there were some people applying for it. Fact is no one wants to handle these boring administrative tasks.
The same applies for the website team. If you think you can write news about Haiku, and make the website feel more up to date, or if you think you can improve the website design, please contact our website team so they get you set up. This is not something that developers should be doing.[/quote]
How do I find out about what is necessary to help with the website?
(I have some time to spare, but not much knowledge of such things.)
Sure Pulkomandy, I could write a news item for your frontpage that Haiku Inc. is looking for a new treasurer (to whom may I submit that)? I am sure someone would apply. I am not commenting on the news, or that Haiku’s website is boring, just that if there’s one thing that should be kept up to date, it is the financial standing of the organization and the responsibility and obligation to the donors to show that their money actually made the donation meter move.
I’d love to help out in any way that I can. I definitely agree with you PulkoMandy, the developers should not be stressed with maintaining the website, tracking donations, and other extra activities when the developer’s time is better spent on improving Haiku itself.
I’m in the same boat as km, in that I currently have the time to help but I’m not exactly sure how I can best help Haiku. When it comes to the website, it definitely could use a touch up, and although I know next to nothing about how to go about doing so; I’m more than willing to learn. I’m sure I can collaborate with km & kvdman (and whoever else is interested) in refreshing the website, writing articles, etc.
If the decision makers at Haiku, Inc. can think of a few “jobs” (such as treasurer that kvdman brought up) that they think would be better suited for other people (aka non-developers), an article should be posted on the frontpage where people can apply.
I think it would be neat if someone could keep an eye what things are being updated, what new ports are in haikuports etc, and give a weekly/fortnightly/monthly update. There is interesting stuff happening all the time that doesnt get heard about.