ActionsForge Kickstarter donation support + extra incentive

Freeway
21

Because you didn’t come to the pledge form directly from a link on your site. Someone else (less generous) did. That list of supporters isn’t a list of who gave what, it’s a list of referrers – several people came and gave from the Kickstarter site’s home page, for example, and lots more came from nowhere in particular.

Thank you very much for your support, it is completely appreciated.

Walter

On May 29, 2012, at 2:49 PM, David Owen wrote:

Hey Walter

Why does http://www.ineedwebhosting.co.uk only show $25 when I pledged a lot more?

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22

Softpress just sent out their newsletter. Guess what they mentioned?

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23

Yay! …

–
Ernie Simpson

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Joe Muscara email@hidden wrote:

Softpress just sent out their newsletter. Guess what they mentioned?

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24

Just another bump for this thread.

I’ve only been using Freeway for 5 minutes but it was apparent from the first day on Freeway Talk the value that Walter (and others) added. We chipped in a donation not because we were spending hours on ActionsForge, but because I think Walter’s support of the community deserved recognition.

If Walter has ever answered a question for you, chip in ten or twenty bucks and consider it cheap tech support which will likely continue. If nothing else it’s good Karma - always feels good to give more than you take :slight_smile:

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25

OK. As per latest request and to hopefully give this a last minute surge I have doubled my pledge.

If we all do that we should be home and dry - or of course, you could give even more :slight_smile:

I have my fingers crossed that this will happen, though that could be because im naturally optimistic.

All the best to everyone supporting this.

Alan…

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26

Been wondering whether or not to comment on this since I got the latest newsletter.

The elephant in the room…

$25,000 for a website?

That will take two weeks?

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27

I appreciate your comment, and that is a valid question to ask. Believe it or not, this amount is at the middle range of what I charge for a Web application.

A normal Web site – I could totally see your hesitation – but a server-side application that manages users, tracks which Actions they have downloaded, alerts them to new versions, manages the process for individual developers to allow them to upload their new versions, add documentation… I could go on here for about an hour.

Next, consider that Kickstarter takes a cut. Amazon takes a cut. I can’t actually make a Kickstarter without offering prizes, and those have to be made, and mailed all over the world.

Then, recall my usual advice that any project timeline can safely be inflated by 100% without approaching reality, and you’ll probably get a sense for how long the actual work will take me. Not to mention the time already invested in managing and promoting the Kickstarter campaign.

And let us not forget that I built the first iteration of this site FOR FREE, and have had zero help and accepted no advertising dollars to continue supporting it over the past five years. (I just got the bill to renew the domain, talk about synchronicity here.)

When you slice it that many ways, it’s really not a ridiculous amount. I hope you’ll understand that I am nothing but generous and fair, and not looking to bleed anyone here.

Give if you can, because you will get your money back in spades when you are able to do a better job for your clients in less time because ActionsForge exists. Give if you can, because when you contribute to your community, a rising tide lifts all boats. I’ve been living by this principle here since 1997.

Walter

On May 31, 2012, at 6:33 AM, ralfy wrote:

Been wondering whether or not to comment on this since I got the latest newsletter.

The elephant in the room…

$25,000 for a website?

That will take two weeks?

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28

Just a thought and perish the thought but if this doesn’t happen then will we ever see the proposed improved version of the Action forge site?
I for one will be disappointed if this is the case.
Wish there was more I could do.
All the best.

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29

Here Here! Walter
no need for explanations… we all know what your generosity has meant. You have been a great teacher

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30

I came in late to this (like this morning), just contributed, best of luck to the great WaltD and thanks for everything that you do!

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31

Contribution made just wanted to say

Walter…THANK YOU

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32

I know a few people have been looking at the 25,000 figure and thinking thats a lot but as Walter has mentioned already… there would have been a huge amount of work to be done.
And to be faire if our studio had been quoting for this sort of project then we would have been putting in a cost of about the same sort or higher amount.

As for this project going forward and having the improvements… well thats up to Walter, but as it stands he won’t receive a penny… he has had to carry the cost / time of setting this whole campaign up and is probably quite disappointed that he hardly reached 50% of the figure he was looking for.

In the end, the only positive was the project did receive over a hundred backers which was a great improvement over last week of around 40, but as a guess, this sort of project needed in the region of to 400 to 500 backers.

If Walter decided to have another go then probably, it may be a good idea for a lot more 3rd party people to promote it very early in the campaign to try to get the ball rolling… but It will be unto Walter if he feels its worth the effort again

All the best Walter and I am sorry this project failed to get off the ground

Max

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33

Hi & good day,

As I see it, advertising the project should have been better, and now it is already more known than before. Although a regular reader of F-talk, I learned about Walt’s project rather late.

But why not give it a go a second time?!

/ Omar

::: Communication to improve civilisation :::

s_ip

On 1 jun 2012, at 08:50, “max” email@hidden wrote:

If Walter decided to have another go then probably, it may be a good idea

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34

Walter,

I hope you try again on this, and if you do, will it be possible to circulate and email to all registered Forum users as part of an improved advertising plan?

John

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35

I am very sorry to say that I just looked at the May 30 Softpress email this morning for the first time and quickly went to Kickstarter to back the project, only to find out it had already ended. I am so sorry, not that my one contribution would have made the difference, but I wonder how many other people just now heard about it.

I hope you give it another shot, Walter. People who don’t spend a lot of time on Freewaytalk.net wouldn’t have seen it, right? It was good that Softpress mentioned it in their newsletter, but it was a little late, and it wasn’t mentioned in their May 15 newsletter. When did it start?

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36

Sorry as I am this did not fund, I am very excited about the opportunity it
presented to learn some actual facts about the Freeway community.

I can build a successful Breast Cancer Awareness campaign because the kinds
and numbers of people involved are well-known published facts. How do you
build a successful support system for a community whose statistics are
unknown or anecdotal?

Not that this was more than a flash in the dark when it comes to
understanding the structure of a community, but it was illuminating all the
same.

This effort was supported by about a hundred people. We need to at least
triple that in any further drive. Preceded by a campaign to increase
awareness about the project itself, while expanding access to outreach &
communication. Then we re-run the drive and see if we can’t hit all those
numbers.

–
Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 6:20 AM, ejw email@hidden wrote:

Walter,

I hope you try again on this, and if you do, will it be possible to
circulate and email to all registered Forum users as part of an improved
advertising plan?

John

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37

Is there a reason why it has to end on a specific date? and not run until a total is reached? I like many others missed it. I admit I did see an early post so should have pledged then, rather than leave it till later and miss the deadline. Sorry Walter - I have been helped out a huge amount so would be a pledger!

I’m sure I’m not the only who missed the boat through no fault of their own.

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38

I sketched out a marketing brief in another post… the reason you limit the
duration of any campaign is to avoid fatigue - I think the duration of this
was perfect. How a second try might do better is to pre-emptively ramp-up
awareness and support for the pending effort, then try again - only now you
have more people aware of what is happening and have that whole time to
respond.

I know that I will stay tuned to find out what happens next! :wink:

–
Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 10:54 AM, BigG email@hidden wrote:

Is there a reason why it has to end on a specific date? and not run until
a total is reached? I like many others missed it. I admit I did see an
early post so should have pledged then, rather than leave it till later and
miss the deadline. Sorry Walter - I have been helped out a huge amount so
would be a pledger!

I’m sure I’m not the only who missed the boat through no fault of their
own.

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39

This is how Kickstarter works, and it does use a bit of psychology – you get a real sense of urgency toward the end, and everybody can see what’s left and gauge their degree of participation accordingly.

Setting the duration longer would certainly be one way to solve this, but I was eager to get going, and didn’t want to wait two or three months to start building. I overestimated the frequency with which other people use the FreewayTalk list and ActionsForge. I’m always there, myself – big mistake is I != everyone else.

I am investigating other options that are more flexible. There’s Pledgie, where you can donate something and (I believe) I get the money fairly immediately, and there’s just a big thermometer showing how much has been given.

I really thought Kickstarter would be a better fit, because there would be this sense of a shared goal. If I get a bunch of money, but it comes in drips and drabs over a year, that’s not a good way to go, because there’s no sense of urgency on either side. That makes much better sense to pay for something like hosting, where I get dinged monthly for a fairly low number.

Walter

On Jun 1, 2012, at 10:54 AM, BigG wrote:

Is there a reason why it has to end on a specific date? and not run until a total is reached? I like many others missed it. I admit I did see an early post so should have pledged then, rather than leave it till later and miss the deadline. Sorry Walter - I have been helped out a huge amount so would be a pledger!

I’m sure I’m not the only who missed the boat through no fault of their own.

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40

Walter,

I like the duration as it was, for most of the reasons you outlined. I
think the same campaign would be completely fundable if preceded by a
period of pre-campain support and awareness with a goal of tripling the
number of backers. Think about it this weekend and ping me if you want to
discuss it.

300 for victory… sounds good to me :slight_smile:

–
Ernie Simpson

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:24 AM, Walter Lee Davis email@hiddenwrote:

This is how Kickstarter works, and it does use a bit of psychology – you
get a real sense of urgency toward the end, and everybody can see what’s
left and gauge their degree of participation accordingly.

Setting the duration longer would certainly be one way to solve this, but
I was eager to get going, and didn’t want to wait two or three months to
start building. I overestimated the frequency with which other people use
the FreewayTalk list and ActionsForge. I’m always there, myself – big
mistake is I != everyone else.

I am investigating other options that are more flexible. There’s Pledgie,
where you can donate something and (I believe) I get the money fairly
immediately, and there’s just a big thermometer showing how much has been
given.

I really thought Kickstarter would be a better fit, because there would be
this sense of a shared goal. If I get a bunch of money, but it comes in
drips and drabs over a year, that’s not a good way to go, because there’s
no sense of urgency on either side. That makes much better sense to pay for
something like hosting, where I get dinged monthly for a fairly low number.

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