Since the tutorials are for the 1st Gen, I believe this to be the right section.

I know that we have had many generous donations over the past two and a half years. We really do appreciate those even if we haven't had the time to develop anything other than the first two tutorials.

Lately, there has been a large amount of really small donations. Before someone whips out the semantics of the word "donation", let me get to the point...


There's a general donation button for people who simply want to donate. A quarter given in that donation field will not insult me and will not result in my being upset. I am grateful for each and every penny that comes via general donation...

However, there's a cost to hosting the tutorials. The free versions are given away - nothing asked in return. You can print them if you want (even though I could've very easily stopped that with the pdf options) and that's all up to you.

We offer White background versions of our tutorials for those folks who don't want to waste $60 in black ink on the backgrounds. We've always maintained that if someone lacks the money to donate anything substantial and realizes that $60 in black ink is a lot to use, a simple explanation will get the print-friendly version gratis.

My issue of late has been the rather large amount of $0.25 donations without such an indication. By using the specific tutorial buttons, these people are indicating that they expect to donate money to receive the URL for the print-friendly versions.



<enter rant mode> Now what the **** are we going to do with a quarter? Just like giving your girlfriend an iron or vacuum cleaner for your anniversary is likely to cause an unhappy reaction, please understand that you are not exactly showing an appreciation for the effort that went into these tutorials when you "donate" a ******* quarter for the print-friendly versions.

We give away the FREE version as free because we believe in helping the Rx-7 community. We offer the print-friendly versions as a way for you to thank us for our hard work. So, a quarter basically says "that tutorial was so good, you guys should go have a gumball on me". We can't even buy any car parts for a quarter...
</rant mode>


And from that stems my frustration. If you visit the tutorial page today, you'll find a new disclaimer stating that there's a "minimum donation" required for the print-friendly version. We never wanted to put a fixed price on these, but again - it costs money for me to hand out two to five hundred tutorials a month, and it costs money for us to make them.

There still isn't a dollar amount associated with the print-friendly version, but I'm really, really close now.

Please put forth a little bit of effort and think about how easy the tutorials make it to remove the rats nest. Think about the care put in taking the pictures, the time spent to describe in detail the steps required... Then think exactly how we're going to feel appreciated by the donation amount.

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Likewise, don't bother going through the effort of donating a quarter for the print-friendly versions - spend the effort in at least making up a story that makes us feel good about helping out folks. Otherwise, if you just want to give a quarter - that general donation button will welcome your donation. And I have and always will send a personal appreciation letter to the donor. I always have and always will.

I might have a temper, and I might be an ******* from time to time, but at the heart of things, I'm a nice guy who enjoys helping others. Help me help you

--Tom

 

I feel you got your 12 bits worth with this post. LOL.

 

All kidding aside now though, your work definitely does deserve more than 25 cents. Sounds fair to me.

 

Well, not sure what I evisioned happening to the thread, but at least it's here to be pointed to by the next person who tries getting the print-friendly version with a quater

 

twice hit by double-posts... Life is sooo not fair :P

 

helzea, i dont got no money to donate, but the computer versions are fine for me, your work is definetly worth every spare dime I could get, but hey you deserve at least 2 gumballs j/k good work on the tutorials you get three thumbs up think about it

 

host them on bitorrent to save $$$

 

Doesn't work...

First - bit torrent still requires a seed. Rather than using my webhost's bandwidth, I'd now be using mine. Keeping my machine up 24/7 hosting the tutorial sort of defeats the purpose, no?

 

Quarter donations?? My gawd..That tutorial is kick ***. I felt like a cheapskate donating $5 bucks!

Seriously- my wife even enjoyed reading the tutorial- just for the humor factor!

C'mon folks- when people take the time out of their busy lives so that we may more efficiently speed our nutzz off, they deserve more than a freggin' quarter!!!

 

I dunno.
I have mixed feelings about this issue.
First of all, I don't think there's anything wrong with asking for donations to help fund a website, project, what have you.
And I also think that someone who donates an unreasonable amount of change is doing it for spite.

Why would they do that for spite?
...Because the "donation" is mandatory.

Just offer it all up and 'get what you get' as far as donations.
I think you might be suprised at the size/frequency of donations if you just simply have faith in the rotorhead community that they'll do the right thing on their own.
Maybe you won't get as many donations, but the size of them would surely make up for it.

Then another issue in question is the provider's intent.
Is he/she trying to make money off of information that is freely available with hours of research on the www?
Or are they doing a service for the rotary community and just hoping to recoup some expence.

I think you're perfectly justified in wanting a donation, and even justified in your frustration and rant.
But it really is all in the presentation of asking for money. It's a tough thing to do tactfully.
But the slightest hint that a person has to make some kind of payment is often enough to turn off a person who might've otherwise happily sent you five bucks.

 

Tutorials? Are you referring to the links on "The 1st Gen RX-7 FAQ page"?

Sorry I haven't seen them yet. Could someone point them out to me?

 

Tutorial Link

 

Pratch- I can understand how you could be insulted by a quarter donation, but believe it or not, there are not too many people out there that even realized that you had to pay for hosting that file! (I didn't)

You guys did a really good job at doing that tutorial, and it's cool you guys are offering it for free, but to demand a certain amount as a donation when you said "donations are accepted" is kinda overboard in my opinion. If you want a certain amount, say so. I'd say 90% of us here own 1st gens because they are cheap, and we are cheap. If we offered a quarter for it, it's not that we're insulting you, it's that we're being ourselves. (cheap)

I personally didn't donate, I liked the nice black background, and when you can print from the work comp that's on a T3 line and you don't have to pay for ink... well, it's all good!!!

 

Well, here's the thing. The free version is and always will be free. That is our gift to the community. Offering the print-friendly version as donation-only or good-reason is our way of maintaining a "car parts fund" for future tutorials. Neither Carl nor I have had the time of late to do any more, but we still want to.

The print-friendly buttons say "Buy Now" to differentiate them from the big shiny "make a donation" button on the bottom.

We never put a price for all the reasons that Sterling said - faith in the community. We've gotten good donations, some really good donations and quite a few - why-did-they-bother donations.

That's why we've always said - don't slap us in the face if you don't have cash, let us know and we'll GIVE the print-friendly version away.

I realize I have never bitched (until now) about either the low-ball donations or the bandwidth cost. Again, Carl and I didn't do this to get rich. Any website, rx7club.com included, has operating costs. No free bandwidth provider in the world will give you mutliple GB of transfer a month and certainly won't give the hundreds of MB of storage this big forum requires. Hell, rx7club.com probably uses GB of storage, and close to a TB of transfer.

That's just the way things are. To not host on geoshities or the like will cost money. It's money I have gladly spent out-of-pocket for a few years now because I wanted to. I spent the last year in school and unemployed and still I paid my hosting fees. simply because at the heart of it, I really am a nice guy who wants to give.

Because I am human, I do take affront at those who feel that asking for money for the print-friendly version is out-of-line. I never figured I'd get paid what I charge even my friends per hour of work. I still haven't. Carl and I will continue to do this as a labor of love.

But don't **** on our love.

 

Ahhh. I see now.

 

Your friends PAY you??!!! Maybe that would explain why there are 4 or 5 cars out in front of my house every weekend needing worked on... taking time away from my 58 Chev.

 

For my professional services? Yes - my friends PAY me. For my hobby services? No, my friends don't pay a cent.

I'm a professional designer - have done it for many years. If my friends have a business, and they want a site or advertising done, they're going to pay me for my expertise. Why? Because that's the cost of making money and doing business. They understand it, they appreciate the fact that they get my skills on the cheap.

If I did it for free, it would devalue what I've worked hard to attain as far as design skills go. Sure, I'm a bit more of a stickler as far as time-is-money, but that's just a philosophy that helps keep me sane. I do have 3 kids (5 if you count my 7s) and a wife, you know

 

ok, here's how I personally feel about the donation. Yes, you did a very awesome job on the tutorial, in fact, it was literally the first thing I did when I found out I was going to be getting a first gen. Definitely a good way to start out the first gen journey. A donation is definitly a good thing, and I think that the guys on this forum who are old(er) say in their 30's and up, with a good constant inflow of cash should give $5 - $15. However, there are those of us who are (literally) selling our stuff on e-bay so we can buy parts that are kinda necessary for our cars (i.e. clutch hydrolics). If I were you, which I'm not. And I spent hours and hours and hours on a project, which I didn't... and I understand that... but if I were you, I would certainly not squawk the $.25 donations. There are TONS of people on this 1st gen forum alone, and unfortunatly, a lot of them are in the same position that I am in, where I don't even like giving away a nickle. I currently have $300 to my name, and I'm in college and only have time to work about 1 hour a day, at $6.50 an hour. Hardly pays for gas. but I feel ANY amount of money is a good amount, even $.25 Hell, get 20 guys to give you a quarter, and you got yourself $5. (this is why I go to one of the best universities in the nation ) anyway, that's my $.02 (pun definitly and sadly intended)

 

Oi, I agree with you, but your new disclaimer comes off as a bit harsh. Seems like you are yelling at everyone. Maybe tone it down a bit?

 

Fixed.

One bad day...


The print-friendly versions are now linked from the main page. Since I am starting a good job tomorrow, i'll foot the bandwidth bills without asking for any donations. All I ask is that you download the version in-tune with what you're doing.

If you're taking your laptop out to the car with you? Grab the screen version. Otherwise? Get the print-friendly version for, well, printing

Just try not to download 15 copies of it, okay?

 

you need someone to host the tutorials for ya? i have an unlimited transfer account and space isnt a problem, pm or email me if yer interested, i can throw em on my webserver tonight