Author Topic: I have created a crowdfunding campaign to reward a developer to create a plugin  (Read 2312 times)

wombleywoo

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If you're like me, you have thousands upon thousands of MP3/MPEG files with ratings, play counts, and presence in multiple playlists, and you really want to swap these files out for lossless file formats.

Currently Musicbee doesn't have a way to do this aside from manually, which would take months.

Please check out my crowdfunding campaign for more details, and donate if you can afford it. I have already started it off by pledging some of my own money.

Thanks!

https://gofund.me/38c41b2e

EDIT BY MODERATOR: The gofundme campaign has been cancelled.
Last Edit: February 13, 2023, 10:08:46 PM by phred

Space Guy

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I don't get why crowdfunding since you haven't find someone willing to work on this project. Your intentions might be pure but they don't seem that way. You are practically gonna keep the money until and IF someone takes this project. Seems like a scam to me

hiccup

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Seems like a scam to me
Could be indeed.
And even if it isn't, posting eight times in a short period in various threads is obnoxious and makes it a candidate for complete removal of all of them for as far as I am concerned.
Other forums would probably even ban the user completely.

wombleywoo

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It's certainly not a scam. It's a feature I'm dying to see, one that I'm prepared to pay someone for their labour to implement, and one that I know others are interested in.

@Space Guy: I'm completely open to other, decentralised ways of organising people's contributions which increases oversight and accountability; gofundme was just the first thing that came to mind. Do you have any suggestions? The idea behind crowdfunding before finding a developer was that, over time, contributions will slowly build up until it reaches a point where a developer would say "yes, that is worth my time".

@hiccup: I don't really see how "posting eight times in various threads" is disagreeable to you - posting is the essence of forums. You'll notice that most of the posts were added onto threads made by users who want to see this feature implemented, in the hope of drawing together as many people as possible who want this feature to support a developer to implement it.
Last Edit: February 12, 2023, 05:15:07 PM by wombleywoo

phred

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@wombleywoo - personally I don't foresee anyone stepping forward to develop what you're asking for. But more than that and in the interest of transparency, how long will you try to keep the gofundme page open? And after that time, what will you do with the contributions if any are in fact made? Will the contributor get their money returned?

These are legitimate concerns that if I were to contribute, which I'm not, I'd want answers to.

To any user thinking of contributing to this crowd funding, caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.
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wombleywoo

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@phred I was planning on keeping it open indefinitely - i.e., the amount slowly grows until it reaches a point where a developer considers it worth their time to develop, develops it, and gets the money.

I've also said I'm completely open to any other method or platform for organising contribution pledges, if you have any suggestions.

The overwhelmingly negative reaction I've got in this thread, though, is making me reconsider this endeavour. I'm simply trying to get a feature I want implemented, make the software that I love better for everyone, and pay developers for their labour rather than moan in an entitled manner for free stuff in the "feature request" forum.

I'm sorry, but I could, off the top of my head, think up several better "scams" than start a fake crowdfunding campaign for the development of a fairly niche plugin, for a software which has a middling amount of users, for a type of software (music managers) that most people don't use anymore.

phred

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I have no horse in this race.

As moderator I feel an obligation to ask some questions that others haven't asked. If someone wants to give money, that's up to them. I'm not saying don't. I'm not saying do. I'm calling attention to the fact that anyone who donates may not see any return on their investment.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

hiccup

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@hiccup: I don't really see how "posting eight times in various threads" is disagreeable to you - posting is the essence of forums.
A decent thing to do then (since you said that you are going to wait indefinitely for somebody to possibly produce something) is to add to each and every post where you are asking for money to clearly state that anyone doing so will never get a refund, and their money is definitely gone.

wombleywoo

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Wow, @hiccup, that's some pretty interesting mental gymnastics you've pulled off there!

Could you point out where, exactly, I've said that contributors would "never get a refund", or that "their money is definitely gone"?

If someone wanted to see this feature and donated money to the crowdfunding campaign, but at any point (before a developer accepted the job) wanted to pull out, they are of course entitled to their money back.

hiccup

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Wow, @hiccup, that's some pretty interesting mental gymnastics you've pulled off there!
Could you point out where, exactly, I've said that contributors would "never get a refund", or that "their money is definitely gone"?
Really? That's easy:

@phred I was planning on keeping it open indefinitely - i.e., the amount slowly grows until it reaches a point where a developer considers it worth their time to develop, develops it, and gets the money.

wombleywoo

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@hiccup: I understood your healthy skepticism over my authenticity, and trying to protect this community from a potential scam, but everything past that from you has been pedantic, small-minded, and wilfully obstructionist.

Moreover, you're just embarrassing yourself now. The fact that I envisage this crowdfunding campaign to go on indefinitely until a developer is hired is not mutually exclusive with contributors being able to pull out and receive a refund at any time. You're putting words into my mouth and making false assumptions when you talk of people "never getting their money back" or their money "definitely being gone".
Last Edit: February 13, 2023, 05:16:38 PM by wombleywoo

phred

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Okay, let's knock it off.

@wombleywoo - hiccup raises a good point in that there should be a disclaimer on each of the replies you created yesterday. Something that makes the potential contributor aware of the fact that the gofundme is open-ended. And that if at any point the contributor want's their money back they will get it.

Again, the risk is all with the contributor.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

hiccup

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...frustrated rant...
I'll ignore your personal attacks, you seem to be having some fit.

You say that you are going to wait indefinitely for a coder to show up.
So when no coder shows up, anyone that has send money is never going to see that back.
(even if one shows up, all they can hope for is that he produces something useful, but also then they will never get their money back)

Is that logic too complicated for you to understand?

Perhaps you should think things through a little bit better before asking people for money.
Last Edit: February 13, 2023, 05:25:28 PM by hiccup

wombleywoo

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let's knock it off.

I think at this point it's best to just knock the whole thing off; I'll close down the gofundme page later today.

This idea came from a genuine place, in the hope of making Musicbee better for everyone and in the belief that people should be paid for their labour. Beyond fair questions about oversight and accountability (although despite my openness to other forms, nobody seemed to have a better, more decentralised suggestion for managing this than gofundme), it's revealed a level of negativity and toxicity in this community which I was unprepared for.

I'm sorry to have wasted everybody's time

hiccup

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...and toxicity in this community...
I hate the gratuitous term 'toxic' being very trending these days.
And be aware that you have been the only one cursing people out on a personal level.

All you had to do was come up with a plan to explain to people what happens with their money if the effort fails.
If you can't be bothered with something simple like that, or just haven't thought that through, it's probably better not to take up a project like this.

But, if you do decide to continue (while explaining your plan concerning the money a bit better), it would obviously be interesting to see if this gets any results.