Pardon me, while I rant …
November 28th, 2007 by Ste
I get a lot of email and questions in IRC about why I haven’t yet put this or that application in my repository. Here’s why:
- I don’t have time to check for updates to packages I host. If the developer doesn’t tell me about it, it doesn’t get updated.
- Sometimes the developer doesn’t want me to host the very latest version of their package, because it’s not yet ready for widespread use. When they think it is, they will tell me and I’ll update it.
- Sometimes the developer just goes away for a while and I know just as little as you do.
- I have other, related, projects that require my time too. Things like working on getting download statistics generated and made available, or adding a dynamic package listing to this blog. I’m plugging away at the first and when it’s eventually finished, I’ll work on the second.
- Sometimes the mirror servers, that you all download from, act up and I have to deal with them. That takes time.
- I hang out in various IRC channels, answering some questions. That takes time.
- I answer some of the many questions I get via email. That takes time.
- I help other people set up repositories and get their package installs/updates/uninstalls working, because Nullriver (the folks who dreamed all this up) is generally unresponsive to help requests and has largely refused to document any of this. Since I run the first and largest repository, people naturally ask me to help them. I like doing it and helping people, but I must say I resent having to do Nullriver’s job. I also resent being told, as I have by some, that if I don’t help, I’m being selfish and not giving back to the community. In spite of this, I’ve now started to document how to create a repository such as mine. This too, takes time.
- I’m just one person.
- I have a life, outside of iPhones, too: A house to clean and maintain. A yard to keep up. Home renovations to work on. A garage to clean. Leaves to rake. My favorite TV shows to watch. Books to read. My cats to enjoy. Movies to watch. Etc., etc., etc..
- I have a job to look for (I’ve been out of work since mid-April of 2007. In about 3-4 months I will run out of money and then I’ll face losing my home and you can kiss all of this goodbye).
- Sometimes I go away, like I did over the Thanksgiving holiday.
- I don’t get paid to do any of this, so if I just don’t feel like working on it, I don’t. Luckily for you, most of the time I feel like it.
How can you motivate me to treat this as a full time job and get stuff out as fast as I can? That’s simple: start donating. Do you know that if I had just one penny for every time someone did a refresh in, or downloaded a package with, Installer.app, every day, I would gross over $5,000.00 a day. Think about that for a moment. No, I don’t need that much a day to live on (but it would be nice!). There are tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people using this service I provide (FYI: I’ve shelled out nearly $600.00 in hosting fees, out of my unemployed pocket, to do it), every day. Virtually none of them donate. Most of the developers whose packages I host, don’t donate either. Most of the people I help via email or in IRC don’t donate. Everyone expects me to treat this like a full-time job, and that I do it for free. Are donations required? Absolutely not. But if even a tiny fraction of the people who use this service every day did, I could stop looking for a job, because this would be my job. That also would give people the right to complain if they don’t like the speed at which I work.
Before I end this post, I want to be sure to profusely thank the 75 or so people who have donated to me so far (and at least one of them, twice). Some of it went towards getting an iPhone to test the packages on, some of it went to buy me groceries and, since I started the ChipIn, the rest has gone towards getting me that iMac. I’m very grateful for your generosity.
-ste
Category: Misc | 3 Comments »
