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[therahedwig]

If we have 150 stories and crayon rewards to do, we'll do them, and see how it evolves from there.  If we get overstretched we'll adjust, hopefully without much pain.

At this rate, the two of you are going to be coders, mathematicians, cool dudes, AND artists!

Legendary Cool Dudes, Proficient Mathematicians, Talented Coders, Competent Artists. By the end of it Legendary everything.

... You guys do know that Toady has a maths phd and used to teach at uni, right? I think he's got the mathematician skill down already...

What I would like to know is if I donate money will I see more productivity and organization as a result.

Uhm, yeah, do yourself a favour a throw away the illusion you can ever influence the direction of any donation based project with donating. The only thing you're influencing is it existing. If the project lead ever sets up donation goals you can pick, you can count yourself lucky.
This may seem a bit... cynic? But I have seen open source projects where users try to gain that kind of influence through donating, but end up frustrated because they are not actually able to assert that kind of control. It's a bit complicated, but trust me on this.
You're better off donating for wanting DF to reach 1.0 than to hope for any improvements in areas you are personally invested in. You just don't have that control, please don't delusion yourself.

[NJW2000]

Story reward = I think a 1D ASCII image + few hundred word story by Threetoe, possibly you get to choose the topic.

[Toady One]

Not sure if already suggested:

What about (optional) contributor badges for forum members as additional reward? I think that whould boost the donations.

//: slightly offtopic:
I don't understand what the storyreward is.
Also I don't know how to receive an award, respectively how to choose one.
Your help is greatly appreciated!

Here are some examples of story rewards: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/ASCII_Art_Reward
The first cycle of Patreon payments is clearing now, and we're just waiting for the interface to let us send out the emails.  It might not be possible until all of the payments clear, which could be a few days still.  We'll keep people posted.

I'm not sure about forum badges -- a similar idea was floated for people that contributed through PayPal some years ago, and I think we decided we didn't want to divide the forum people up into groups, in the same way we've resisted added moderators and lots of post count distinctions (though we have the one).

[Showbiz]

Thanks for your reply, Toady and NJW2000.

I'm not sure about forum badges -- a similar idea was floated for people that contributed through PayPal some years ago, and I think we decided we didn't want to divide the forum people up into groups, in the same way we've resisted added moderators and lots of post count distinctions (though we have the one).

Sounds reasonable. I always disliked the post count in other forums for this very reason.


I think I will pick the drawing.
I live in Europe, I'm not sure if my donation covers the expenses (let alone the efford). However, I'll donate again (frequently if possible) and wonder if the donations are counted together.

[Inarius]

wonder if the donations are counted together.

Yes, they are. I asked it and was replied in the last FotF.

[Toady One]

Although I'm not sure what is meant by counted together -- for an individual, reward-wise, or for the Bay 12 Report?  The Bay 12 Report is going to be a total of everything that came in that month from whatever source.  Rewards from PayPal and Patreon are considered separately, and we're still considering how to best handle things like story continuations -- we haven't promised that people would get a new crayon art reward every month, though a few people have asked for clarification ($1/month wouldn't cover postage/materials in that case).  At the same time, PayPal people get story continuations and so on.

Our priority is that absolutely everybody that wants a reward gets one, regardless of contribution amount, and we'll have to consider multiple rewards after that.  So far, the number of reward requests we've received is manageable (kind of like a major release worth's), but we'll probably have to come up with some way to handle continuations that is fair to every kind of contribution type while still saving enough time for writing the game.  We'll probably be in flux on this until we land on something decent, but it seems like satisfying the baseline one-time reward requirement is going to be straightforward, at least.  Those are already in the pipeline for anybody whose first Patreon payment has cleared (I still have 100 pending that'll get their emails when they clear).  We'll be sure to have any update posted well before the next cycle.

[malvado]

Well, I'd propose something like :

*Rewards are hand crafted and scanned ( or made on a digital media directly with a digipen ) and sent by e-mail to those that choose that. Perhaps an easier solution would be to just post them on a website for download for everyone ( I have allways felt that art is for sharing ).

*And obviously if there's a lot of people putting out donations you would have to put up some fair way to who gets and who does not get any art , You spend a lot of time on the game and I think most of us would be ok with you two putting up some terms or picking randomly between donators instead of dedicating more time on art and stories than on the game itself.

Just my five cents.

[Orange Wizard]

I don't think there is a fair way of doing it. Either Toady and Threetoe spend more time/money on rewards and less on the game, or people don't get their rewards.
Though that's the way it's always been done, and it hasn't been a problem thus far (I think?) so this might be a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

If the amount and cost of rewards is a problem, perhaps raising the baseline amount needed for a reward (say, $2.50 instead of $1)? It's still in the realms of pocket change, and I'm sure people won't mind if it means the whole thing is less taxing on you.

[Showbiz]

Although I'm not sure what is meant by counted together -- for an individual, reward-wise, or for the Bay 12 Report?  The Bay 12 Report is going to be a total of everything that came in that month from whatever source.  Rewards from PayPal and Patreon are considered separately, and we're still considering how to best handle things like story continuations -- we haven't promised that people would get a new crayon art reward every month, though a few people have asked for clarification ($1/month wouldn't cover postage/materials in that case).  At the same time, PayPal people get story continuations and so on.

Our priority is that absolutely everybody that wants a reward gets one, regardless of contribution amount, and we'll have to consider multiple rewards after that.  So far, the number of reward requests we've received is manageable (kind of like a major release worth's), but we'll probably have to come up with some way to handle continuations that is fair to every kind of contribution type while still saving enough time for writing the game.  We'll probably be in flux on this until we land on something decent, but it seems like satisfying the baseline one-time reward requirement is going to be straightforward, at least.  Those are already in the pipeline for anybody whose first Patreon payment has cleared (I still have 100 pending that'll get their emails when they clear).  We'll be sure to have any update posted well before the next cycle.

That answers my question, thanks again.

I don't think there is a fair way of doing it. Either Toady and Threetoe spend more time/money on rewards and less on the game, or people don't get their rewards.

Hehe, I find it kinda ironic (but absolutely understandable!), that the donators who are trying to support the game, actually might slows the development process down. Nowadays people think that if you throw money at something, that it's going to grow faster:

What I would like to know is if I donate money will I see more productivity and organization as a result.

Well, thanks to the the money, Toady can work on the game fulltime. Produktivity is as good how it gets. But most importantly, donations are keeping DF alive.


I hope that was grammatically correct and understandable

[skyte100]

... You guys do know that Toady has a maths phd and used to teach at uni, right? I think he's got the mathematician skill down already...

It rusted.

[Inarius]

It reached 3000 $ today ! Which is good, after 1 month and a half.

EDIT : It reached 4000$ on the 09/25/2015.
EDIT : It definitively went above 4000 after May 2016
EDIT : It reached 5000 $ in March 2017
EDIT : It reached 6000 $ in August 2018
EDIT : It reached 7000 $ in March 2019
EDIT : It (briefly) reached 8000 $ in March 2020

[Meph]

Not sure if already suggested:

What about (optional) contributor badges for forum members as additional reward? I think that whould boost the donations.

//: slightly offtopic:
I don't understand what the storyreward is.
Also I don't know how to receive an award, respectively how to choose one.
Your help is greatly appreciated!

Here are some examples of story rewards: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/ASCII_Art_Reward
The first cycle of Patreon payments is clearing now, and we're just waiting for the interface to let us send out the emails.  It might not be possible until all of the payments clear, which could be a few days still.  We'll keep people posted.

I'm not sure about forum badges -- a similar idea was floated for people that contributed through PayPal some years ago, and I think we decided we didn't want to divide the forum people up into groups, in the same way we've resisted added moderators and lots of post count distinctions (though we have the one).

In case people are wondering: Baughn has the one.

[Putnam]

"The one" was referring to post count distinctions (bay watcher), AFAIK.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

In case people are wondering: Baughn has the one.

How in the world did he get that title, anyway?  Can't be entirely about moderator status, as Kurtulmak, Johnathan S. Fox, piecewise, and Mephansteras are as well on select boards.

[Putnam]

He's a contributing programmer. IIRC, the SDL code was written primarily or entirely be him, or something along those lines.