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[Rowanas]

I wonder who does his tax returns and all that. I'm not exactly swimming in cash, but I wonder if there are any useful talents that the community has that might be useful to him. Plus, it'd give him more time to spend working on DF, making everyone happier. I'd give up a bunch of hours to help him out with irritating busywork in lieu of filthy lucre.

[Danarca]

I'd offer up some cash if I thought it'd actually affect how quickly the game came fully into it's next incarnation.  But I don't believe it would, and my more imminent concern is to wonder if Toady isn't just gettin tired.  buckets of money don't help that at all.  Just sayin.

Well it is like the saying "Money doesn't buy happyness"

People also point out "Neither does poverty"

Of which I am brutally aware.  I drool every time I see the montly donation #s.  They're usually twice what I can pull in with this economy. :p

cфmэ tф thэ gяэдt sфciдlist pэфplэ's kiиgdфm фf Dэиmдяk, шэ gэt 2500 dдnish kяфиэя дt lэдst fфя tдkiиg thэ эducдtiфиs!

....
Anyways, I presume you live in America? :p
There really isn't wrong with a sprinkle of socialism...
In Denmark the tax rate lies between 42% for they poorest, to 68% for the elite. The worlds highest.

But then we get free libraries, free health care, the elder won't have to pay to stay in a nursing home or get helpers to come to their houses, school are free for the children, and any education you take as an adult is also free.
Not only is it free, you get paid for taking an education, with the so called "SU" ("Statens Uddannelsestøtte"; "The state's educational support")!
I'm on an IT line, and get what surmounts to $500 since I in the eye of the law still live with my mom (Long story), if I lived by myself I would get about $1000 a month.

And besides an education you can get a job
And you don't start paying taxes until there's $5000 in your bank account, an amount a young student probably don't have.

So, yeah.
I don't know why I came with that outburst, I'm tired like hell and should be sleeping, but something rages me the way the american people are hurting themselves and other americans by completely rejecting the idea of any sort of socialism..

..
I'm going to bed, good night everybody :p

[G-Flex]

I don't understand why you'd think he's getting tired.  Is there something about the massive visibility he provides into his process and progress that suggests this?

I think it's mostly just that it's fairly clear that Toady is kind of frustrated with how long this release is taking.

I wouldn't say he's "tired", just maybe tired of not having this current release done.

[Timst]

It's common knowledge that scandinavian countries are the best countries in the world, tough. I mean, it's not like they aren't in the top 5 of every single (positive) world ranking... (HDI, health care, education, etc.)

Seen from wester europe, they look like snowy paradizes where everyone live in eco-friendly houses made of wood and glass and use their electric car to drive to their workplace (which is always Nokia or Ikea, for maximum cliché worth :p)

[Danarca]

It's common knowledge that scandinavian countries are the best countries in the world, tough. I mean, it's not like they aren't in the top 5 of every single (positive) world ranking... (HDI, health care, education, etc.)

Seen from wester europe, they look like snowy paradizes where everyone live in eco-friendly houses made of wood and glass and use their electric car to drive to their workplace (which is always Nokia or Ikea, for maximum cliché worth :p)

Heh
Even though we hadn't had a weeks worth of snow a year for the last 7 years or so in Denmark because of the silly weather.. =/
Norway is pretty rad though, they produce electricity through dams, which they of course export, so they actually got a bank account where they put all the extra cash at the end of the year.

[olemars]

Norway is pretty rad though, they produce electricity through dams, which they of course export, so they actually got a bank account where they put all the extra cash at the end of the year.

Nah, we get the money from exporting lots and lots of oil, which we use to buy electric cars and hybrids or put in the big bank account. The hydro power is nice too of course but the cash cow is the oil.

[Danarca]

Norway is pretty rad though, they produce electricity through dams, which they of course export, so they actually got a bank account where they put all the extra cash at the end of the year.

Nah, we get the money from exporting lots and lots of oil, which we use to buy electric cars and hybrids or put in the big bank account. The hydro power is nice too of course but the cash cow is the oil.

Ah alright, my old.. Societal Teacher? Brought up the hydro-dams as the main example :p

[Sunday]

Heh.  I'd love to live in a Scandinavian country. . .except for the weather.  I don't know if I could deal with a month or two without the sun.

I don't get the opposition to "socialism" over here in the US either - I mean, really, we already have some "socialist" institutions (libraries, police, fire departments, army, etc. - would you really want a privately funded army?  Or fire department*?), and they work well enough, so why not expand it to things like health care? 

Whatever.  In any case, more on topic, I should be able to donate the beginning of next month.


*See Marcus Licinius Crassus, who made a lot of his money by going to burning buildings, buying them and surrounding buildings for rock bottom prices (if they didn't sell the property he'd just let them burn), and then putting the fires out.

[Wintrow]

30 bucks are on their way via PayPal. The Doe's are lagging behind though.

Here in The Netherlands we're exporting natural gas. So untill that runs out we're using a setup similar to Denmark.

[Aqizzar]

Thank you for your generosity Wintrow.

The rest of you, the thread is for donation, not international willy waving over whose country is betar.

Knock it off.

[platypus]

We should be closing in on three big ones!

I am thankful for Dwarf Fortress.

[Aldaris]

I am afraid we won't make it past the $8999,99 mark, then. Ah, well, that will probably have to wait for the next major release after the incorporation of a good UI and something Stonesense-like into the main game.

[Sevrun]

I don't understand why you'd think he's getting tired.  Is there something about the massive visibility he provides into his process and progress that suggests this?  Because to me it sure looks like he's well on track to finish, and just has a month or so of well-defined tasks to work through until the release.  Whether that happens exactly by the end of the year or not is a pointless distinction.  Also, his attitude as we've seen at meetups and heard in interviews is positive and energetic: "I always want to work on the game," "I'm doing what I want to do," etc.  So, no need to invent worries when they stand contrary to all evidence.

And please remember that while Toady's donation numbers may place his income higher than some on this forum, he still makes way less than what he would earn in the marketplace for the skills he has (seriously, it's easily less than half, and that's ridiculously conservative).  Also remember those are raw numbers; he has to deal with taxes, lack of health insurance, business expenses, etc. out of that.  It's a larger chunk when you're self-employed.

I know, I know... It just seems like he's slowing down, which I know is due to the massive amount of work he's doing, and likely not just on DF.  Money had almost nothing to do with my original concern (sorry I'm easily dis-  ooh shiny.)  I'm also not very good at making myself understood in short posts, so I'm royally screwed in the Twitter age.
  ANYway, my original concern was that he may feel like we're trying to pressure him into hurrying a release.  Which and correct me if I'm wrong, is the entire point of the thread.  I'd rather not push him into balking at doing something he clearly enjoys.  I'm wishing him done as much as everyone else...  but I think it's more important that he enjoy the work than it is for us to get immediate gratification.

  I'm sure there were other posts similar to the one quoted above that I as yet have not read, and I do apologize if my point is still unclear.  Just can't seem to keep my thoughts in order these days.

[Footkerchief]

It just seems like he's slowing down, which I know is due to the massive amount of work he's doing, and likely not just on DF. 

You really think so?  He's been making very steady progress through Squads and Entity Positions this month.  Last month seemed slow because there weren't many updates, but that was because he was working on the underground and didn't want to spoil it by giving details (although he clearly enjoys working on that part of the game).  I'm the least worried I've been for this entire dev cycle.

ANYway, my original concern was that he may feel like we're trying to pressure him into hurrying a release.  Which and correct me if I'm wrong, is the entire point of the thread.  I'd rather not push him into balking at doing something he clearly enjoys.  I'm wishing him done as much as everyone else...  but I think it's more important that he enjoy the work than it is for us to get immediate gratification.

There is pressure on him, yes.  The point of this thread, though, is to relieve the perceived financial pressure (from low donations in October).  For some people, that means they're expressing frustration in an unusual way.  Others just want to show support.  Most of the pressure on Toady probably comes from him knowing, whether or not his fans tell him, that 16 months between releases is way too long.  Ultimately this thread is a gesture of support and he's not going to take that the wrong way.

[Neonivek]

The problem with judging if Toady is speeding up and slowing down is that it is all about perspective.

If Toady suddenly added twenty new creatures to the game and then wrote a story based off of them, your likely to believe he did a lot. If starting making the new code more efficiant and bug free and he said he was working on his code you might think he did little.

The reason he seems to do less, for reasons other then he may or may not be doing less, is because he is doing less reportable activities. I mean honestly do you want him to explain every line of code he does in a day?