Ok, the PyDev crowdfunding has just finished -- and it reached its basic goal :).
The funding was divided in a series of perks, 610 people contributed and the final distribution for them (monetary-wise) was:
- Altruist: 1.5% (Thank you)
- Early adopter: 17.95% (LiClipse regular license -- no access to betas)
- Believer: 11.92% (LiClipse regular license -- access to tracker and betas)
- PyDev Knight: 23.48% (Get a vote in the PyDev tracker and contribute only to PyDev itself)
- Oracle: 22.61% (LiClipse perpetual license)
- Bronze Sponsor: 2.86% (10 regular licenses)
- Silver Sponsor: 19.68% (10 perpetual licenses)
I must say that the funding changed quite a bit. Initially there was no PyDev Knight perk (which is a perk targeted only towards PyDev, whereas the others are targeted at PyDev and LiClipse). So, this was the result of listening to feedback and adjusting the campaign (also, initially I didn't put enough details on PyDev and added to much emphasis on LiClipse -- which is something adjusted during the campaign).
There is also one thing I failed to check properly before : Paypal fees are not the same everywhere. Here in Brazil it's 7.4% + 0.3US$ (whereas in US it's 2.9%+0.3US$). So, in the end, 12% went to Paypal/Indiegogo, whereas I was planning something around 8% (and there are still taxes to pay, but this is something to be expected anyways, so, in the end the net result for me will be something as 73% -- but just because I have a company setup for that, had I done it as a person it'd be around 63% here in Brazil -- I just hope the government does use it's share properly -- grin).
I still think it was worth as a way for a one time funding as everything is already setup and to know if there's interest before starting it -- which I think is the main point of a crowdfunding campaign: discover if something is viable before delving into it (not that failing on a crowdfunding is always a sure sign that something won't work, but in this specific case, with a product that is already mature, and with an existing community, I think it's how I'd see it).
Also, during that process I've set up a new tracker at
https://sw-brainwy.rhcloud.com for both PyDev and LiClipse. It's a tracker I had done for fun some time ago (and yes, I know it's one of the seven sins of a programmer), but as I'd have to customize any solution for what I want, I think it's nice. The idea is that anyone will be able to create tickets and comment on those, but for voting which tickets will be done next you'll have to become a PyDev Knight (I still haven't sent the access for existing PyDev Knights to vote, but I'll do it during the upcoming month -- as you can see, I still have some things to set up).
A note on the tracker: it's hosted on RedHat's OpenShift, and it's called Brainwy because that's the company I created to keep PyDev going :)
Mainly it's a Javascript-based tracker where it's easy to see the whole picture and move things around. If you're curious, you can use an offline version at
https://sw-brainwy.rhcloud.com/demo/, because as a user in the PyDev/LiClipse trackers you won't really be able to move things around, just add ticket, comment on existing ones and vote (once you have a vote) -- you can use it as much as you want, but note that I don't plan on adding support to it or actually distributing it differently -- I've already enough supporting PyDev and LiClipse :)
All in all, it was definitely a good outcome and it was nice having so much support from so many people!
Thank you everyone!
Fabio
