As some of you may be aware, my birthday is coming up soon. I'd like to say
publicly the same thing that I've said several years running: if I didn't
get a present for you, don't get a present for me. I have plenty of stuff
lying around - way too much, in fact. Ying has been busily EBaying off the
things that we don't use, and we're not close to halfway done.
However, I realize that these words are an empty gesture, especially to my
family, who are routinely generous and wonderful to me regardless of how
callous and awful a person I am. So for those of you who are hell-bent on
making something of this most recent anniversary of my birth, I will stoop
to a new low with this suggestion. Send money:
.
I'll put down the self-deprecation for a moment and explain. A major source
of anxiety for me these days is the state of the Twisted project's direction. I know there
are several things that need to happen to push it to the next level of
success, and there are plenty of people who only need a little bit of
encouragement to do those things. However, I am spending most of my time and
encouragement on another project right
now, and it doesn't look like I'm going to get a reprieve any time soon.
I've also got a personal deal with myself that I'm not going to spend any
more of my own monetary resources on Twisted until something related to it
has made me a millionaire ;-).
There has been plenty
of discussion recently on the mailing list about problems with the
project's public presence, even some specific
recommendations about soliciting donations.
It would make a terrific gift for people to put some money towards this
goal. It would encourage me personally to go out and write up some
explanations of what needs to be done, secure in the knowledge that I'll
actually be able to incent other peoples' contribution of time and my effort
writing those
specifications wouldn't be wasted. Ultimately, It would take a huge
burden off my mind to see Twisted's progress towards my goals for it get
unstuck.
By the way - since I'm asking for this as a gift, not as an official fund
drive, I'm not going to post public statistics or fundraising goals or
anything like that. If I had the time and energy to do a real fund drive I
probably wouldn't be posting anything more than that initial paragraph. In
fact, if there are a lot of donations I will probably contribute some of
them towards the work required for setting up such a drive.