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<div id="newHeader" style="font-size: x-small; padding:1em;
background-color:rgba(220,220,240,0.4); border-radius:3px;"> <b>To:</b>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Tb-planning@mozilla.org">Tb-planning@mozilla.org</a> - <a>tb-planning@mozilla.org</a> <br>
<b>From: </b>Jim Porter <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:squibblyflabbetydoo@gmail.com"><squibblyflabbetydoo@gmail.com></a><br>
<b>Sent: </b>Friday, 24/10/2014 18:17:51 18:17 GMT ST +0100
[Week 43]<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Summit Part 2: Funding -- How get attention
for a "donation"
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<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 10/24/2014 01:44 AM, Axel Grude (Axel) wrote:
> I haven't heard people complain about the "Go" menu item although probably
> very few use it.
The "Go" menu item isn't in the primary UI for Thunderbird, unless you
go through the effort of enabling the menu bar.
> It is an important function to raise money for the
> product and there is no inconvenience or change of workflow attached.
But there is an inconvenience. You suggested having the icon animate
"every 20 minutes". People's brains are hard-wired to notice animations,
and we shouldn't be writing software whose intent is to distract the
user. Email is distracting enough as it is.</pre>
</blockquote>
then leave out the animation. even leave out the blue background or
tone it down. the point is to have a permanent way to donate which
is visible (and not hidden in a submenu). And can be configured away
- maybe with a simple checkbox. IMO the hamburger menu is too
obscure - I am a power user and practically never use it (Ok I know
that the main menu comes up when I hit ALT and have it shown most of
the time - I use the caption for functions as well:<br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part3.07010506.07060202@gmail.com" alt=""><br>
<br>
Since I am old-school I have written an addon MenuOnTop to give
different styling options for the menu, so I have a slightly
different approach. Having said that, I believe all systems have
some untapped screen space at the top. <br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">> If you find Wikipedia asking for money to fund themselves obnoxious (not
> 3rd party advertisements) it sounds to me you prefer a product that is
> funded by nobody or people who are interested in your private
> information.</pre>
</blockquote>
Okay forget about that remark that's a bit of a red herring even.
That was more of a personal attack written in the heat of the
moment. <br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
Wikipedia's campaigns are obnoxious because they're *designed* to be
obnoxious. I'd have much less of a problem with it if the campaigns were
just a short one-line message at the top of the page that could easily
be ignored by folks who don't care. (At least they always have a close
button.)</pre>
</blockquote>
Don't forget that they greatly impacted the usability by using prime
estate on the page.<br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Wikipedia's model doesn't make much sense for us anyway, since Wikipedia
doesn't know where their users will land (they can't just put a donation
advertisement on the front page, because who visits the front page?).
Thunderbird, on the other hand, starts in a predefined state.
> If you gave the hardliner "free as in beer" users an option to configure
> it away (without userChrome or <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="about:config">about:config</a> hacks) in order to retain
> the probably very low number of users that cared, would you then agree?
I'd probably shut up about it, if that's what you mean. But I wouldn't
agree that it's a good idea. I'd like to think that we could do better
than that to raise awareness of the fact that Thunderbird needs money.</pre>
</blockquote>
But how, without being jarring?<br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
For instance, one often-suggested feature for Thunderbird is a "home
tab" that would effectively replace the first 3pane as the primary tab.
It would have an aggregate of all your accounts (and calendars?), and we
could easily have a "Thunderbird news" widget that talks about things
Thunderbird users might care about (e.g. new features, tips of the day,
bug bashes, fundraising campaigns, etc).</pre>
</blockquote>
SOrt of like a "Kiosk"? I am not sure if I would like this so much
as I really find the 3pane essential - it is the first thing I
expect when I open Thunderbird; I want to see my mails at first
glance.<br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> This gives people a reason to
look at this section in the first place, and makes it useful beyond just
being a plea for money. However, even then, I think it should be easy
for any user to hide this message; if being made aware that Thunderbird
needs money doesn't convince them to donate, nagging them sure won't help.</pre>
</blockquote>
This is true. Buit that's exactly why I thought the maybe
10*30pixels "tucked away at the top" would be less obtrusive as they
do not get into way of the workflow? <br>
<br>
Of course it is also a matter of taste - I quite liked the orange
Firefox button, and was sad to see it go again.<br>
<br>
Microsoft made a terrible mistake with their main menus in Visual
Studio 2012 by UPPERCASING them (probably some plan to do with
Metro-isation); I actually think my suggestion was much less
radical.<br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
That said, I think corporate support contracts would probably be a much
more reliable source of money, since like it or not, most home users are
going to be perfectly happy with webmail (which, we should remember, is
free*). Corporations, however, are used to paying for things. Our
primary competitor in this field would probably be Outlook, which is
very much not-free. This model seems to have worked well with the
various Linux distros that use it, at least in the sense that they're
still operating and can afford to employ people.</pre>
</blockquote>
we are on the same side here and a "corporate or subscribed" version
would of course not need the donation menus. However coming up with
a subscription model & implementation seems like a daunting
task... even I am little afraid of the backlash. It would have to be
100% foolproof + user friendly.<br>
<br>
Axel<br>
<blockquote class=" cite" id="mid_544A89BF_3050901_gmail_com"
cite="mid:544A89BF.3050901@gmail.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
* Obviously that's because the user is the product being sold, but most
people don't care about that. If they did, ad-supported sites wouldn't
be the norm.</pre>
</blockquote>
true. That's the one way of monetization I am really really scared
of.<br>
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