7 ms·

I’ll write you a Slack bot in return for a $5K donation to ScriptEd

150 points by dopeboy 9y ago

BeccaScriptEd 9y ago
Chiming in as a rep of the nonprofit - happy to answer questions about our work! We operate in NYC, San Francisco, and Oakland. We're also looking for a few more volunteers to teach web dev in high schools - and especially in Oakland! Apply in the Bay Area at https://bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer https://bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer or in NYC at https://www.scripted.org/volunteer https://www.scripted.org/volunteer !
- mvexel 9y ago
  Do you have plans to scale out? I'd volunteer time but I'm not near any of the cities you currently work in. (For others who are in the same position -- inquire with your city / church / local refugee support org, you may find there are similar local initiatives for refugees.) Also, this being (I assume) a weekday daytime commitment, do your volunteers get typically get their teaching time 'donated' by their employers?
  - BeccaScriptEd 9y ago
    Hi! We don't have formally announced plans to scale - though if you send me a message at becca@scripted.org I can chat with you more. I'm fairly well connected with other orgs nationally that I might be able to recommend to you, depending where you're located! Some of the companies our volunteers work for have paid volunteering time included as part of employee benefits - however that amount of time is usually 1 day / month, which is less than the amount of time we ask people to volunteer (2x a week, for 1.5 hours each session). Most commonly, our volunteers employ some flex time and make up the hours they spend with us by either coming in to work earlier, or staying late. It does require manager / company support to get approval to do so, however!
pudo 9y ago
I work as a software developer for an NGO and we sometimes get coders who want to volunteer their time to us. Quite frequently, this turns into a lot of overhead for us with little to show for. Given the choice, I'd prefer this model. Donation cash is the sweetest thing an NGO can have, and doing development work in exchange for a donation like this seems like a really cool way to raise it.
- fooker 9y ago
  >Donation cash is the sweetest thing an NGO can have Also involves the least amount of transparency and not much assurance that the cash is not going directly into the pocket of someone.
hawkice 9y ago
Honestly, I like this model a lot, but I think the focus is like 2:1 charity:slackbots, where I'd like to see the reverse. For example, more examples of slackbots you've made, how long it might take you, and maybe throwing in the app store thing unless that's a big deal, so businesses can get the value out of the bot as simply as possible. Basically, I would recommend focusing on value instead of the charity (despite the fact the charity is the most delightful part -- it's still a price point businesses need to be _sold_ on, not just pitched on).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- DKnoll 9y ago
  Getting something on an app store is publishing, not quite the same as writing it which is all he's offered. If you're publishing the bot you'll also need continued support and development, something nobody would throw in for a flat 5k. Would you like him to come up with the idea and market it as well? ;)
- dopeboy 9y ago
  I really appreciate the feedback hawkice. Totally get that. Will do that for the follow around. To answer some of your questions: * I made the bot for my startup [0]. It supports interactive messages (buttons, dropdowns), slash commands, and @ commands. Put another way, I use (and have knowledge of) pretty much all parts of the Slack API. * You're getting a backend with the bot. This backend could just save stuff into a database or do more sophisticated things. * I'm happy to work with the non-profit, ScriptEd, on some content marketing material so that the person or company that sponsors this gets public recognition. * Timing - I'm doing this in tandem with other things. Obviously depends on what I get but let's say roughly 2 months. * We're pretty close to getting our startup's app in the app store. I'm happy to help with this process now that I'm more familiar with it. [0] - http://braidhq.com/ http://braidhq.com/
  - Gys 9y ago
    Nitpick: at the bottom of braidhq it says '2016' ;-)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
koolba 9y ago
Is $5000 a good deal for this amount of work?
- tjbiddle 9y ago
  It says on the page that the scope of the bot has to be within reason of what someone would bill $5000 for normally.
  - PascLeRasc 9y ago
    But are slackbots actually made/sold and billed for amounts like that?
    - stephengillie 9y ago
      Depending on what else the Slack bot does, it could be just a few hundred lines, in addition to a premade Slack bot framework to streamline the API calls. I was on a team that built a Slack bot in Powershell - she announced the number of incident tickets from each team's Zendesk queue, in the respective team's Slack channel. This helped drive awareness and SLAs. Leveraging our team's in-house Powershell modules for Slack, Zendesk, and other internal Powershell tools meant the bot was only several hundred lines - not much more than a foreach with a config file.
    - iamjaredwalters 9y ago
      Very simple equation my friend: hours spent making the bot * hourly rate. The total depends entirely on the complexity of the request.
      - krick 9y ago
        It's not even remotely a good answer. You may charge $200/hour and take a week to build simple HTML/JS web-page (portfolio/landing sort of thing, for example). Good for you, but no way I'm paying you 8000 bucks for something that some school kid can make for me for $20 and an hour. Unless you are a brand and can charge whatever the fuck you like for your work — things typically have a cost. You know how much a cup of coffee costs, a laptop, a car, a house. Chatbots and web-pages have their market price as well. (And FWIW, I don't know, maybe it's ok kinda price in USA, but to me all this doesn't sound like a $5000 deal.)
adam_seeliger 9y ago
Oh god. Another social justice coder.
dopeboy 9y ago
Honored this made it to the front. Happy to answer questions here.
- rhcom2 9y ago
  Simple and to the point offer, I applaud you for what you're trying to do.
hoistbypetard 9y ago
I like this. A long time ago I offered to add features to TortoiseCVS (that alone probably tells you how long ago it was) for people who would donate (much less than $5000) to a charity that was important to me. I did it because at the time the TortoiseCVS build system was a PITA to get working, I had already gotten it working to offer patches that would scratch my own itches, and most of the other requests I saw on the mailing lists were not hard. It garnered a few (promises of) donations... I never did follow up to see if the charities I specified had gotten them. But I was young and happy to do the patches anyway, so it felt like a bonus.
sudhirj 9y ago
This is a good idea, but the execution is distracting. What are you selling me, a slack bot or the pleasure of donating to charity? What I’d suggest instead is a clear message of “high quality slack bots for a flat 5000” and a prominent note that all proceeds go to the charity. Maybe you could also mention that when it comes time to pay, you’d like me to pay the charity directly, but you don’t have to lead with this. The charity is the icing on the cake, but you’re building the cake on icing.
- SCAQTony 9y ago
  I suggest he sell the "sizzle not the steak." What could a slack-bot do to make my life more better or different?
- nolite 9y ago
  It's not a tiny detail. It's not tax-deductible if someone pays directly. It has to go straight to the charity
  - endorphone 9y ago
    >It's not tax-deductible if someone pays directly It would be an expense and would ergo be 100% tax-deductible (e.g. a reduction on $5000 of taxable income). There is another aspect relating to whether the firm gained an asset but that applies to both scenarios. This makes no sense as a tax scheme.
    - nolite 9y ago
      This only works if you're a business. Individuals can't deduce expenses... (I wish)
kpatrick 9y ago
OP might want to check the tax implications of this e.g. Joe Louis.
endorphone 9y ago
Just to clear up a bit of confusion, the company making the donation has no tax advantage over just paying this guy directly. In many jurisdictions there would be a tax disadvantage. Add that many firms would never engage in such a relationship because it has a confusing, legally dubious compensation and accountability structure. Further, why not just charge the $5000 and donate it yourself? Why the gimmick? https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2015/10/01/the-gradual-demonization-of-money/ https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2015/10/01/the-gradual-dem...
- jordan801 9y ago
  I think the presumption is the tax incentive. I wonder if setting up something like "gofundme" but for this sort of transaction, would simplify accountability. So you donate/pay X, a non-profit organization, then they send the work to one of their contributors to build. This way you don't have the, "I paid so and so, but for something some other person built".
devtesting 9y ago
Honestly, I did not like that at all. How about the people who need that $5K and want to write a bot to get food for their family? If someone is willing to buy that bot, they will be more inclined to pay you to do that since is "charity" than the dev who need food. If you want do donate, it's OK donate as much as you want for anyone, but brag/sell your services for charity just degrades our profession.
sweep4r 9y ago
So I donate $5000 and in return you push more HTML/JS developers to the market, making me getting paid less? Well, what a deal!
- parzivalm 9y ago
  I find it somewhat hard to believe that helping some less fortunate schools teach coding is really going to have a negative impact on your pay. But by all means keep bashing something that is actually doing some good.
  - adam_seeliger 9y ago
    It's hard for you to believe because you've been influenced by SJWs. There is no good about this, at all. So what, you try and teach a bunch of inner city kids that don't want to be there how to program. By the time they even finish the class they have already been arrested by their probation officers for violating probation. The program is useless. Yeah, maybe one or two students will be successful in the class -- but that doesn't make the program worth it. I have news for you, those students would have found such a path another way.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

150 points by dopeboy 9y ago

Chiming in as a rep of the nonprofit - happy to answer questions about our work! We operate in NYC, San Francisco, and Oakland. We're also looking for a few more volunteers to teach web dev in high schools - and especially in Oakland! Apply in the Bay Area at https://bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer https://bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer or in NYC at https://www.scripted.org/volunteer https://www.scripted.org/volunteer !

mvexel 9y ago
Do you have plans to scale out? I'd volunteer time but I'm not near any of the cities you currently work in. (For others who are in the same position -- inquire with your city / church / local refugee support org, you may find there are similar local initiatives for refugees.) Also, this being (I assume) a weekday daytime commitment, do your volunteers get typically get their teaching time 'donated' by their employers?
- BeccaScriptEd 9y ago
  Hi! We don't have formally announced plans to scale - though if you send me a message at becca@scripted.org I can chat with you more. I'm fairly well connected with other orgs nationally that I might be able to recommend to you, depending where you're located! Some of the companies our volunteers work for have paid volunteering time included as part of employee benefits - however that amount of time is usually 1 day / month, which is less than the amount of time we ask people to volunteer (2x a week, for 1.5 hours each session). Most commonly, our volunteers employ some flex time and make up the hours they spend with us by either coming in to work earlier, or staying late. It does require manager / company support to get approval to do so, however!

pudo 9y ago

I work as a software developer for an NGO and we sometimes get coders who want to volunteer their time to us. Quite frequently, this turns into a lot of overhead for us with little to show for. Given the choice, I'd prefer this model. Donation cash is the sweetest thing an NGO can have, and doing development work in exchange for a donation like this seems like a really cool way to raise it.

fooker 9y ago
>Donation cash is the sweetest thing an NGO can have Also involves the least amount of transparency and not much assurance that the cash is not going directly into the pocket of someone.

hawkice 9y ago

Honestly, I like this model a lot, but I think the focus is like 2:1 charity:slackbots, where I'd like to see the reverse. For example, more examples of slackbots you've made, how long it might take you, and maybe throwing in the app store thing unless that's a big deal, so businesses can get the value out of the bot as simply as possible. Basically, I would recommend focusing on value instead of the charity (despite the fact the charity is the most delightful part -- it's still a price point businesses need to be _sold_ on, not just pitched on).

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
DKnoll 9y ago
Getting something on an app store is publishing, not quite the same as writing it which is all he's offered. If you're publishing the bot you'll also need continued support and development, something nobody would throw in for a flat 5k. Would you like him to come up with the idea and market it as well? ;)
dopeboy 9y ago
I really appreciate the feedback hawkice. Totally get that. Will do that for the follow around. To answer some of your questions: * I made the bot for my startup [0]. It supports interactive messages (buttons, dropdowns), slash commands, and @ commands. Put another way, I use (and have knowledge of) pretty much all parts of the Slack API. * You're getting a backend with the bot. This backend could just save stuff into a database or do more sophisticated things. * I'm happy to work with the non-profit, ScriptEd, on some content marketing material so that the person or company that sponsors this gets public recognition. * Timing - I'm doing this in tandem with other things. Obviously depends on what I get but let's say roughly 2 months. * We're pretty close to getting our startup's app in the app store. I'm happy to help with this process now that I'm more familiar with it. [0] - http://braidhq.com/ http://braidhq.com/
- Gys 9y ago
  Nitpick: at the bottom of braidhq it says '2016' ;-)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

koolba 9y ago

Is $5000 a good deal for this amount of work?

tjbiddle 9y ago
It says on the page that the scope of the bot has to be within reason of what someone would bill $5000 for normally.
- PascLeRasc 9y ago
  But are slackbots actually made/sold and billed for amounts like that?
  - stephengillie 9y ago
    Depending on what else the Slack bot does, it could be just a few hundred lines, in addition to a premade Slack bot framework to streamline the API calls. I was on a team that built a Slack bot in Powershell - she announced the number of incident tickets from each team's Zendesk queue, in the respective team's Slack channel. This helped drive awareness and SLAs. Leveraging our team's in-house Powershell modules for Slack, Zendesk, and other internal Powershell tools meant the bot was only several hundred lines - not much more than a foreach with a config file.
  - iamjaredwalters 9y ago
    Very simple equation my friend: hours spent making the bot * hourly rate. The total depends entirely on the complexity of the request.
    - krick 9y ago
      It's not even remotely a good answer. You may charge $200/hour and take a week to build simple HTML/JS web-page (portfolio/landing sort of thing, for example). Good for you, but no way I'm paying you 8000 bucks for something that some school kid can make for me for $20 and an hour. Unless you are a brand and can charge whatever the fuck you like for your work — things typically have a cost. You know how much a cup of coffee costs, a laptop, a car, a house. Chatbots and web-pages have their market price as well. (And FWIW, I don't know, maybe it's ok kinda price in USA, but to me all this doesn't sound like a $5000 deal.)

adam_seeliger 9y ago

Oh god. Another social justice coder.

dopeboy 9y ago

Honored this made it to the front. Happy to answer questions here.

rhcom2 9y ago
Simple and to the point offer, I applaud you for what you're trying to do.

hoistbypetard 9y ago

I like this. A long time ago I offered to add features to TortoiseCVS (that alone probably tells you how long ago it was) for people who would donate (much less than $5000) to a charity that was important to me. I did it because at the time the TortoiseCVS build system was a PITA to get working, I had already gotten it working to offer patches that would scratch my own itches, and most of the other requests I saw on the mailing lists were not hard. It garnered a few (promises of) donations... I never did follow up to see if the charities I specified had gotten them. But I was young and happy to do the patches anyway, so it felt like a bonus.

sudhirj 9y ago

This is a good idea, but the execution is distracting. What are you selling me, a slack bot or the pleasure of donating to charity? What I’d suggest instead is a clear message of “high quality slack bots for a flat 5000” and a prominent note that all proceeds go to the charity. Maybe you could also mention that when it comes time to pay, you’d like me to pay the charity directly, but you don’t have to lead with this. The charity is the icing on the cake, but you’re building the cake on icing.

SCAQTony 9y ago
I suggest he sell the "sizzle not the steak." What could a slack-bot do to make my life more better or different?
nolite 9y ago
It's not a tiny detail. It's not tax-deductible if someone pays directly. It has to go straight to the charity
- endorphone 9y ago
  >It's not tax-deductible if someone pays directly It would be an expense and would ergo be 100% tax-deductible (e.g. a reduction on $5000 of taxable income). There is another aspect relating to whether the firm gained an asset but that applies to both scenarios. This makes no sense as a tax scheme.
  - nolite 9y ago
    This only works if you're a business. Individuals can't deduce expenses... (I wish)

kpatrick 9y ago

OP might want to check the tax implications of this e.g. Joe Louis.

endorphone 9y ago

Just to clear up a bit of confusion, the company making the donation has no tax advantage over just paying this guy directly. In many jurisdictions there would be a tax disadvantage. Add that many firms would never engage in such a relationship because it has a confusing, legally dubious compensation and accountability structure. Further, why not just charge the $5000 and donate it yourself? Why the gimmick? https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2015/10/01/the-gradual-demonization-of-money/ https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2015/10/01/the-gradual-dem...

jordan801 9y ago
I think the presumption is the tax incentive. I wonder if setting up something like "gofundme" but for this sort of transaction, would simplify accountability. So you donate/pay X, a non-profit organization, then they send the work to one of their contributors to build. This way you don't have the, "I paid so and so, but for something some other person built".

devtesting 9y ago

Honestly, I did not like that at all. How about the people who need that $5K and want to write a bot to get food for their family? If someone is willing to buy that bot, they will be more inclined to pay you to do that since is "charity" than the dev who need food. If you want do donate, it's OK donate as much as you want for anyone, but brag/sell your services for charity just degrades our profession.

sweep4r 9y ago

So I donate $5000 and in return you push more HTML/JS developers to the market, making me getting paid less? Well, what a deal!

parzivalm 9y ago
I find it somewhat hard to believe that helping some less fortunate schools teach coding is really going to have a negative impact on your pay. But by all means keep bashing something that is actually doing some good.
- adam_seeliger 9y ago
  It's hard for you to believe because you've been influenced by SJWs. There is no good about this, at all. So what, you try and teach a bunch of inner city kids that don't want to be there how to program. By the time they even finish the class they have already been arrested by their probation officers for violating probation. The program is useless. Yeah, maybe one or two students will be successful in the class -- but that doesn't make the program worth it. I have news for you, those students would have found such a path another way.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]