Thanks to you and the EA Giving Tuesday team for the detailed instructions! I’ll just share my experience in testing to donate just now:
I followed all the instructions and was able to practice making a $5 donation, and the time registered was 9:50:03. I clicked the Donate button when I saw the clock hit 9:50:00. Is 3 seconds good enough, or should I aim for the donation to send within 1 or 2 seconds? The practice document says to “Try to donate fast enough that you see receipts with timestamps ending with :02 or :03 at the latest.”, but your post says to aim to do it within one second.
The only instructions I didn’t follow were the advice of connecting a mouse and using a wired internet connection. I was fairly confident with my trackpad-clicking skills, and sure enough, I was able to click as the clock hit :00. I don’t know if using a wired connection would have made a difference.
Also, when I made the donation, it took a full 8 seconds before Facebook told me my donation was successful. But when I checked my email, the donation said 9:50:03 and not 9:50:08. I think other people will probably experience the same thing.
My Wifi download speed was around 21 Mbps and my upload speed was around 4 Mbps. If anyone was able to donate within 0:01 or 0:02, let me know! I’m from Manila, so that might affect my donation speed too.
Hi Brian. Thanks for the feedback and letting us know about your experience.
So, in our testing from the US this year, we’ve seen that donations made at :00 on the dot typically generate receipts with :02. It seems plausible that being in Manila is causing longer than expected delays. Though if you’ve only tried one $5 donation, perhaps you could try a few more of them?
It’s also normal for Facebook to take much longer to return a “Thank you for your purchase … ” than it shows up in your receipt. I’ll make a note to clarify this in our practice instructions.
When we say “try to donate within the first second,” we’ve left that a bit vague, to avoid being too verbose. However, it seems that this language may be confusing. Do you think maybe a footnote would help? Or do you have other suggestions on how we could make it more clear what we mean?
Thanks for the reply! I’ll see if I can try one more test donation.
Regarding donating within the first second, I think that sentence would turn away people who were only able to donate within 2 or more seconds. It also sounds really hard at first to donate within the first second. I think it should be communicated that someone who follows the instructions, which should take only 10-20 minutes of pre-work, should be able to donate within 2-3 seconds. That might encourage more people to try joining in!
Thanks Brian, I updated the ‘US, $500 or more’ instructions page with a note that “Someone who follows these instructions, which should take only 10-20 minutes of pre-work, should be able to donate within 1-3 seconds.”
We updated it again with different language, hopefully incorporating the spirit of your feedback. We didn’t want to discourage people who were willing to put in more time (say an hour or more) from putting in that much time by mentioning “10-20 minutes”. Many donors would benefit from much more time spent preparing and practicing.
Thanks to you and the EA Giving Tuesday team for the detailed instructions! I’ll just share my experience in testing to donate just now:
I followed all the instructions and was able to practice making a $5 donation, and the time registered was 9:50:03. I clicked the Donate button when I saw the clock hit 9:50:00. Is 3 seconds good enough, or should I aim for the donation to send within 1 or 2 seconds? The practice document says to “Try to donate fast enough that you see receipts with timestamps ending with :02 or :03 at the latest.”, but your post says to aim to do it within one second.
I followed all the instructions for the practice donation and the suggestions on preparing your computer, including closing all other apps and tabs, using an incognito Google Chrome tab (to switch off Chrome extensions), putting https://time.is/just side by side with the donation page, and clicking donate as soon as I saw the clock reach the next new minute.
The only instructions I didn’t follow were the advice of connecting a mouse and using a wired internet connection. I was fairly confident with my trackpad-clicking skills, and sure enough, I was able to click as the clock hit :00. I don’t know if using a wired connection would have made a difference.
Also, when I made the donation, it took a full 8 seconds before Facebook told me my donation was successful. But when I checked my email, the donation said 9:50:03 and not 9:50:08. I think other people will probably experience the same thing.
My Wifi download speed was around 21 Mbps and my upload speed was around 4 Mbps. If anyone was able to donate within 0:01 or 0:02, let me know! I’m from Manila, so that might affect my donation speed too.
Hi Brian. Thanks for the feedback and letting us know about your experience.
So, in our testing from the US this year, we’ve seen that donations made at :00 on the dot typically generate receipts with :02. It seems plausible that being in Manila is causing longer than expected delays. Though if you’ve only tried one $5 donation, perhaps you could try a few more of them?
It’s also normal for Facebook to take much longer to return a “Thank you for your purchase … ” than it shows up in your receipt. I’ll make a note to clarify this in our practice instructions.
When we say “try to donate within the first second,” we’ve left that a bit vague, to avoid being too verbose. However, it seems that this language may be confusing. Do you think maybe a footnote would help? Or do you have other suggestions on how we could make it more clear what we mean?
Thanks for the reply! I’ll see if I can try one more test donation.
Regarding donating within the first second, I think that sentence would turn away people who were only able to donate within 2 or more seconds. It also sounds really hard at first to donate within the first second. I think it should be communicated that someone who follows the instructions, which should take only 10-20 minutes of pre-work, should be able to donate within 2-3 seconds. That might encourage more people to try joining in!
Thanks Brian, I updated the ‘US, $500 or more’ instructions page with a note that “Someone who follows these instructions, which should take only 10-20 minutes of pre-work, should be able to donate within 1-3 seconds.”
Thanks! I don’t seem to see that note in that link or on the gdoc though?
We updated it again with different language, hopefully incorporating the spirit of your feedback. We didn’t want to discourage people who were willing to put in more time (say an hour or more) from putting in that much time by mentioning “10-20 minutes”. Many donors would benefit from much more time spent preparing and practicing.