While your right in that there is self interest driving a lot of these posts, (mine too of course) that does not mean there is no fairness issue.

Your argument can be applied infinitely, there will always be people who just heard of the competition, and all the applications will be getting better as time passes, with no end.Yet, it would not be fair if the competition were to be moved back 2 years (I'm not suggesting that google will actually do this, it's purely hypothetical). Why is that?  Several people have already brought these points, I'm just reiterating.

1. Peli put this well, but the money issue. Unless Google also increases the prize money, it means we will be doing more work for the same amount of money (probabilistic expected return, actually less, since more applications will be entered) Economically, an extension is the same as google cutting the prize money, would this be fair? 2. Developers made economic decisions as to how much time they could put into this competition, I know I've missed freelance jobs as I wanted to put time towards my android application and was under time pressure. I've planned and developed based on a time frame with a distinct and hard end, I don't think my girlfriend would be happy if I spend another month ignoring her to work on the application for less reward. Arguments that I can just leave my application for the extra month don't make sense as that again greatly decreases my chances and therefore the value of the work I've already done. Yes its a prize based competition with no garentuee of reward, but if there were no money, there would certainly not be as many developers, it obviously means something. Assuming 5,000,000 in reward, and a 1/1200 chance of winning (hopefully less :) but probably not significatly more). I can expect to make about 4,000 from participating in this competition. With another month of work and more applications, this decreases while my hours spent increase. I'm not happy about my hourly worth being retroactively decreased. 3. What is fairness except for for the idea that people are gaining advantage, unbalancing the game?

The main point here is that my expected salary is being decreased retroactively, and it forces me to either decide to walk away from any potential reimbursement or to continue working for the lowered rate. I also completely agree with tomgibara. Weekend developers (like me) or even people just entering are not gaining an advantage here, but losing it.

There is a second competition, I'm planning to enter it with a few new applications I'm just starting. While my current application could use more time, I don't want it, if it's not finished thats that, and it will be good for the next one; I don't expect it to be at 100%, or even 70, it's a large scope, hopefully the judges will still be able to get an idea of it's potential, they are giving out grants to fund further development after all.

An extra 2 days announces on March 1 I would like, but definitely not another week.

I appreciate being asked, Rob

On Jan 23, 12:17 pm, "Shane Isbell" <shan...@gmail.com> wrote:

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