Personally, I really like seeing the usernames. I am fine with limiting donations to the 2k if that helps with lag. I think these huge donation dumps of 40k items are a bit insane.

I'm guessing that most of us aren't aware of what goes into programming or how much time and effort it requires to rewrite an entire page of code. Regardless, I have to join with most and say that I very much enjoy seeing the user names on the items.

On the other hand, I rarely even remember that the DC exists, so in the long run, what am I actually missing?? If it came down to losing out on so many other aspects of the site that ARE important, the truth is that the DC is not a priority. I had to think that thru for a few minutes but I consider myself to have fairly good logic, even if I'm completely clueless about programming.

I just took the time to go through all the posts and here's my say in it:

First of all, I have no idea about programming but I'm aware that you can certainly spend an unnecessary time in something that doesn't improve the site drastically. So if this is the case, I'd suggest keeping the DC like it is and just remove the two items in the bottom row. Or add two items, whatever, just make it divideable by two. (Sorry, OCD.)

But: Yes, I do prefer user names showing, because of many reasons. Often valueable items are mixed with less valueable items. As I'm certain nobody here can tell them all apart it does help to pick the former when there's for example an announcemt at the forums that someone is leaving and therefore mass donating, which happens. If it's not possible to have user names shown at the first page it would be nice to show them after you picked an item. I second all the reasons why that where already mentioned before. I also love the idea of being able to choose if your donation will be anon or not.

For a long time, we have had one or 2 items sitting in the DC and it said "this item has already been taken", while it stubbornly remained there even after a dozen refreshs. So the DC isn't "live" anyway.

I like the usernames but ultimately they aren't super necessary. The point of giving should be the giving and not getting something out of it. If there is no healthy way of keeping the names it wouldn't bother me to see them go.

Editing to add that when it comes to the question of "do you want programmer time and energy spent on bringing the usernames back" my answer would be: not right now. I agree with Keith that at the moment there are bigger fish to fry. Right now the DC is working with minimal lag and that's great. People can still donate and or get stuff while more important stuff is worked on (like debugging holidays, working on new subeta, and dealing with day to day problems that pop up). This is a much better solution than taking the DC down altogether (which is a route that could have been taken). I would prefer this be something that gets worked on sometime in the future if time permits.

If you want people to refresh less to lessen queries may I also suggest limiting the amount of identical items that show at one time?

I think usernames are unnecessary.

I prefer seeing the usernames too. I like to 'happy birthday' people and thank anyone I get something nice from.

I prefer seeing usernames, but if it's too time consuming to bring them back I would be fine with that idea going on the backburner as there are bigger fish to fry and only so many hours in the day, haha. I also support the idea of only revealing the name when you actually take an item, too, if that is at all easier or less stressful on the site's resources.

i wanna see the donators please

I wanna see the namess

Yes, just eliminate the donors' names. It is not necessary to see who dumped what into the Donation Center.

I have been roaming around the site since the change, and I am not having problems with lag at all. Thanks for the fix. I am not a fan of having usernames attached to items in the Donation Corner, especially if it will cause the horrible lag times. I am running out of books to read, while waiting for pages to load. 431 Users currently online and no lag. Sweet.

My vote is definitely to keep the usernames please.

Also, someone mentioned the ability to choose to remain an anonymous donor and that would be a nice option (if possible).

What else would you suggest people do when they quit? They're quitting, they don't have time or a reason to put all that stuff in a shop and keep updating prices.

Personally, I have another issue with the Donation Centre. I like to go check it out, but when I see really cool stuff in there, like CWs or SBQ or Collection Items, the fact that you can't hover and right-click account search for those items makes me sad, because I do not want to take DC items that I already have that someone else might like, and I have a really huge wardrobe.

As far as usernames, I vote for not having them. There is a huge possibility of hurt feelings after Lumi if 4 people buy you the same present and you put 3 of them in your shop. Sometimes there are items you need to get rid of but you don't want anyone else to know you are doing it. Or you just want to give something awesome and expensive away but you don't want people to feel indebted to you. And there are items you can't frag, like 170 Challenger Loots, even if they're worth almost nothing and you don't want them anymore.

did the hearts get cleared out again?

Okay, after all the hearts are gone now I think it shows to much items now. It's hard to process. I'd vote for going back to 16 or 20 at least.

Many times those huge dumps are random donations of low cost items from "item drives". Well intentioned, but lag inducing and annoying.

What happened to those thousands beyond 2k items? they can't all have gone over night. DC is empty already.

Probably they'll add some more candy hearts in the morning. We must be aware that it's still very early in the US.