Thanks for the additional explanations @Ankit_Matth
For the purposes of fairness and clarity, I will say that the proposal period is closed and I will be evaluating the proposal as uploaded to the platform by April 8th. Anything else would be unfair to the other participants.
For the reasons outlined above, I will not be selecting your project, as I am not confident we would both have a successful and pleasant GSOC based on the proposal and out interactions.
That being said, I always tell prospective students that the proposal period itself is a very valuable experience regardless of the outcome, and a huge learning experience.
There is a lot of learning to be had, be it on the technical front or with regards to learning how open-source teams operate, and to a smaller degree the professional world in general.
Your proposal period was no different in my opinion, and I could see improvements to your proposal and attitude throughout.
I am available if you want any more detailed feedback that I havenāt mentioned in this thread, or if you have any questions.
2 Likes
@mr_monkey Thank you so much for your thoughtful response, and for taking the time to guide me throughout this entire journey. While I am naturally disappointed, I completely understand and respect your decision. I truly appreciate your honesty and fairness in treating all applicants equally.
That said, Iāve learned a lot throughout the entire process and improved many of my skills and qualities thanks to your valuable feedback. Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Iāve gained insights into open-source collaboration, Calibreās internals, effective communication, and especially the importance of deeper research and providing full, clear context.
One major lesson Iāve taken away is how incomplete information can overshadow a lot of efforts.. These lessons will stay with me no matter where I go next.
Iām still genuinely excited about contributing to BookBrainz and plan to continue exploring and contributing in any way I can, even outside of GSoC.
If you have even a little time, I would be incredibly grateful if you could share a brief summary of your final feedback such as what you saw as my strengths, weaknesses, and key areas for improvement. Iād love to use your insights to grow further and ensure I donāt repeat the same mistakes.
Lastly, now that thereās no pressure of GSoC selection, I just want to say transparently: I truly did not use any LLM for generating code or ideas in my updated proposal. Any formatting choices or writing styles were simply my own attempt to be polite and structured. I realize I made some avoidable mistakes, but they were my own, not generated.
Thanks again for everything 