[akr884]

I'm curious if people, especially people involved with XBMC development could give me feedback on this: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddrrgv5m_2dw5f7rck

It's kind of a formal proposal with a couple of mark-ups to try to give an idea of how it will look.

Basically, I want to develop something where projects can raise money for the project as a whole of for specific development areas/different categories of project needs. I think it could be good as a way to raise money and present the project and its goals in a way that's easier for a user to engage than the forums or development channels. I'll leave it at that for now and stick around in case anyone has any questions/interest/ideas/comments. Thanks a lot, and I apologize if this is the wrong place to put this, but I want to get some feedback before I dive into this.

[jamespcole]

I like the idea, as a guy that donates a fair bit of cash to open source projects i think it would be really useful to see where the money is going and to allocate it to specific sub projects.

[theuni]

This has been discussed ad infinitum and we have decided on each occasion not do it. In theory it's a nice idea, but it's one that doesn't pan out in practice (with our program/community anyway).

If you really wish to discuss this, please do it in appropriate section of the forum. This is meant for dev only.

TheUni

Sorry to butt in here. I knew this wasn't the place for it, but I'm a little desperate for feedback before I try to develop this idea.

Would you mind if I copied what you said over to the thread I have on the general topics forum before you moderate my comments into oblivion?

And just for the record, I think it would be an idea I would want to talk to sourceforge or some meta-project about so that individual projects could put in place with minimal effort - so that each project wouldn't have to re-invent the wheel and maintain their system. Just trying to get feedback here because I use XBMC a lot and really appreciate the work that you all do.

FYI, Sourceforge already has a donations module available for each project. We are opted out, as we manage donations on our website instead.

TheUni

[akr884]

I've looked through a few of the most popular sourceforge projects, and maybe it's just how the projects choose to use the donate module, but the module doesn't look like anything more than a donate button. I don't know if you have a couple of minutes to check out the mark-ups I made, but the idea I have is for a module that could be expandable and take in donations for xbmc as well as all of the projects and possible development ideas that integrate into xbmc.

The thing that I see is that the donate button and even announcements on the front page are backward looking. I think that a donate/fund raising page that tried to raise money for extending/maintaining/optimizing the project and integrating in more plug ins and compatible devices could be a way to showcase forward looking project goals and try to get community support for specific, continued development. If you let people donate towards say, getting a controller client similar to the iPhone and Android ones onto WebOS, maybe you would get some support with people with WebOS phones as opposed to a project-wide donation button. People get to see clearly where the project is heading or thinking about heading and maybe they would be more compelled to donate towards specific goals.

I was thinking about the ways that people have historically funded art, to try to put this idea in a broader context. People can purchase a piece of art, which is the commercial exchange everyone's used to. People can give money after they've seen a free performance, which seems like the best analogy for a donate button. But people also did and do patronize the arts, funding artists that might not have even gotten off the ground, or supporting established artists to produce new works. I think that maybe the idea of individual patrons of free software could have a place between for-profit businesses and volunteer enthusiasts in developing these projects.

Does that sound at all compelling?