Donating money question
#1
First, let me say to all of the great people here

XBMC is brilliant, just bloody brilliant

I am simply amazed at all of the stunning apps, skins, etc.. that everyone does. It just boggles my simple mind.
It by far exceeds, WMC, Media Portal, and all others IMHO

So my question is this, if I want to donate to the XBMC Project, how does it work? Do the monies go into a general fund? Do skin developers profit from it?

Nothing would make me happier than to see XBMC be the number one Home Entertainment Experience in the world.
And since, I lack the technical expertise to contribute, I would like to at the very least, add my two cents worth somehow. I just didn't quite know where the funds go.

While, I had difficulty deciding which skin to use, do skin developers share in donations or can I contribute to them directly in addition to XBMC as a whole.

Thanks again and please, please keep on persuing and developing this.
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#2
If you donate to team-xbmc (http://xbmc.org/contribute/donate/) it will go into a general fund.

The skinners do not share in this fund, its only for Team-XBMC. So if you wish to donate to them you need to do that directly to them.

Cheers,
Tobias.
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"Well Im gonna download the code and look at it a bit but I'm certainly not a really good C/C++ programer but I'd help as much as I can, I mostly write in C#."
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#3
Though I am not sure of all the specifics, if you read through this thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94447

you will get a few hints about what different things the donations are used for.
In one post there is mention from a developer about an ipad being purchased and sent to Jezz-x, to design a skin for it.
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#4
As far as what we spend the money on, it's:

1. Conferences + Travel. We try and attend a bunch of opensource conferences (LinuxTag, SoCaL, Linuxconf etc.) in order to spread the word about XBMC but also to meet with others in the opensource world. So we pay for our developers to get there, their accommodation etc. Nothing fancy - just the basics Smile. We also have flyers and posters to print, shirts to arrange and so on.

2. DevCon. Once a year we have a developers conference. Normally we try and get specific sponsorship for this, and have been fortunate over the past 3 years to get sponsorship to cover all or part of this with Boxee or at-visions. Usually there's still a significant chunk that the XBMC foundation covers - air travel is not cheap.

3. Hardware. We try and make sure our developers have suitable hardware - our current technique is buy-as-we-go in addition to having a couple of hardware rounds a year. Sometimes we get sponsored hardware, so ofcourse this is great. Other times we buy retail. The thread that dtviewer links to shows a specific donation drive, organised by a user, that has resulted in an iPad and a Mac Mini being purchased for specific devs to assist with the iOS effort. I suspect that more will be purchased as part of this for other devs.

Note that, in addition to the donations that users make, we often get larger donations in the form of sponsorship from companies - these are listed on the homepage, and are our main source of income, particularly for devcon.

You're welcome to "earmark" any donation you wish to make for a particular cause, and we do try and take that into consideration when distributing funds. However, we make no guarantees about that, as often it is just not practical (eg we don't tend to give money to developers in order for them to spend time coding something - usually there just isn't anywhere near enough to cover that sort of thing.)

Cheers,
Jonathan
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#5
thank you all Smile
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