[only1hammy]

"Waving money about" is a pretty cynical attitude to have.  The goal here is to get this done; if you have a better idea, please tell us.

We can all have our own opinions of course, I think its "cynical" that just because people want something done, then money is the way to do it. I think if no one has shown interest so far, considering 18 has been ongoing for a long time then I think no one will be in a rush to pick this up. As you have rightly pointed out yourself, it needs someone to take ownership just to get it picked up by the right person, that in itself will be an arduous task, does someone need paid for that ?

You also say you are "about solutions" but you do not have one, so it is meaningless, I am about details in this case, if people donate, and the person cannot do it due to issues, do people get a refund, who decides how long it takes etc, who decides on a timeline ?. I think it is a precarious road to go down and will lead to disaster, hence why the usual route is someone starts something, then people with an interest donate after BETA 1 etc. It may sound negative, but as I said previously look at all the feedback from when KODI 18 came out, today's generations are so full of people with entitlement that even with a free product the way people react is scary.  

Does someone need paying for it?  No, but it's been speculated that the original dev doesn't have an interest in maintaining the project, so the current situation is we are left 'hoping for the best'.  A bounty is a way of incentivizing development.  NOTE: I have consistantly used the word "bounty" which is not the same as "donation".  A bounty is paid upon completion of a task, in this case, like I already said, the definition of "completion" would need to be agreed upon before we accept funds or have a dev start work.  From a selfish perspective, providing a functional 18.x with madVR support is what I would describe as completion, but the bounty holder and community would need to discuss this further and come to an agreement.

I don't have enough trust here to be the bounty holder, so I can't answer the "refunds" question.  I would expect anyone who had donated to an unclaimed bounty be fully refunded, and that anyone donating to such a cause realizes these things can take time.  A good point would be that maybe no developer would be willing to put the work in on a promise of receiving the bounty, but from a personal perspective I would be putting this to people I already have a relationship with.  There would need to be a level of trust on both sides, I guess.  Agree about entitlement, hence this "non-solution" as you call it