Please do not feed the troll. Thanks.
----- Original Message ----- > From: Shannon Jacobs <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: > Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2012 12:51 AM > Subject: Would like to help, but... > > Feels like I should start by saying that I'm actually one of those weirdos > who used to pay for shareware and such. I admit that I mostly used the > freely available software freely and without paying for it, but there were > also a number of times that I paid for the premium versions, and even a > couple of times when I paid the ransom after the free trial period had > expired. Unfortunately, I never felt that I got more by donating and in > most cases the programs in question soon disappeared anyway. I mostly > concluded that competent programmers aren't going to stay with that > economic model. My best guess is that some of them were hoping to strike it > rich, but they didn't, so they gave up. However, why would I want them to > help them strike it rich, even if their program was great? I don't Las > Vegas economic models, either. > > Meanwhile, I hate the anti-freedom anti-choice policies of Microsoft, > Apple, Oracle, and increasingly the google, too. However, their economic > models work. > > I would prefer to support you with some money, but I still doubt you'll > survive. Actually, the Sun fiasco has had me using LibreOffice most of the > time these days... > > What I would like is an option to pay by the feature on a small project > basis. I would buy one or more shares in features that I wanted, where the > project budget would include such things as testing and programmer time, > etc. The new features would be selected as enough people agreed to pay for > them. The structure I would suggest would actually leave you holding the > money as a kind of charity stock brokerage. Some of the projects might > involve support in various forms, of course. > > However I've been advocating this sort of thing for some years. The closest > thing I've seen is Kickstarter, but they seem to be completely lacking in > project management. My suggestion would be more like "reverse auction > charity shares". Unless someone does something like that, I'm not > likely to > donate again... I'm convinced the economic model is as important as the > software. > > > -- > Freedom. It's about meaningful and unconstrained choice, not beer. >
