we first need a central repository for project donations instead of only individuals
Hi Paul,
Yes I was wondering whether that meant Rick might be running off to the
bar for the evening without inviting the rest of you ;)
On a serious note though, you *should* make a prominent donation spot on the SM website. All of us benefit from your software, whether directly as users or through sales to our own clients as hosts. It's a very small thing to give $50 for that.
Yes, there have been numerous discussions about doing this, and SourceForge even made it easier by allowing projects (not just individuals) to take donations through their donation system. Unfortunately, that also means figuring out WHO takes/manages the money (we live all over the world), WHAT happens with the money, HOW to manage and share the money, WHERE the money should be kept (central bank account?), etc. etc. Most of the developers are already busy enough and there are no easy answers to these questions, so the conversation simply has not really been fleshed out. Maybe people in the community have ideas they can add.
I was thinking about this recently in light of the whole Wordpress
incident. It seems OpenSource has just become another word for 'free'
for most people and I know from working in shareware many years ago -
the vast majority of people do not contribute.
Indeed. With the endless hours that some developers contribute to these kinds of projects, that can feel pretty unrewarding and it really burns if you think about it. However, OpenSource software continues to flourish, suggesting that money isn't the motivating factor, and I REALLY like the idea that we aren't doing this just to chase money around.
If every user of Wordpress had donated just $1 a year, I'm sure Matt
never would have considered that method of raising funds. That's hardly
a lot of money for a blogging system you use on a daily basis (The cost
of 1 can of coke?) I imagine the effect on the development process would
be rather dramatic as well.
Anyway - good luck with your fundraising for the conference (http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/en_US/SquirrelMailConference) and get that donate button up there!
Heh, well that page and that idea are several years old now, and I think it is not going to happen any time soon. :)
- paul
------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click -- squirrelmail-users mailing list Posting Guidelines: http://squirrelmail.org/wiki/wiki.php?MailingListPostingGuidelines List Address: [email protected] List Archives: http://news.gmane.org/thread.php?group=gmane.mail.squirrelmail.user List Archives: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=2995 List Info: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users
