Hello,
thanks for the feedback, and let me shed some light to this from my
point of view.
The donation page as it is today, shown during the moment of download,
is the result of some extensive research and discussion with other free
software projects, and it has been very well received, not only from the
donation side, but also from the way it outlines why we need financial
support, and what we do with the money.
Where we definitely have room for improvement, and it's in fact
something on our todo list, is to provide some better graphical overview
on how we spend the money, what projects and areas we cover - which is
something that will also be featured in the upcoming annual report.
As for the link to the financial reports, I have been using
mail-archive.com as they, in contrast to our own archives, provide a
search functionality. Sadly, it indeed seems we need to adjust the
search string a bit, as Thorsten has been posting updated ledgers also
after February 2013. ;-) Accounting has become much more work the last
year, and I am very thankful to Thorsten for carrying the burden on the
topic so far - his free time is spare as well, so ledgers take some time
to be published. Since a few days, we have handed over the 2014
accounting to a professional accountant, and I expect we get timely
reports from them, which we will then make public as well.
Looking at the number of donations, and the number of questions we
receive with regards to donations, the rate is fairly well below 1%. So
I think we do not have a general problem with the page. Over time, we
have gradually improved it in its design and wording, and it clearly
states, in many languages, that donations are purely optional, that
LibreOffice is free of charge, and also provides a link to the direct
download in case something goes wrong.
Like with several other pages - the mailing list unsubscription
instructions, the fact that mailing lists posts are public, and the note
that neither info@ nor our phone number are a support line - every now
and then it happens people have issues and don't read what we write.
When we are made aware of this, we help out, we explain, and - even if
that is a pain accounting-wise and eats a chunk of time - generously
refund donations if people have problems.
I hope that sheds some light on the overall process. I think no matter
what we do with the page, there will always be people who do not read
even a highlighted text, which can lead to confusion, independent from
how the page is designed or worded.
I personally would not change the download mechanism for the reasons
outlined - however, if you have concrete proposals on what to improve,
on how the wording should be changed, I am more than happy to hear and
incorporate them.
Thanks,
Florian
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