Delirium wrote:
"I'd propose the first thing we do with a spare 400 euro is identify four important software changes that need to be made, and put bounties on 100 euro on each of them."
Doiny any serious programming for $100 is almost equivalent to doing it for free. What incentive would that be?
If we would pay serious money for any software activity our current cash reserves would be gone in no time. At the moment developers are rewarded with an occasional 'thank you'. Singling out tasks that are important enough to pay a token sum, would only muddy the waters.
Erik Zachte
--- epzachte@chello.nl wrote:
Doiny any serious programming for $100 is almost equivalent to doing it for free. What incentive would that be?
If we would pay serious money for any software activity our current cash reserves would be gone in no time. At the moment developers are rewarded with an occasional 'thank you'. Singling out tasks that are important enough to pay a token sum, would only muddy the waters.
Why not just provide direct links to the PayPal accounts of every active developer who has contributed x amount of code on the Foundation's fundraising page? Kinda like a tip jar. I was planning on asking the developers about this soon anyway.
And/or we could also have a separate software development PayPal account that we could offer bounties from (the current PayPal account would be for general fund expenses - mostly server related). On top of that, we could have a legal defense fund account as well.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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Daniel Mayer wrote:
Why not just provide direct links to the PayPal accounts of every active developer who has contributed x amount of code on the Foundation's fundraising page? Kinda like a tip jar. I was planning on asking the developers about this soon anyway.
And/or we could also have a separate software development PayPal account that we could offer bounties from (the current PayPal account would be for general fund expenses - mostly server related). On top of that, we could have a legal defense fund account as well.
I like this approach---let the people giving the money decide where to spend it. We could have various funds: * A server fund * An advertising fund * A developer-compensation fund * A specific-software-feature bounty system * An administrative expenses overhead fund (office space, travel, etc.) * A print-version-expenses fund
This would be a lot better, IMO, than going the normal route of non-profits and having a gigantic slush fund, which is both less transparent and engenders less donator confidence, especially given that over time a larger and larger percentage of the money in such slush funds tends to be siphoned off to things less and less directly related to the actual mission of the nonprofit. I know I personally don't donate to most non-profits, and advise others not to donate to them, because I know they eat a huge percentage of their budgets (often over 30%) in paying themselves salaries, plane tickets, restaurant meals, and so on. Documented transparent donations are another matter altogether: if people can donate $50 to a server fund, and be sure it will be used to buy servers rather than someone's lunch, that's much less shady.
In the limited cases we've tried it, this seems to have worked out pretty well. If the Foundation had given Brion money to buy a notebook, that would've been a little bit questionable. It would've been defensible, given his enormous contributions to the coding and sysadminning and so on, but it still would've been questionable. But since instead people decided separately if they wanted to give their personal money to Brion to buy a notebook, then there's really no controversy, and everything is completely transparent and above-board.
-Mark
--- Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
... I like this approach---let the people giving the money decide where to spend it. We could have various funds:
- A server fund
- An advertising fund
- A developer-compensation fund
- A specific-software-feature bounty system
- An administrative expenses overhead fund (office space, travel, etc.)
- A print-version-expenses fund
Too many funds will result in donor confusion/indecision and a headache for people who have to track it all (me so far). Three funds (general, developer, and legal) along with good budgeting and telling people upfront how their money from each fund will be spent, is all we need. 10% of the general fund, for example, could be set-aside for overhead (board member meeting and office expenses). Another 10% of the general fund could be set-aside for special projects.
Having a fund for everything will make managing the finances of the foundation an inflexible nightmare. Only broad categories should be used to segregate funds. We can, however, try to find the best mix of items to have in each broad category.
This would be a lot better, IMO, than going the normal route of non-profits and having a gigantic slush fund, which is both less transparent and engenders less donator confidence, especially given that over time a larger and larger percentage of the money in such slush funds tends to be siphoned off to things less and less directly related to the actual mission of the nonprofit. ...
"Slush fund" is derogatory. Why in the world would you assume our finances would be conducted in *ANY* way other than in a transparent manor? I plan to publish information on *EVERYTHING* the foundation spends money on and have already been working in this direction with the limited amount of information Jimbo has had time to spend me.
A good budget is the only component that has not been started on yet (just some rough outlines on what it needs to consist of - no real specifics). I am a bit insulted you would assume anything less from the board members and for the work I've already done in this direction (and plan to continue helping with and expanding on if the board decides to create a financial officer position and have me fill it).
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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