[Foundation-l] Fundraising "Bugging for Dollars"

[Thomas Dalton]

On 20/03/2008, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sure they weren't serious - if something is a valid bug... It should be
>  fixed without regard to whether folks decide to pay to get it fixed. Feature
>  requests should be implemented as they can be, based on factors completely
>  unrelated to whether some folks want it enough to pay for it. That should
>  pretty clear, if you think about it.

It's not a new idea - other open source projects have implemented
systems where people can pledge money to have a particular bug fixed
or featured added and whoever does the fix gets the cash. It's a good
way to motivate coders to do the bits people want done. I don't think
it would work for MediaWiki, though - we don't pay people to edit
articles, so why should we pay people to patch the software? Having
the money go to the foundation seems pointless - what does it achieve?
Are people really going to be that motivated to fix a particular bug
rather than the bug their interested in just so the foundation gets a
small donation?