Refthoom
5th August 2003, 23:29
This rather long (sorry) post is about something that bothers me and I wonder if something can be done about it. Maybe this is not the right place for it, but I know it'll be most read here ;-) Anyway, on to my rant.
Lately, I see more and more people asking for donations on their site. I think this is a good thing. After all, most of these people have costs while giving (much of) their spare time by either helping in the forums or making software. However -imho- I don't see it as a very effective way to get some money. I think there's a better way. It's a bit like having your own doom9-RIAA! LOL Read on...
What if there would be a single, general, 'doom9-donation-fund' (ddf) to which all that wish to do so, could donate money through Pay Pal or the like. Then, the money in this ddf is distributed to all software-authors that have 'joined'.
Now, any author could apply to join this ddf by submitting his/her software through the usual ways, mostly the doom9 forum I guess. Doom9 would than place this 'applicant' on a designated page of the site. Visitors of the doom9 site would then have to vote for this author's software and give a rating, based on their experience with the software. When the author receives a certain amount of points'n'votes, he is accepted into the fund.
Next, assuming people would actually donate some money, the funds would have to be devided in a fair way. The fairest way in my mind would be, again, by a user-rating system. This means that when someone would want to donate money, he/she would go to the donation page where all the softwares/authors are listed. There, he/she would give one or all a rating according to their liking and than make their donation. Of course, this list could also contain doom9 and the forum moderators. In this way, one donation will be split according to the rating each person receives. Perhaps doom9 could get a fixed percentage, for hosting it all ;-)
Now why, you might ask, would this work better than each to his own?
- Well first of all, lots of people come to doom9. No author alone attracts the number of visitors doom9 does, especially because most softwares can be dl'd from his site.
- Secondly, all these visitors could now donate not just to one or some, but to all contributors here at once. They would not need to go to different sites, make separate donations, go through all the pages and forms and stuff like that. Just one donation for all.
- Thirdly, when one makes a donation, Pay Pal and the likes will subtract a commission from the donated amount. If someone donates to five people, he would pay this commission five times. However, in this scheme, he would only pay this commision once and still get his donation to all five. So, more money goes to the authors.
- Fourthly, there may be contributors who don't have their own site and/or the knowledge to set up their own Pay Pal account. This way these contributors would also get a fair share for their efforts. The same applies of course for the forum moderators.
- Lastly, it is a way to say thank you to all who contribute at once, for all of their efforts through the ratings.
Now of course I realise that to be able to do this, many many things would have to be organised and carried out before it would work. But I know that there are many people here with many talents who can help to set this up in a way that it works well. And of course the rules and all that stuff would have to be decided and refined right here in the forum first. And the whole thing would have to be in an open fashion, so that anybody can join, leave, donate or view the ratings. et cetera.
Anyway, I'm just curious if there are other people here that think this is a good idea and would like to help set this up.
Lately, I see more and more people asking for donations on their site. I think this is a good thing. After all, most of these people have costs while giving (much of) their spare time by either helping in the forums or making software. However -imho- I don't see it as a very effective way to get some money. I think there's a better way. It's a bit like having your own doom9-RIAA! LOL Read on...
What if there would be a single, general, 'doom9-donation-fund' (ddf) to which all that wish to do so, could donate money through Pay Pal or the like. Then, the money in this ddf is distributed to all software-authors that have 'joined'.
Now, any author could apply to join this ddf by submitting his/her software through the usual ways, mostly the doom9 forum I guess. Doom9 would than place this 'applicant' on a designated page of the site. Visitors of the doom9 site would then have to vote for this author's software and give a rating, based on their experience with the software. When the author receives a certain amount of points'n'votes, he is accepted into the fund.
Next, assuming people would actually donate some money, the funds would have to be devided in a fair way. The fairest way in my mind would be, again, by a user-rating system. This means that when someone would want to donate money, he/she would go to the donation page where all the softwares/authors are listed. There, he/she would give one or all a rating according to their liking and than make their donation. Of course, this list could also contain doom9 and the forum moderators. In this way, one donation will be split according to the rating each person receives. Perhaps doom9 could get a fixed percentage, for hosting it all ;-)
Now why, you might ask, would this work better than each to his own?
- Well first of all, lots of people come to doom9. No author alone attracts the number of visitors doom9 does, especially because most softwares can be dl'd from his site.
- Secondly, all these visitors could now donate not just to one or some, but to all contributors here at once. They would not need to go to different sites, make separate donations, go through all the pages and forms and stuff like that. Just one donation for all.
- Thirdly, when one makes a donation, Pay Pal and the likes will subtract a commission from the donated amount. If someone donates to five people, he would pay this commission five times. However, in this scheme, he would only pay this commision once and still get his donation to all five. So, more money goes to the authors.
- Fourthly, there may be contributors who don't have their own site and/or the knowledge to set up their own Pay Pal account. This way these contributors would also get a fair share for their efforts. The same applies of course for the forum moderators.
- Lastly, it is a way to say thank you to all who contribute at once, for all of their efforts through the ratings.
Now of course I realise that to be able to do this, many many things would have to be organised and carried out before it would work. But I know that there are many people here with many talents who can help to set this up in a way that it works well. And of course the rules and all that stuff would have to be decided and refined right here in the forum first. And the whole thing would have to be in an open fashion, so that anybody can join, leave, donate or view the ratings. et cetera.
Anyway, I'm just curious if there are other people here that think this is a good idea and would like to help set this up.