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Donations
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(I am laying out these notes as we have been offered a donation out of
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the blue, and were quite unprepared to receive it - kate)
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Accepting donations is tricky. TenDRA is currently a tiny development
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team, and the code-base is in flux. We're not currently in need of more
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hardware or hosting.
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Donations would not be anywhere near enough to employ a developer
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full-time.
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One thing I certainly want to avoid, is the promise of money swaying
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the project's goals. We are not here to implement something for the
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good of any particular commercial entity (if it helps them, great,
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but that's a side-effect). We're here to produce a good compiler.
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So, the question is what can we do with small donations?
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* Petty Cash for Conferences - We don't go to any conferences, so
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that's out.
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* Food - We have food. (Those of us on the continent more-so!)
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* Books - We have books, to the best of my knowledge.
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* Bounties per feature added - This interests me, as it's the only
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proposal that I think fits.
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These seem to work well for other projects. The going rate is a few
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hundred or thousand dollars per feature, depending on complexity.
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Features may be suggested by users, but ultimately decided upon by
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developers.
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One reason bounties appeal to me is that I believe they can justify
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the time spent by a prospective developer who is interested, but
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can't afford to spend time on helping. Money can help justify that
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time spent.
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Now, we absolutely cannot justify bounties on features until our code
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base has settled down. Currently it's an utter mess. So, this will have
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to wait - probably several months at the minimum.
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Therfore, I'm proposing that we do accept donations, and keep hold of
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them to be put towards bounties in the future, when we're able to (and
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when we've decided on which additions would be suitable! I'm guessing
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things like adding support for new architectures would be appropriate).
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As an aside, Eirik has pointed out that adding a PayPal button to the
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website looks like begging; I don't believe we're actively requesting
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money. In fact, this is the first time I've ever given thought to it!
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which is precisely why I'm writing this to collect my thoughts on the
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subject.
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