On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 09:46:20AM +0200, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> after my recent Flattr FOSS announce[1], our DPL suggested me
> that I might want to propose to setup Flattr[2] on the debian.org website
> as an alternate way to donate to our project.
<snip>
> What do you think of the idea?
So, after throwing the idea in the bucket I had a deeper look at how
Flattr works (as soon as Raphael provided me with an invite, thanks!).
For me, the main interest, is in offering an alternative way for
donating to Debian (or, more generally, to SPI projects) that might also
help creating a critical mass to support other FOSS projects.
However, after looking at the details, I realized that ATM Flattr seems
more appropriate to support fire-and-forget type of contents (e.g. blog
posts) than long-running projects like those under the SPI umbrella. I
say that mainly because Flattr users, until I'm missing something, have
to click every month on a specific button to keep on donating to it. I
understand a "subscribe" feature is being planned, but until it's there
I don't think we will get a lot out of it. In fact, I think Raphael can
give us useful feedback on this, e.g. I know you registered dpkg as a
project, it would be interesting to know how much the "click hype"
decreases after the first month(s).
Another aspect I don't like is "charity", not because I don't like
charity, bur rather because I found it too vague. If SPI decides to join
the initiative, then I believe SPI should decide that its own quote goes
to like-minded FOSS projects, ideally shared to all of them. This is
another desiderata of mine that I don't believe it's currently possible
to obtain.
Nevertheless, I think it would be useful to discuss some of the other
constraints advanced by Raphael; that way if at some point the above get
solved, we can join.
Just my 0.02€,
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
Dietro un grande uomo c'è ..| . |. Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
sempre uno zaino ...........| ..: |.... Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime
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