Bug#681501: I found the thread taffit is referring to.
I found the thread taffit is referring to here (18 months ago):
http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20130330.130910.2a600f87.en.html
He was questioning the fees collected by Paypal. (Which are just under
3%). In the thread people did express a dislike for Paypal, but
acknowledged that their fees are competitive with other fees we pay
for online payment processing. It was also expressed that people
didn't like that Paypal was the primary option, with an allowance only
given for people who couldn't use Paypal. IE: To take advantage of the
match one needed to use Paypal. Please note that an option option was
added shortly thereafter for European Interbank transfers but, if
memory serves, nobody take advantage of it.
The use of Paypal in that particular case was for a matching drive for
DC13, with a targeted dynamic progress bar, where if we didn't use
Paypal, it would be practically improbable to do using another service
in the timeframe with human resources we had available. It was very
easy for Debian.ch, to implement and maintain, and no one volunteered
to help with the harder work of integrating other options.
In the current case, we are NOT talking about ONLY allowing Paypal, we
are talking about adding an easy to use option, for those people who
do use Paypal. For Paypal users, it will greatly streamline the
donations process and increase follow through.
I will also add that currently both Debian.ch and Debian.fr accept
Paypal, and SPI passed a resolution to accept Paypal. [1] This is
still to be implemented, but we should see some progress within a
month or so. ffis also accepts paypal as well. [2] So basically all of
Debian's Trusted Orgs either accept or plan to accept Paypal payments.
Using SPI's Paypal account, in the future, will have one additional
advantage beyond US tax deductibility. Because SPI is a 501c3
non-profit, paypal provides a discounted rate of 2.2%. This is really
a great rate and the only way to get significantly lower, is to use
european wire transfers, which isn't really an option in the US, or to
use paper checks which are quite the opposite of easy.
I and many of the other people who are working on fundraising
understand that some people don't like Paypal. Some of us also don't
like Paypal, but view it as a useful and necessary tool for our jobs
of raising money for Debian. At the end of the day ALL these banking
services are proprietary services that we need to integrate with to
accept donations. Paypal, like all the services we use, does not
require us to use proprietary libraries or protocols to interface with
them.
I'll close on one note, for the donations page we are working on we
want ALL options listed. We also want to make to make the process as
painless as possible for our benefactors, so would prioritize those
options that are the simplest. If people don't like Paypal they don't
have to use it, as it won't even be the first option listed.
-Brian
[1] - http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2013/2013-12-12.mcs.1/
[2] - http://www.ffis.de/News/Spenden-jetzt-auch-mit-PayPal-m-glich-5.html
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