Donations page

Oh blaa blaa blaa guys - let us not try to support anyone ever :P

I think putting lots of work

It takes 2 minutes to embed a Flattr button.

one of Maxwell’s rationales for instituting the donation structure was so that Jonne could be paid, and Jonne said ‘I don’t want to be paid.’

So because Jonne doesn't want money we shouldn't accept donations - to pay for things like server independence and say thanks to projects like Loomio? I know we haven't defined how to work with donations - but hey why should we because we clearly are not accepting any ;)

Hmm maybe one could set up some project independent dummy non-legal organization to accept virtual donations and pay back to developers and projects that we use, and to pay for features via open source support sites + even support pods. Maybe that is the only solution..

Personally the whole "PayPal only" thing about the FSSN is pretty much killing the whole point of donations imho - PayPal sucks. I'm not sure I want to endorse donations via PayPal.

Flattr only takes a cut if money is paid out. And other virtual options exist, like BTC, to make sure the project is never in touch with money, but can still support our volunteers and our friends.

So because Jonne doesn’t want money we shouldn’t accept donations

No, of course that's not what I said. That was an example of saying 'we need to raise money' when it turned out the 'need' to raise money was based on at least one false premise.

I haven't said we don't need to raise money. What I am saying is that as far as I can see, no one actually knows whether we need to raise money or not, or indeed how money raised would benefit the project. Some people thing we should raise money, some think we shouldn't, and many probably simply don't have a strong opinion one way or the other; but no one seems to know whether the Diaspora project needs to be able to raise money or not.

What I'm trying to say is let's have that discussion before trying to raise money, so at least we have a clear idea of whether or not the project can benefit from money raised and if so, how we can target that money. You make a couple of suggestions about what could be done with money, but let's have a proper discussion about what could be done, so there's some proper agreement; not just assume that there are lots of things that money could usefully be spent on. And then we can tell people what sorts of things their money would go towards.

It takes 2 minutes to embed a Flattr button.

Maybe, but the point I was making was the work needed to establish clearly whether or not creating a mechanism to bypass the FSSN in accepting donations could potentially jeopardise the project in some way. There was so much hoo-hah about the need for a proper non-profit status and vehicle for accepting money for legal purposes, that I think we would have to establish properly whether it would cause problems to ditch this. I simply don't know the answer to this, and neither do you.

Hmm maybe one could set up some project independent dummy non-legal organization to accept virtual donations and pay back to developers and projects that we use, and to pay for features via open source support sites + even support pods. Maybe that is the only solution..

Maybe. Let's find out whether this would be possible in Diaspora's model, and whether bypassing the FSSN in this way would be allowable for a project established in the way Diaspora has been.

PayPal sucks. I’m not sure I want to endorse donations via PayPal.

Agreed. But it's what we have been landed with.

All I'm saying is that this whole accepting money thing appears to be potential a legal minefield. So let's not just wade into accepting money outside of the FSSN without first establishing that doing so would not cause any problems for the project. Surely that's just sensible.

Maybe. Let’s find out whether this would be possible in Diaspora’s model, and whether bypassing the FSSN in this way would be allowable for a project established in the way Diaspora has been.

You misunderstood. I didn't mean the project would be involved in any way. I think individual action might be the only way forward. I've written down some ideas, might post them once I clean them a bit.

It'll be great if you can find a way to bypass all the institutional stuff. I look forward to reading ityour ideas.