Dev Donating Idea

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Jr2swiss

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Ok I remember that someone had an idea about donating program, I can't find the thread so I will start a new one. This seems to be a great idea but no one is willing to organize and establish it, which I will try to do now. Some people don't like the idea of giving the money to one person then giving the money to the developer the money so here is my suggestion.

We nominate a new developer on a weekly basis, we will have a poll with a select few developers like:

Skeezix
Rlyeh
Yoyofr
GpAdvance crew
GpLinux crew
Woogal
No-skillz
JyCet
Matkeupon
Other

After establishing which developer to donate the money to, each individual will donate as much money as they want. Everyone that has donated money should post how much they donated just to check if this is actually working out, obvsiously people could just say that donated money without actually doing so, but thats just how its going to have to be. If the developer doesn't accept a form of payment that you don't have you could send me the money and I will find a way to get the developer the money, your just going to have to trust that I will give him the money. ;)

You will have approx 1 week to vote for which developer will recieve the money, and 1 week to donate the money. For example, when we finally decide who we donate the money to, we will be given 1 week to donate the money. Ideally on that same day we will be given a new poll to vote which developer to choose from. We will nominate 6 or more candidates, we will decide who will be on the final poll somehow, no idea yet so give your suggestions. You can not nominate yourself either. :)

Since this somewhat my idea to get this started I will donate $20 to each developer that has won. Obviously $20 isn't that much but it adds up when everyone else donates money as well. To make this effective I am hoping for at least 250 people to participate in the voting Also at least 35 other people donate to developers with me. Remember any amount of money will do. If we don't meet the standards I feel no need to continue this project.

There could be some faults to it so give feedback and hopefully we will correct all mistakes and errors in this project. Hopefully after all is said and done we will have a poll for which developer to choose from before next week Monday.

The idea of this project is to reward developers for what they do. It gives them them a higher incentive to make new programs, update programs, etc... Since many developers do this on their free time it would be nice if they get something out of it as well.

I feel that this is better than people individually donating because I think it has a more stronger effect when the developer gets a more amount within 1 week. I also don't think many people do donate to developers, so this way developers will feel somewhat of an impact by Gp32x donators.

Once again feel free to give feedback and such.

www.gp32z.com
 
I tried to arrange something like this at least three times, and while it is a good idea people would rather donate themselves. If anything happens though, count me in for it.
 
I think it's a bad idea if it's another reason for people to put

Donated $5 to Ryleh! Look at me! Daddy gives me $30 allowance per week. I don't spend it all on candy though! As you can see! LOOK!<--
 
I think you need some that collects the money in each continent, one in the Uk, USA etc... for it to work effectively.
 
sam fisher posted on Oct 5 2004 at 02:45 PM said:
Lets do it for matkeupon as he makes gpfinalwar the best game on gp32 thats homebrew.
Why not just donate yourself if you feel the need to? I don't get the need for a mass money gathering :S. If they want donations, they will have a a clear link to a paypal address or whatever on their site.
 
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As one of the developers listed, I'd just like to say that I will take no part in any donation scheme. The reason I code for the gp32 has nothing to do with money or praise (although it's always nice to know that someone other than me uses my software ;)). I code software in my spare time because I want to, not because I feel that I have to or that I should. If someone donated to me then I would feel pressured to release updates, and that's a position I would never like to find myself in. How long would it take before people started moaning that they'd given my some money for a particular app and that I hadn't released an update in months. How pissed off would they then feel when I tell them that I hadn't done any more work to that app, and might not release an update for 6 months (if at all)?

Now, getting back to the proposed scheme - I see a group donation scheme based on voting for a developer being doomed to failure (sorry). Quite clearly emulator developers are going to get voted for each and every week because most gp32 users only really care about emulators (it's the sole reason most people buy the gp32). But what about the few users that would prefer to donate to other developers? Their chosen developer would never come up and so they'd just have to donate individually. I honestly can't see a scheme like this having any effect on the number of donations made and the people they are made to.
 
This may be complicated to do in this way. I think the "bounty system" that someone had on Zodiac gamer would work better.

Craig IX has already done something similar. He has said that a free BLU will go to the first dev to integrate Cyclone into the CaSTaway emu.

Maybe we should do something like that. Donate money to a "kitty" which will be held by someone reliable and willing. Then say the first Genesis emu to come out at 166 with Z80 sound at fs1 gets the money, or a BLU. I think Craig's idea of giving out a BLU is a good idea. This way a dev that now may have a non-lit or FLU will get a unit with a better screen. This may bring back lost interest in the unit that may have resulted from the poor screen. This could encourage more developement too as the dev will like the better screen and WANT to make stuff for it because his stuff looks better on it.

Or just donate to the dev you want on your own. I gave $20 to Rlyeh after he released his Cyclone fGen. Maybe have a section somewhere where the names, amounts donated, and the dev donated to listed. This gives incentive to actually do it as the donator will get recognized as well. The only trick is to verify the amounts and donators. The only way I can see that working is to have the dev notify GP32X of the donations received and the details.
 
I have to agree with woogal on this. Favoritism would only lead to ostricizing developers, making the scene more into some type of popularity contest. However, I'm not against donation - devs do this in their spare time, and the ones that do the most tend to be unemployed and/or students. I think we should collect a list of devs that desperately need money, so we know who really needs some extra income :)

In fact, I think a good idea would be to setup some semi-professional contracts. Say you want a Lynx emulator, or a port of Ultima 7 - we could ask a dev how much they think coding one would cost to them, and try to reach that donation goal amongst the community. Of course I say the finished product should be open-source (especially ports). We're buying the dev's time, not the product ;)
 
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