Comments on: Accepting OSS Donations… A Slippery Slope

By: Tonio

Tonio — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:42:04 +0000

I think that users of NH (experienced people) can evaluate and reward the work and the ability of each committer

By: Chris Nicola

Chris Nicola — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:44:32 +0000

@Ayende, my apologies, I just scrolled back through my google reader to see the original blog post, and spent a bit more time thinking about it. Originally it sort of seemed like this was a spontaneous twitter campaign, I probably should have thought that through a bit harder. I still think Davy is right that the details of how this will work are a bit fuzzy.

Perhaps, there is a need to have a more formal structure or nHibernate ‘foundation’ to help organize how to fund the development of nHibernate. Perhaps Davy is right and things are fine the way they are. Either way, a bit of trial and error isn’t a bad way to find out since I don’t think anyone is parting with money they are not willing to trust Ayende and Hibernating Rhino’s with. I mean, it’s not as if Ayende’s circulating posters of overworked and stressed out Microsofties, suffering through each and every day without the benefit of nHibernate (only your donations can help rescue them!).

The fact that you are matching donations is admirable and I think the community should make an effort to try to see if this can help support ongoing development and improvement of nHibernate.

On an unrelated note, Davy I hate to split hairs but technically a slippery slope is a logical fallacy.

By: Davy Brion

Davy Brion — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:27:12 +0000

@Julian

for the record, i don’t _want_ anything
but some of the contributors who definitely deserve something for their effort would indeed get nothing in the “buy the book” model

the best way to contribute IMO is still to contribute time… it doesn’t even have to be a lot to be helpful

By: Julian Birch

Julian Birch — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:24:00 +0000

Agree with you completely Davy, governance is a big issue. There’s a reason the Java OSS landscape is full of foundations, boards and minutes. We need proper governance before we move onto fundraising.

@Dan: The problem with the “buy the book” model is that it’s asymmetric. For instance, if Davy has neither a book nor an add-on product nor conference revenue for NHibernate and all he does is improve the actual product he gets nothing. However, you’re right that it has none of the issues outlined above…

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:22:01 +0000

One can always sponsor an OSS project indirectly by buying books, software or other items helpful to a team of developers.
Hell, one can pay a month delivery of meals to one or more developers, depending on the country where they live in ).

By: Leon Breedt

Leon Breedt — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:49:20 +0000

It’s really important that anything involving transactions is open and transparent, as the project is.

For example, if you make a donation to the Debian project, they have meeting minutes you can look up to see their balance sheet and how things were allocated.

For non-trivial projects where the amount of donations could be substantial, some measure of formality is warranted, a money-bucket PayPal account with no reports could be worrying.

By: Davy Brion

Davy Brion — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:49:24 +0000

@Ayende

personally, i’d think the money should be managed by the project lead as well…

By: Ayende Rahien

Ayende Rahien — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:42:48 +0000

1) The project lead.
2) There is a legal entity managing the money, as far as you can consider yours truly to be a legal entity.
3) Taxes are always an issue, no matter how you earn money. For consultants, that is part of the math done when setting the rate.

I hoped that I was clear that the purpose of the donation campaign wasn’t to reward for previous work, but to directly sponsor new work & faetuers.

By: Chris Nicola

Chris Nicola — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:35:06 +0000

Yeah, I have to agree with you here. I truly appreciate nHibernate and the nHibernate contributors as much as anyone, but without knowing what the money is being raised for, how it is being used I can’t bring myself to just send money.

I suppose that if nHibernate was just a simple FOSS project being maintained by one person deciding to donate to them would probably be much simpler.