donations?

[Brandon Keepers]

http://opensoul.org/2009/1/9/give-back-to-the-community

This idea presents a bit of a challenge with projects like Rails.
Anyone have any ideas? Here are some of my thoughts:

1) for each project, choose one contributor donate to
2) setup and contribute to a general Rails fund
3) give to some other project in honor of Rails

Thanks,
Brandon

[Michael Koziarski]

> 1) for each project, choose one contributor donate to
> 2) setup and contribute to a general Rails fund
> 3) give to some other project in honor of Rails

From my perspective there's not a whole lot that additional cash would
do to help out with rails-the-project. People's time is far more
useful a resource for us, and spending a few hours away from paying
work to help users on a mailing list or review patches in lighthouse
would go a lot further than a cheque for $500 would.

Perhaps individual contributors could raise money, but as a project I
just don't like the blurry line that'd be drawn between coder-for-hire
and coder-getting-a-tip. My clients can demand certain things that
some guy tipping can't.

Then again, the USA is a great example of how a sign of gratitude
(tipping) rapidly devolves into expected 15% tip-tax...
--
Cheers

Koz