Feature Bounty System

[ross]

Some board features take a few seconds of an admin's time to tweak a setting here or there. Others take hours of development time. It'd be nice to have a "bounty" system, where people can pledge to donate $x to the board fund if a certain feature gets implemented. That way very popular features that might not get implemented can squeak through, while at the same time benefiting the board fund (which I'm sure is fine right now, but after a year or two will need some re-feeding).

[mdobbins]

Some board features take a few seconds of an admin's time to tweak a setting here or there. Others take hours of development time. It'd be nice to have a "bounty" system, where people can pledge to donate $x to the board fund if a certain feature gets implemented. That way very popular features that might not get implemented can squeak through, while at the same time benefiting the board fund (which I'm sure is fine right now, but after a year or two will need some re-feeding).

nice..


will work for food

[deja]

Some board features take a few seconds of an admin's time to tweak a setting here or there. Others take hours of development time. It'd be nice to have a "bounty" system, where people can pledge to donate $x to the board fund if a certain feature gets implemented. That way very popular features that might not get implemented can squeak through, while at the same time benefiting the board fund (which I'm sure is fine right now, but after a year or two will need some re-feeding).

Excellent suggestion! Perhaps a feature auction too???

[Kirby]

Jordus made a post here about donations, indicating that they were not currently necessary.

Perhaps an alternative method for determining feature desirability would be to use the SL voting scheme that's used for the KGS Wishlist, for example. People can vote for the ideas that they like the best... It's just one possibility, though.

[Solomon]

This is a fantastic idea; I would be willing to donate for certain functionalities to be implemented on this forum.

[mic]

If the costs for the forum are paid for the next years, what about a dual system: 50% go into the forum-funds (for year 2+n) and 50% to some humanitarian organization?

Mic

[ross]

Jordus made a post here about donations, indicating that they were not currently necessary.

I know donations are not strictly necessary at the moment, but one day they will be, and once improvements to the board start slowing down (as they inevitably will as time goes on and it's not as new and shiny any more), I think donations will be a nice way of giving a little incentive to certain features that are on the more "wishlist" side of difficulty-to-implement.

[Jordus]

If the costs for the forum are paid for the next years, what about a dual system: 50% go into the forum-funds (for year 2+n) and 50% to some humanitarian organization?

Mic

And what happens when the features that some donated for are not able to be implemented?

I wouldn't want anyone to feel "cheated" in that instance.

Also, who would manage this account? And how do we know that the funds are being used properly? Would we want to put a member into this position of possible temptation?

There are many variables to think about when money management is involved.

Just some thoughts...

[ross]

And what happens when the features that some donated for are not able to be implemented?

I wouldn't want anyone to feel "cheated" in that instance.

No, no, the bounties are just promises. This could even be implemented by just putting on the Sensei's Library site suggestion page, "ross agrees to donate $50 if this is implemented". No money actually changes hands until I'm satisfied. If anyone feels cheated it would be an admin or someone who implements some feature, and then somebody reneges on their promise to donate afterwards.

[Chew Terr]

And if it's just incentive to work, the pledge need not be monetary. I.E. 'I would buy a go book for whoever fixed this'.

Just make sure that everyone wants changes, lest someone get the whole board changed to their favorite color because they were willing to buy the change. Or something silly like that.