Re: WikEmacs as Emacs as Crowdfund database

[Tom]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan <at> gmail.com> writes:


> Instead of using Emacswiki, I suggest that you can consider WikEmacs -
> http://wikemacs.org/wiki/Main_Page.
> 

The problem with WikEmacs that it's a very new project and it's
not yet clear how the initial enhusiasm of its editors will
last. EmacsWiki is already here for several years, so it's much
more likely to be kept working in the future.

> I suggest:
> 
> 1. A project page for each of the crowdfunded project.
> 2. A set of users who categorize themselves as a proposer,
>    sponsor of a project.
> 3. We need a set of users who declare themselves as crowdfund
>    workhorses or ELisp freelancers.
> 
> A sponsor will pledge his few $s to a table in page (1) which a (3) can
> use to assess the viability.


I'm not sure if it's actually a good idea to have actual pledges
there. It wouldn't make a good impression if one pledges money and
then when the actual crowdfunding starts he doesn't stand behind his
pledge. In case of Kickstarter and co. it's no problem, because there
you actually make the payment which goes to the pool and it is
refunded if the fundraising is unsuccessful.

Maybe it's better and simpler to have only a simple voting system
where people can add their +1 votes to features they like. Then
developers can skim the list of of features and see what features are
requested by lots of users. And when a developers chooses a feature to
implement then he starts the actual proposal on one of the fundraising
sites where he can set the amount which he needs to implement the
feature.

The advantage of this model is that the donators actually see who they
are donating to, and the developer has to convince users to donate him
money by writing a detailed feature proposal with a time plan and
describing the qualifications (previous projects, etc.) he has to
implement the feature.

Of course, this can also work if people are voting on features with
pledges instead of +1 votes, but then (due to the lack of actual
payment processing) there can be a discrepancy between the offered and
the actually funded amount which can discourage people (users and
developers) from taking part in such crowdfunding projects in the
future.


> I still would like to see a writeup on your original proposal
> irrespective of whether someone would run with it.  Remember a
> crowdfund-workhorse may not know Java or python, so you need to add few
> words that give the freelancer some starting point.
> 

The problem is I don't actually use Java, nor Eclipse. Java
support was only an example for a feature request which I see
very often on forums ("Emacs is nice, but Eclipse has better Java
support."). A proposal should be written by somebody who actually
uses Java and Eclipse day to day and knows what the most useful
features are what Eclipse provides for a developer. What's more:
Optimally better Java support for Emacs should be implemented by
somebody who actually uses Eclipse or some other tool with Java
daily out of necessity, because he'd be more motivated than
somebody who doesn't even know what day to day Java development
entails. That's what I meant when I said previously in this
thread that this development model could be about scratching the
developers own itch (and others') with crowdfunding.

Anyway, I have very little time lately, but I created a
crowdfuding page on EmacsWiki as a start and added a few Java
features as examples.

Everyone please add more features to this page which you'd like
to see implemented with crowdfunding and feel free to shape the
page if you have a better idea of how it could serve as a
collection of ideas for crowdfunding:

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/IdeasForCrowdFunding