Re: Bounties

[Tim McNamara]

On Jan 25, 2012, at 2:48 AM, Marc Hohl wrote:

> Am 25.01.2012 02:06, schrieb Tim McNamara:
>> As a user, I would tend to prefer to just kick money into a general fund and 
>> let someone figure out how it gets utilized for exactly the reason that was 
>> mentioned:  I might want feature X, but groundwork U V and W- about which I 
>> know nothing- would have to precede the addition of feature X.  Bounties 
>> could end up complicating the logical development of Lilypond if they end up 
>> causing piecemeal development.
> +1
> 
> I think that the bounty model for special features won't work (yet). The 
> bounites drop in from time to
> time, and it is not clearly visible whether the offer is still valid.
> The implementation of tablature bends had a bounty of about 200$ or even 
> more, but is still is not done.
> 
> I don't know about legal and organizational issues, but what about a optional 
> lilypond usage fee?
> I am willing to pay about 50$ per year for using lilypond and supporting the 
> development team.
> And I think there are some more users out therewho would join ...

Some sort of user-defined opt-in subscription might be an option (e.g., someone 
could choose to subscribe for US $5 or $10 or whatever per month).  This could 
create some steady revenue flow which might be easier to manage instead of 
lumps of cash arriving irregularly.

It is quite possible that the Lilypond team doesn't want to have to set up 
accounting and disbursement mechanisms, however.  There are some headaches and 
legalities that would be involved which might be more trouble than they are 
worth.  I've done a lot of work for free over the course of my life so far 
because it was so much less hassle than dealing with getting paid for it.