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Mon, 02/23/2009 - 14:32
j0rd
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I'm in the process of transitioning my business. In the next year, I plan to take on more and more Ubercart and Drupal sites, as I've been enjoying the work I'm doing in the past 6 months working with the software suite.

My #1 gripe with open source, is that people think because it's free, it shouldn't cost money. I assume 90% of the people who use Ubercart or who are at least active in the community here are making some money working with the software.

As a freelancer myself, I don't make any money off Ubercart per se, but I know my clients do. One of the benefits of Ubercart for my clients, is that there's no monthly fee.

Is there anyway we could set up some kind of monthly subscriptions ($10/mnt or $100/year) on UC.org, so that I could make my clients fund development of the software they will be running their online business off of. I don't think this would be an issue for many of my clients and I might just attach it into the contracts I have with them.

I was thinking of doing this myself and setting up a local fund and have client pay me directly, which I could then forward the money onto bounties as I see fit...but I think it would be best if it was some kind of group effort. Perhaps with a social voting element, having $10 = 1 vote and doing monthly votes and funded code/bounty sprints in areas the community would like.

Just an idea I've been floating around and I thought I'd share.

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Wed, 03/04/2009 - 06:16
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tcindie@drupal.org
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Re: The UberFund - Lets make our clients pay for Ubercart Develo

Are you suggesting then that using ubercart would incur a $10 monthly fee for everyone, or only for select customers?

I can't see my going in to the office and telling them that all of a sudden the ecommerce solution I'm incorporating into our websites is now going to be charging a monthly usage fee being very well received...regardless of how 'nominal' a fee it may be.

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Wed, 03/04/2009 - 06:24
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Docc
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Re: The UberFund - Lets make our clients pay for Ubercart Develo

Dont think this is the way togo. I support the idea of ubercart funding. But every user/developer should decide this for itself.
I`d rather see developers donate a certain amount when they sell a product to a client wich incorperates ubercart.

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Wed, 03/04/2009 - 11:12
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PepeMty
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Interesting...

I'm in the talking phase of building a site for an indigenous community here in México. Nothing decided yet.

One of the main features of this site, for which I will charge nada, is (of course) an on-line store where they can offer and sell their crafts: broidery, pottery, etc.

The Paypal account will already be troublesome for them, and not only for the fees.

I guess I'll go with Docc and leave it up to the developer.

Warm regards from sunny México!
Pepe

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Fri, 03/06/2009 - 15:47
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loocher
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Re: Interesting...

I think this challenges the whole ethos of open-source. I like the idea that developers are pooling their resources to make a great, free product for all. This, I wish was the way the whole internet worked.

I find it a really interesting movement, so many argue that to get high-quality in life you have to have payment and competition. Open-source is proof that it needn't be so.

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Sat, 03/07/2009 - 03:22
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cha0s
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Re: Re: Interesting...

Open source means free like speech. ^^ Now, Ubercart is also free as in beer, but there's no reason I think to think that it's against the 'ethos' of open source for development to be directly or indirectly funded.

In fact, it's one of those (very interesting, IMO) instances where total selfishness actually results in bettering everyone. That is, if you would want a feature (say, you wanted uc_file expirations to start at X amount of time after a purchase, or at a given date), it would be totaly "selfish" for you to fund that development, since it's something you want/need/profit off of. However at the same time, since the code is released for free back to the community, the result of your "selfish" action actually benefits the community as a whole. Make sense? Smiling

I'll have to go ahead and agree with docc though... Though the original idea has merit, I think it'd be better to just individually fund these kind of things, if you can.

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Mon, 03/09/2009 - 03:31
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j0rd
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Re: The UberFund - Lets make our clients pay for Ubercart Develo

I wasn't suggesting that Ubercart start charging a monthly fee for anything. I wasn't suggesting that developers start paying monthly fees.

I was recommending that Ubercart implement a page, where donors could signup for a monthly recurring donation to an Ubercart funding pool. I was suggesting, that this pool of money, be used to fund Ubercart bounties. I think it would be nifty, if those who donate, have the ability to vote ($10 donation, 1 vote) on what areas of the code, they want their money to be spent. These do not have to be recurring donations.

I was also recommending, as freelancers/developers, we recommend to our clients (the ones that have money) signup for this donation, to help fund the project which they will be using to run their business.

I've never paid for an operating system that costs money, but i've bought all the *BSDs and Linux on DVDs. I don't buy music, but I buy CDs/TShirts at concerts. I personally think it's un-ethical to not pay for something that's free (especially if you use it to make money).

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Tue, 03/10/2009 - 16:51
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Ryan
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Re: Re: The UberFund - Lets make our clients pay for Ubercart De

One thing that might work a little better (and something we've done in the past) is actually sponsoring specific amounts of developer time in chunks. We devote time to core maintenance and development, but we too have to make ends meet through client work. In the past, we've worked through sponsorships to get various features migrated or implemented, but the sponsorships always had a specific goal in mind. Just contributing money to a random pot gets vague and can leave contributors wondering if their money isn't just turning into beers for the devs. Eye-wink

Also, it's helpful to be able to block out larger chunks of time. Knowing that someone paid several hundred dollars so I don't even have to think about client work while migrating/implementing some feature that was important to them is a lot easier than watching a tip jar fill up and doing a little here, a little there.

Summary, totally not against the idea, just not sure an anonymous donation pool will be effective or transparent enough to encourage contributors.

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Thu, 03/12/2009 - 02:12
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j0rd
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Re: Re: Re: The UberFund - Lets make our clients pay for Ubercar

Personally I was thinking if there was a pool the money could get used for smaller (couple hundred dollar) bounties in the forums. There's a lot of smaller modules which need to get created/ported/improved to make ubercart more robust. I could see the money mostly be used for 3rd party add-ons. Of course it could always be used to support core improvements as well. I think if there was money to be had, you'd see more bounties pop-up and more work getting done.

As for sponsorships, they require a lot of money, which personally as a small business (me) can't afford. I could on the other hand, get a new client every month to pay $10/mnt for like a year into a donation pool. I don't think many of them would mind, as it will help improve the software they run their business from and hell....i'll write it into my contracts as a requirement.

There's already a donation page: http://www.ubercart.org/donate . I guess what I'm asking for is some kind of social aspects onto where your money gets spent. Chip-In'ish style integration into Bounties Forums perhaps, with Ubercart holding the money in escrow until there's enough and then paying the developer once the work is completed (or started).

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