I see there is a FAQ on the donations page. I suggest an addition be made to that FAQ, something along the lines of the following:
How can I direct my donation towards developing a specific application?
- At this time, PortableApps.com does not accept "directed" donations. In other words, donations are used as required by the project, rather than directed at one specific application's development or release.
- If you'd like to support the developers of any of the applications, links to donation information is included on each application's page if known.
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
Thoughts on this: https://portableapps.com/donate/faq#directed
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That looks good to me.
With that said, How about a follow-up question about "what does my donation go towards?" (Or similar), either linking to the explanatory paragraph on the donation page, or directly duplicating it?
I think it is a mistake to have a functionality like that.
Maybe there should be a 2 side discussion on that.
But this can be an effective way to get more donations.
For example, I'd donate 75$ easily to see the following applications added:
1. MiKTeX.
2. TeXStudio.
3. ReText.
4. Octave.
5. Julia.
Most of them are already in beta testing so I'd think this easy money for the project to get.
I'd do a page "Next Application to Be Added to the Suite".
Where users can add their voices by +1 or by +10 (Donation let's say of 5$) or +25 (Donation of 10$).
At the end of each month the most popular application will be added to the suite.
This will do 2 positive things:
1. Most wanted applications will be added to the suite -> Developers will spend time which meets the users demand.
2. More donations will be made.
It's not a commitment the donation will be used for that application.
It is just a way to draw more donations and more users involvement.
Thank You.
It would not be the most wanted applications being added - it would be the applications wanted by the people with the most money. Unfortunately there can be a very large discrepancy between the two.
It also puts users into the mindset of "I am paying for application X, therefore I deserve application X" and if their monetary voice is overlooked in favour of other people's larger amounts (or more people's combined smaller amounts) of money, then they will become upset, and probably never donate again.
The only targeted payment system I believe could maybe work (I have seen it work elsewhere, although I have also seen it fail elsewhere) is a bug/feature bounty, whereby users could add a bounty to a specific bug or feature of the software (in our case the Platform, Launcher, Installer etc. not the apps we repackage), and the money could only be collected once the code was released that fit their want/need.
The way I see it users have 3 ways to assist an open source project:
1. Use it.
2. Help develop it.
3. Help fund it.
Now, it it depends on your base assumption.
My assumption is that 90% of votes will be from regular users and will dominate the total votes per applications.
I think people which will donate will be able to change things within the top popular application.
Will that be a bad situation?
It will give 3 things:
1. More involvement with the users (They get to decide).
2. More donations to the projects (Hopefully).
3. Clear plan what to expect.
Think of it as KickStarter pages for applications.
But it will give power to regular users of the project while edge advantage to donating users.
I'd think it is a good balance if it means more donations (Which means the project will exists with better chances -> Service to all users).
By the way, the idea isn't buying application.
The donation will be made to the project.
It won't mean you buy an application.
It only means you get to have larger vote on the next application to be added by the developers to the suite.
In the future the application can be removed from the suite according to the policy of the developers.
Again, this is not buying the application, this is buying "Votes" by donating to the project.
Trying to think out of the box here.
I understand that what you are suggesting is not technically "buying" an app.
Unfortunately basic human psychology may take "I want app X", "I am giving money to the project", "I get votes for my money" & "I am using those votes for app X" and create a mental shortcut that basically results in a subconscious "I am paying money for app X".
Unfortunately then when that specific app doesn't happen (especially after a few rounds) users may feel slighted by their money not being good enough to make what they "paid for" happen.
Please understand, any ideas to get more money into this project is a good thing and I welcome all of them. But all ideas need to be weighed up for the pros and cons, and I am just presenting some of the negatives that are likely to arise from this idea. I know it may appear like I am nay-saying, but I am just trying to present the other side of the discussion.
We have the same objective and I like the open discussion to get it.
I think PortableApps should be more clear and open about the next applications to get into the suite.
I think the priority needs to have something to do with users demand.
Hence the idea above and I think that once it is clearly written all will be OK.
People who donate to open source projects are well aware of their actions.
Another idea would be a bounty page.
Similar to Area51 of StackExchange.
If there enough voters and enough donations something will get released.
Let's say if ReText gets 100 Up Votes + 15$ in donations it will get released.
That way you, the developers, can set targets which matches the needed amount of money and release applications according to demand.
The fact that we're moving source repositories to GitHub and starting to use GitHub's issues tracker (at least for some things), means that BountySource can now make sense of issues posted there, allowing people who want to to post bounties on any of the issues that get posted to one of the GitHub tracker(s).
I'd also like to point out BountySource's "Salt" system which could be interesting.
~3D1T0R
BountySource is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of.
I think that could do some good - either someone within the project claims the bounty for a bug/feature, or someone new gets involved and helps out - sounds like a win either way to me.
As long as contributor guidelines are properly defined before we open up to it, of course. Loosely defined contributor guidelines and an influx of even a few devs could be chaotic to the point of being detrimental.
The route for new contributors to get involved, and the guidelines of how it works have been very loose for far too long. If these had been better defined, I would have started making more meaningful contributions long ago, and people who are new to contributing to the project would know what to expect, and be less likely to end up either being driven away, forking projects away when they could directly help the main project (like demon.devin has done with PAL), or even complaining.
~3D1T0R
But how will you present new application?
As an issue in GitHub System?
This might be nice in theory, practically it will not work for the average user as they won't "Browse" the repository.
It has to be in the Beta Forum / Section of the site.
Something like a button for the ReText thread where it says - Once we reach 15$ donations in this thread the application will be released.
Please, don't make esoteric.
It won't make an impact on the donations.
Think of a KickStarter page for Beta Applications where you can measure the demand by votes and donations.
3D1T0R and I have gone off on a little tangent here in the same thread, we are only talking about BountySource for Platform/Installer/Launcher bugs and features.
I definitely don't think it would work for any capacity beyond that.
Actually, one of the repositories on GitHub is for "AppConfigs", so that might be an appropriate place to add issues regarding adding apps, though I'm not sure this is the way John would want it. In any case, anything that has a bounty on it is not only not going to show up automatically on the forum, it won't show up automatically on GitHub (unless someone who can sets it up so that BountySource can edit GitHub issues). Rather, if someone wants to put a bounty on something they'll do so on BountySource (after adding a GitHub issue if one doesn't already exist), and then they can make a mention of it on the forum if they want to advertise this information to other PA.c forum-goers.
~3D1T0R
Something the average user will never do and hence you again lose connection with users.
Leave a side the money thing, how do you add applications according to users demand?
Currently I have no idea what is the policy to add applications.
There is no road map, there are no guidelines, nothing transparent to the users.
For instance, mwayne creates great applications for years in the best, is there a reason they are not included?
It can't be on GitHub as GitHub has different target crowd (Developers, advanced users).
Once there is a way for users to express their need you need to think how to capitalize on that and get more resources to the development if the users play along.
GitHub isn't the place for that.
You can create polls and things like that.
That's my point of view.
Note that it is not based on user demand, however the "Ready For Official Release" thread has been used to some extent to determine next applications for release: https://portableapps.com/node/11772
You post there and nothing.
There is no way to know if and when will it be released.
What are the reasons or how the priority is set.
Hence it became irrelevant.
We need better method to "feel" the need and maybe drive more donations.
Hopefully it will create a momentum for more users and more developers.
Thank You.