How about a 'Bounties' system for Feature Requests

[tanstaafl]

Hey Eric,

Any reason that you couldn't offer a way for people to pledge money in support of their favorite Feature Request(s)? Might be another way for you to get more financial support for your efforts, while still giving you the flexibility to work on whatever you want...

The biggest problem I can see is people who 'promise' but then don't follow through, and honestly cannot speak as to how big of a problem that would be...

Just thinking - specifically, on how to get two of my Feature Requests implemented sooner... ;)

[Tyrantmizar]

This is definitely a possibility, though the ethics are a bit sketchy.  Eric technically left himself open to this possiblity:

from this post

Remember that donating doesn't necessarily mean your ideas/suggestions/feature requests will be released any quicker than if you hadn't donated.

This is a "I didn't say I would, but I didn't say I wouldn't" situation.

[tanstaafl]

Right...

But this would be different... I wouldn't ethically be obligated to pay unless/until the Feature I had attached the bounty to was implemented.

I have been more than happy to donate to Erics efforts with no strings, and will probably do so again sometme soon. I don't expect any special treatment for those donations (I hope I haven't come across to Eric as if I were asking for any).

But bounties would be different... if I felt strongly enoug about a certain ferature to offer a bounty of $100, and Eric decided on Sat night he wanted to make an extra $100 and implemented the feature, I would then be obligated to send Eric the $100.

Like I said though - this could get ugly if people did that then didn't follow through... it would probably be a good idea to only allow registered users post bounties, and even then ask for some minimal information (Name, Address), so that Eric could badmouth them if they didn't follow through after he implemented their feature.

This may not be something Eric is comfortable with, and I totally understand if that is so... I was just thinking out loud, really...