Crowdfunding for Irrlicht?

[Virion]

I have seen a lot of crowdfunding projects coming along recently with plenty of success stories on websites such as kickstarter, rockethub and so on. I've been thinking if it's possible to launch one for Irrlicht so that we can use the money to pay someone (let's say, hybrid) to work fulltime (for a period of time) to improve the engine?

Just an idea.

[Radikalizm]

I'm not sure about crowdfunding, but wouldn't a donation model work better here? I know I would make some sort of contribution once in a while if such a system would be in place

I also really doubt any of the devs would really want to work on irrlicht full-time

[Virion]

I think people will be more eager to donate (crowdfunding is donation, with a goal) if they know what features they will be seeing in x period of time.
Let's say we announce the next Irrlicht will have
(JUST EXAMPLE)
- flexible vertex format
- fully functional custom animated mesh format with exporters
- hardware skinning
- volume texture
- blablabla

then we list out how much money will be needed to hire the programmer (let's say Radikalizm lol) to work on those features in x months. I think that will motivate people to donate rather than just a donation button with nothing else.

This will actually make the donors feel rewarded by donating money to Irrlicht project and actually see those features that they want for a long time being added.

Just my idea though.

[Radikalizm]

For a largely community- and volunteer-driven project it's hard to deliver deadlines, I agree that it should be made clear what is being worked on and who is working on what, but you can't make a promise of finishing it in a set amount of time if the people working on it still have to deal with their own job/education and personal lives

I can tell from experience that working with volunteers on such a project can be hard to manage in terms of time, I'm working on a rather ambitious project myself with friends (advertisement: check www.rainware.org ), and we set our goals and a vague timeframe for when we want to achieve those goals, but never actual deadlines, since most of us are still in college following some very time consuming courses

[xirtamatrix]

You're both right
And I really support the idea of project-specific donations.
This way, people have a way to put their money where their mouth is.

I dont think providing strict deadlines would be necessary as long as the team behind each-project keeps the community informed, say once or twice a month, on how the project is progressing.

[Virion]

you're probably right, deadline might be a bad idea because we have no idea how long it will take to complete a feature (including bug hunt). and moreover that might give the programmer a lot of stress.

[xirtamatrix]

The way I see it working is that:

1. Developers or dev teams who wish to implement a certain feature create a project entry somewhere, specify exactly what are the goals and how much money they're looking for. Now anyoe who is interested in those features can donate. As soon as the required amount has been collected, the team gets to work.

2. Users who need a specific feature create a project somwhere, define clearly what they want and offer a certain amount or ask the dev. community with how much funds this could be achieved. They could then donate the whole amount themselves or find other users who may need the same features and willing to donate too, thereby pooling the funds.

I, for instance, would happily donate to the development of certain features in Irrlicht, if I knew someone is working on them and could see the progress somewhere.

But how to make this possible? Is there some existing web-based service which could be used for this? Or could Irrlicht devs come up with some way of setting-up such a facility?
I believe this would vitalize the community and Irrlicht's development a LOT.

[Virion]

Blender also has something like this:
http://www.blender.org/blenderorg/blend ... ment-fund/
http://code.blender.org/
they will grant the money collected to several developers to work on different features.
you don't actually need a web based service. the existing paypal method works too, just have to find someone who willingly contribute to the code and list out features that are top priority.