A Overall Good idea, able to state the purpose of the donations, letting people comment also.

What also seems reasonable but might cause quite the headaches for developers would be to set up individual donation accounts, say someone puts up a want for something, someone accepts the bounty then creates the donation account to gather support and funds for finalizing whatever it is they are taking on. Perhaps a simple list inside the thread presenting who has donated and the amount, so that there is a sort of pride that can be taken from the donation. With say, bounties on software, the software could be free to donators, or possibly free to the entire community. Bounties on tangible, physical items, would be a bit different, perhaps offering discounts on the item for donations.

I'd like to keep this discussion rolling though as I really feel like the idea could be developed further. There used to be a site called "Chip-in" that basically affiliated itself with retailers, events and users to pool donations that were then periodically alloted to dev projects and the like. For example an online retailer could say "Hey! If you purchase from me during this sale I'll donate X% of proceeds to the Chip-In fund". Event organisers could do the same and user donations were always accepted.

The issue with this particular venture is that it was not transparent. Users could not vote on where the money went and it all seemed a bit "sorted" and incestuous.

The idea is great but someone with a bit of integrity would need to head it up (unlike the previous aforementioned venture).

That is a more maintainable and controlled method, and probably a better alternative.

Whilst I think it is a great idea in principle the staff at CM.org have tried very hard to keep money out of the equation on this site as a whole. We're even iffy about users selling/trading/buying on these forums. This is why we (as an organisation) don't accept donations for site maintenance and running costs. I completely understand that this is not intended to be something that staff would be liable for but at the end of the day when you put a dollar amount at the top of a thread, one which rests on a system that has to be endorsed and run by the staff I feel like some users would not be able to excuse those staff of liability if projects go tits up.

I think it's a really good idea but I also don't see why users can't take this sort of a system into their own hand via the paypal donation system. I'm 100% for that.

YAY! Now were talking!

Well CM.org seems to have a slightly older and perhaps slightly more affluent user base. I think if the idea is good it might well work. I am fairly sure there have been bounties for certain features to be added to piggy tracker.

Also there of very creative people who have donation buttons on their websites:

http://www.justgiving.com/Neil-Baldwin

Perhaps placing a list at the top of the thread periodically to keep track of the overall bounty and pledgers, showing whether theyd paid or not, so we could get a general idea of who's keeps their word

Looking over at 8bc, I agree this will work better at Chipmusic.org.

True but it was a just an idea, if anyone is interested in starting up threads, to get something they want, even if its just one pledger, its better then nothing.

Precisely, and with how fickle alot of scener pocketbooks seem to be, I wonder if this will wind up being more trouble than it's worth.

Yea thats the only thing, its based on an honors system almost, just pledging money, then putting a total in the title so that people know the amount on the line, but then when it comes for people to pay up it is really about who plans on keeping their word.

Well, in order for that to work you need people who are willing to throw money around. You're more likely to find that here IMO than at 8bc. I dunno, if you want to start a trend then go ahead and set a bounty and see if people will snag it. I don't have a problem with it, though obviously some organizational problems would need to be overcome.

So I posted this over at 8bc.org, but with it seemingly sliding off the face of the scene, the sites a wreck, I figured ChipMusic would appreciate the idea.

I use to do stuff over on XDA-Devs, Im a designer as a part time hobby, and they used to throw up [Bounty] threads, where people pledge money to get something finished or created for the community, namely software, such as ports, software for certain uses, ecetera, has anyone tried that on here?