ReactOS Fundraising 2012

[Z98]

As many of you may have noticed, the ReactOS Project has started a fundraising campaign to try and raise enough money to formally hire developers to work on the operating system. These contract based appointments are inspired by Haiku's very successful efforts, a success the ReactOS Project hopes we will be able to replicate. These contracts will seek to target specific components or functionality with the goal of making ReactOS more complete and genuinely usable by regular people.

It should be noted that these contracts would be significantly below market in terms of compensation relative to the skillsets required. The ReactOS developers have always believed in the project and their participation has never hinged on their being compensated financially. At the same time, there are practical realities and the project hopes that these contracts will permit developers to dedicate more time to ReactOS.

To make this attempt succeed, we all need to pitch in. As one can see in the progress bar, the project hopes to raise €30000 for this year. This would permit the project to provide contracts to most of the core developers, letting them dedicate much more of their time to ReactOS. So let's get to it!

Addendum

Due to the many misconceptions flying around, consider this to be the official statement regarding donation tracking.

People who donate and wish to be anonymous have their donations listed as Anonymous on the donation page. Otherwise their name is associated with the donation.

The tracking bar at the top of the site does NOT reflect the cumulative sum of all donations. It represents the sum minus processing fees that are incurred. As such, attempting to sum all donations listed on the donation page is a very bad way of trying to see how close the project is to reaching its goal, as that page lists the actual amount donated, not subtracting processing fees.

Addendum 2

For examples of what the contracts may look like, please refer to the link to Haiku's page above. While we do not expect our own contracts to be identical, they are intended to be in the same range.

[jonaspm]

good
im still a child but im gonna find a way to donate!

[Black_Fox]

Well done, thanks! Finally some good motivation A few bugs still remain to iron out:
- forum layout is broken (logo overflows)
- clicking the "Information" link from forum goes into error 404, because the root domain is not "reactos.org", but "reactos.org/forum"

[dounet]

How frequently does the progress bar update ? I donated yesterday - no move

[Radhad]

Well done, thanks! Finally some good motivation A few bugs still remain to iron out:
- forum layout is broken (logo overflows)

press CTRL + F5 in your browser and it should work. This happens due to client side caching of CSS files.

[fulea.stefan]

Another thing besides what dounet reported - those 335€ (3:42 PM UTC+2 30.4.2012) what consists of? I've tried to do the math adding up donations from foundation donators page but I couldn't figure out which ones are taken in account and which aren't. For now it's not really that transparent.


P.S.: I've read BTW "The fundraising campaign donors list is maintained on a separate page." and followed its link, but I guess that it still needs attention.

[vicmarcal]

Another thing besides what dounet reported - those 335€ (3:42 PM UTC+2 30.4.2012) what consists of? I've tried to do the math adding up donations from foundation donators page but I couldn't figure out which ones are taken in account and which aren't. For now it's not really that transparent.
P.S.: I've read BTW "The fundraising campaign donors list is maintained on a separate page." and followed its link, but I guess that it still needs attention.

Iirc you can donate asking not to be listed in the Donators Page so maybe a good donor has sent some bucks asking for total privacy.
In the other hand, can we prepare any PR strike or coordinated move to reach more people out there? Any suggestion or hints? It would be really cool if we can help hiring some devs: 10$x1000followers= 10.000$ It shouldn't be really difficult. I hope!
Sharing or RT the ReactOS Twits about the Fundraising is really wellcome!

[fulea.stefan]

maybe a good donor has sent some bucks asking for total privacy.

Yes, maybe... But then please, when I'll donate asking for privacy, put me as "Anonymous" (like some existing cases in that list) instead of not mentioning my donation at all. There's the Foundraising's credibility at stake. And mine if you will. If nothing else, me explaining to my friends your story will raise eyebrows before money.

[Z98]

The Foundation has to report donations to the government anyway for legal purposes, the page on the site is for vanity purposes, the donations are tracked and reported (anonymously).

[Black_Fox]

press CTRL + F5 in your browser and it should work. This happens due to client side caching of CSS files.

I'm aware of that and it's the first thing I tried, but thanks. It was delayed by the company proxy at work, at home it's OK.
Just donated €15

[fulea.stefan]

@Z98: Either your post is addressed to me (and alike) to shut up, or it's out of any place I possible understand. The noise I might have made wasn't anything but in the fund-rising best interest. It was public perception related. Why are you explaining government/legal related stuff or the supposed frivolity of the entire show? How does this help?

[Z98]

Uh, what? My post is explaining that the donator page is for people who wish to be publicly thanked for their donations. It does not serve as a record of all donations. The "credibility" of the project comes through us filing the tax paperwork that comes from accepting donations, and that paperwork is what tracks the amount of money that the project receives.

[fulea.stefan]

Thank you for your work. If I don't always understand your interventions, well... that's just me! I must happen to miss out a lot of other important things too. For one example - I noticed only now that the counted amount in the ReactOS Fundraising Campaign is only in Euro when donations can also be made in other currencies, so I shouldn't had to even try counting them in the first place...

[vicmarcal]

But then please, when I'll donate asking for privacy, put me as "Anonymous" (like some existing cases in that list) instead of not mentioning my donation at all. There's the Foundraising's credibility at stake. And mine if you will. If nothing else, me explaining to my friends your story will raise eyebrows before money.

Dont worry!The donor decides if he wants to appear as Anonimous in that Donor's page or if he wants to not appear at all.Of course you have to tell which level of privacy when sending the donation.Usually donors request to be Anonymous,but you can even decide to not appearat all in that page.
All the donations(anonymous or not) are handled internally following the Law.

Let's spread the word!
More devs hired,faster ReactOS will reach the desired 0.4!:)
2spirit drinks or 3 starbucks coffee are 10$.Let's made the Opensourcing!Let's save and donate!It will be seriously a big step forward!

[Pesho]

Just donated 10$. It's not much, but if enough people do this, we will raise the necessary amount in no time. This isn't like those "vote to win a contest" initiatives, this is a proper fundraiser that will get things done.