Weblog entry #132 for Steve
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How many more people would donate money to the Debian Project if it were easiser?
Donations via SPI inc appear to be quite hard:
"To make a donation (in U.S. dollars only), write a check or money order payable to Software in the Public Interest, Inc."
It seems a shame to restrict currency to US dollars, but it kinda makes sense.
There is an online donation form, but it is via a service I've never heard of ..
I feel a poll coming on ..
By contrast its very easy to donate to me ;)
Comments on this Entry
gregor
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There are several barriers here.
One is no well known online payment system (most of these will convert money to dollars, and let us face it, dollars are real cheap at the moment).
Two it isn't on the Debian site.
(I know who SPI are, and what they do, but then I've been around a long time).
Three, you don't know the donation is going to Debian, sure the other projects are worthy, but you may not care about them. People like the illusion of control, be it in their daily lives or where their donations go.
It is easier to buy a Debian UK t-shirt than to donate hard cash to Debian.
http://www.einval.com/~steve/DebianT/
I think there is also a perception that it is volunteer so it doesn't need money, but Ubuntu seems to have put cash to good effect.
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I guess we'll see fairly soon whether Debian could put donation money to a directed use with the dunc-tank plan.
Although probably the less I talk about that the better ...
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But I'm sure the gazillions of visitors you get from my site are working actively on your ads.....
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Advert revenue is mostly static these days, and I've noticed a lot of people disabling them explicitly in the site options.
Still I'm not going to complain since I don't pay for this host any more ..
I still love what you're doing with your site, even with the new windows!
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most of the exiting
or marketed
or of interest for the less hardcore user
or most constructive/positive news are found...
And as the years pass, you might even come to like the links comming popping up! No, I don't believe that myself...
/Christian
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