Donation Drive for Hotaru?

[richrf]

Hi all,

In recognition of the benefits provided by the Hotaru software and ongoing support, I would like to suggest the we might begin a donation drive. In recognition of donors that support this effort I would like to propose:

1) Formal recognition of all donations (e.g. money, plugins, etc.).

2) Donors be given a voice in future upgrades and features via a formal voting mechanism.

I believe a strong platform and support group benefits all users of Hotaru.

How do others feel?

Rich

[Nick]

1) Formal recognition of all donations (e.g. money, plugins, etc.).

Money donations are currently recognized by changing the donor's user title to "Donor".


2) Donors be given a voice in future upgrades and features via a formal voting mechanism.

Everyone has a voice in Hotaru's development, but 99% of suggestions are about plugins or themes, not Hotaru itself. These forums are primarily for Hotaru and it's only for convenience that we include plugins and themes here. Any comments about plugins should be directed at the person who made them, and posted on the forum threads for those plugins. Whether suggestions are implemented or not is up to that plugin developer.

The Plugin Suggestions (http://forums.hotarucms.org/forumdisplay.php?19-Plugin-Suggestion-Box) forum is the place to post ideas for new plugins. Users can vote for the plugins they would like to see implemented so anyone interested in making a plugin can look at the suggestions and pick one to work on.

It's interesting to note that vBulletin has two separate sites, one for vBulletin and another one for modules and templates. It's possible that Hotaru will go this way in the future to make the distinction between Hotaru and its extensions much clearer.

As for donations, yeah, bring them on. Show your appreciation and encourage us to continue development with as many dollars as you can spare.

[richrf]

Hi Nick,

There doesn't seem to be any interest in my proposal so I will drop

Your analogy to vBulletin is not a very good one since vBulletin's basic features that come with the product is a mile long (vBulletin Features (http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=features)), and is a commercial product that users pay for and where the developers have a very strong cohesive and focused vision for the product. This may account for the success of vBulletin in terms of user base, stability/reliability, and performance.

Rich

[Nick]

I didn't draw an a analogy with vBulletin. I simply noted that they have two separate sites and we may well do the same. I would hope they do have a "very strong cohesive and focused vision" because the cost of the license for these forums was more than total donations to Hotaru so far.