Just a few suggestions to allow people people to contribute to the project without having people just remembering connections and holding onto cash.
####Donations
I think, firstly, that it’s probably already been discussed and there’s probably a reason something hasn’t been announced yet. However, I think there should be some sort of donation system so that there are funds accessible to those in charge of the project.
Ideally, there should be a registered non-profit that owns the funds with ‘officers’ that all have access. I’m sure it was fine, but I never really liked the idea that bukkit’s donation button went to Warren’s personal paypal. I don’t think he did anything suspicious, but if we’re going to do this right it makes sense to do everything correctly.
####Resources
It’d be great in the early days of this project for there to be some sort of way for people to submit resources that the team can use. A lot of donations can be non-monetary. This includes expertise (art, development, etc), time, hardware, software, etc. I know you’ve already created a google interest form for developers and that you’ve already been inundated. However, there’s a lot that goes into a project like this. At some point there will need to be many people with many skills working across the project (developers and even non-developers).
This could be a form or database for starters with enough fields that sorting through the interest applications is easy enough to do. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the project right now. Time to bottle it and save it for a rainy day.
EDIT: I meant resources as in people - not plugins or other software resources.
With the donations thing, what I think is that the forums just came out so they still have to setup a donation system but in the end they probably just haven’t gotten around to it. With the resources right now from what I have read all they are looking for right now is developers (which i applied to be) but as with the donations it should all come in due time. This whole things is relatively new so something soon or in a while I think they will get around to it but right now people are just trying to get a 1.8 release out to the public.
Of course it isn’t a criticism, it is just a suggestion. And right now those suggestions are not the top priority because as I said they want to get out a first release for 1.8 for everyone to test out.
Yeah, it’s a bit early. However, it’s not too early to start thinking about the logistics and infrastructure for that. One great way to keep out the Curses and to make sure people understand projects like this aren’t just powered by the merit of the cause is to get the community plugged in and invested right away.
RE: Resources - I’m an idiot and wasn’t thinking when I used this word. I meant people - human resources. People with talents, time, and abilities to help the project. This could be art, infrastructure, organisation, time, moderation, documentation, networking, etc etc etc. A way for people to list their talents, areas of interest, etc is a way to get people invested and plugged in as well.
There are quite a few very talented people out there who are itching to help but might not have the development expertise to be a part of the development side of things but who might be super crucial to the cause of making this happen. Having a database of people willing to pitch in at the ready for when the project is ready to use them might be quite neat.
I disagree with those that say it’s to early. These kind of projects take a good bit of money to start up. I feel as long as people are willing to give money then there’s nothing wrong with getting donations setup. It’s just to early to expect much money from donations.
Money for what? We have forums, hosting, website, etc. There are plenty of people volunteering services so monetary donations don’t seem quite necessary.
As for “resources,” we have an internal address book, if you will, where we’re keeping track of resources that people have offered to donate. We haven’t put up an official form yet though, as that means someone will have to go through it (and the developer form currently has hundreds of responses).
Well, there’s people like me who’d like to help but don’t have the time to put their skills to work. I currently have a job that takes up most of my time. Plus, my knowledge in coding is limited to web development. And seeing that Sponge has their own site and forums… I’m not too helpful.
I’d like to help out but financial support will have to wait as I am planning a huge event with a group of my online friends to meet for the first time in real life. It’s a vacation for three weeks in Seattle. Anyway, point being, the best help I can currently offer is spreading the word about Sponge’s development. But donating will be a definite in the future.
Is there anything that us Hosting Companies can do to assist? Donations, Pizza and Dew, server space? Voice, Web and Game Server space for testing? Snap your fingers and it is yours.
I know that