Improving right click select, not only to vote on proposals, but also crowdfunding proposals for developers

@forestgumpovu4: Maybe community votes can raise the bounties. I always wanted a solid blender code bounty site for a while now. Maybe attached to the store instead and blender foundation gets a cut of it for hosting the site. I agree that incentive would likely be a spark for many great new addons in the future.

@forestgumpovu4:

it's totally the opposite of what I thought.

what I'd like is:

1. step : someone proposes a really nice idea.

2. step : the community agrees with votes and tipping the idea

3. step : when the piggy bank becomes full enough, some developer able to develop the idea decides to accept the proposal and develop it.

4. step : when finished, after a check by users and maybe even other developers the work is paid

5. step : if a lot of time passes and the project is not accepted by anyone, the offers go to the development of general blender

simple and functional for small additions, just like most of the proposals that are made here

and I'll tell you more, this would be even more interesting with blockchain-based contracts with most of the automated steps for warranty ...

**regardless if this proposal is accepted or not, more generally this is the future on internet. **

@amonpaike: Where there is a question of money, it always raises the questions of where this moneys go. Who will be watching, counting, distributing, managing all of this? Who will measure is developer do his work enough well and it need to pay money or not?

The development is ongoing and large part of it is not related to this website and proposals placed there. Proposals are about improving or making some new features for already existing modules, or about anything that still was not in Blender today. Some of already existing features was personal projects of specific people as I understand.

A separate aspect - maybe it was something small and insignificant proposed and it would be nice to implement it. But potential donators don't see it because it is not hyped. With such system, developers will look first and foremost for proposals with special money rewards. And this is normal - work must be paid. With such system this " small and insignificant " newer be implemented. It will drown under donates, new proposals and time flow.

All this generates a lot of uncertainties that will eventually only accumulate. In order for all this to be managed will need to keep separate several people who are also alive and eat something and it need to pay them salary to.

Instead of engaging in such micro donates way if you want to pay for work, pay for Blender we all here use - subscribe to the development fund. IMHO - guys will figure out how to manage this money better.

P.S.. Modo month subscription cost 59 $ (or 599 per year, or 1799 perpetual), Maya - 156 $ month (1505 per year, no perpetual). Even if someone want to be honored and stay in " Gold " subscribers list - it just 25 € monthly or 300 per year... Only. People still can subscribe for 5 or 10 € only!

If someone here really want to pay money for developers - just do it.

@forestgumpovu4:

the closed source software systems are cow dung, they act in vampire dynamics, so do not compare them at all.

@amonpaike: true, a lot of closed source companies have structures where lower end people have little say so a lot of the best and most fresh ideas never get a chance, that's one reason why blender is so unique an powerful. Money is a sensitive topic for many, sadly I actually noticed a difference in the sketchfab community once the market opened, but i also think it evened out by now.

@amonpaike:

I just said that Blender right now is cheaper than all other even if someone really want to pay respect by donating money. Most part of my message is about managment issues and bringing wall between hyped/donated ideas and ordinarry one. If idea contain something really necessary - it get lot votes from start without any donations. In other side - I suspect work flow along some road map. Broke this road map, stop working on something and start something new just because someone post idea on RCS and it get some huge donate from some sheikh - not the best way IMHO. If anyone want to donate - just do it how mutch you can, just donate to devs fund. They knows better what to do with this moneys. This is my message.

@Jason van Gumster:

it's a pity, but I understand that the responsibility would be too much ... This does not mean that concerning blender, the proposal could not be taken into consideration by someone who feels he has the right shoulders to do something like that ... maybe the blender foundation itself ...

@Jason van Gumster: Revenue could come as a percentage for management fees, as all crowdfund sites do. Doing so the responsibility and management would pay off based on the amount of requests that increase .. .. I'm just doing fast reasoning

the only thing I'm sure of is that there is demand

@amonpaike:

the only thing I'm sure of is that there is demand

Demand from whom? Developers? Users? How are you sure? Do you have data to support this, or is it a gut feeling?

@Jason van Gumster:

From what I see here there are at least 4-5 proposals a day of functionality by users, myriad of youtubers that propagate the new features of blender over the world... The blender conference is sold out.

In addition I see in the crowdfund sites more general people who is financed for anything even the most trivial .. There are a lot of engineers, architects and makers who can not wait to finance the addition of cad on blender tools.

Of course I have no data, but I think there is a minimum margin to make a bit of noise ... This site I would see very well to facilitate the crowdfunding of small projects without going to do things in giant.

you're right that there is enthusiasm in this proposal, but it does not seem to me that the ground is negative.

@amonpaike: Here's what I recommend to anyone who wants to fund Blender developer:

1. Make a clear proposal for the feature you want to add. Make it as thorough and detailed as possible. Post it here. Consult with users and developers to flesh out your proposal as much as you can. Include a plan for supporting and maintaining the feature once it's implemented.
2. Find a developer. This could be an existing Blender developer or some other developer interested in coding on Blender. Find out what they think it would cost (in time or money) to create the feature in your proposal.
3. Familiarize your developer with Blender development and other Blender developers. This is on the assumption that the developer you got in #2 wasn't already a Blender developer. The point is that you want your developer to be comfortable with the Blender codebase, perhaps have a small pull requests or patches submitted, and know which core developers to consult for adding your big feature.
4. Raise funds. You have your developer and you know how much it will cost to implement your feature. Now raise the funds to meet that price. You can do this by crowdfunding, raiding your personal savings, or hiring the developer to work for your company.
5. Develop your feature. While keeping regular contact with Blender's core developers, have your feature developed. Test it regularly and keep your feature's code synchronized with Blender's master branch.
6. Submit your feature as a patch for review. Ideally, if it's a big feature, this would be done as a series of smaller patches and not a giant code dump. Code dumps are hard to review and less likely to get accepted in a timely manner (if at all). Be an advocate for your feature with Blender developers and Blender users, but don't be a dick about it.
7. Support and maintain your feature. Assuming everything works out and your patch is added to the master branch, you and your developer's job isn't done. You have to have a plan to support it in future versions of Blender. If changes are made in Blender's code and those changes affect your feature, you (or your developer) needs to be available to integrate those changes. You don't want to the code version of giving the Blender developers a puppy and walking away.

@Jason van Gumster:

I have seen over the years how the google summer code has grown ...... From my point of view when you create the dynamics between those who request the proposals, the peole who like and decide to fundraising and then the developers themselves who evaluate whether it is feasible to carry out the project ... they are themselves to propose to accept the proposal to be developed or not ...

and therefore this does not exclude that it is also the developers who already know well the blender code to accept to develop a project that would be proposed

I already had little experience/example with things like that, and for a while it worked 10 years ago among the fans and the thing was spinning pretty smooth, I mean it was not so complicated the management

power2people.org/projects/overview/

having said that I understood that you are not interested in these things, it is just to chat.

@markustheswiss:

this is the purpose of the proposal ... in these months I'm reading so many nice ideas, which also take a lot of votes for the originality but then remain still or end up in oblivion because obviously there are no developers willing to implement them because there is no incentive ...

@amonpaike: It's not a question of incentive. Blender developers also have ideas, specialties, and priorities of their own (often set by other users)... and insufficient time in the day to do all of them. Bounties (which is basically what you're proposing) don't really serve as much incentive in this case.