Hi,

We need to work out a revenue model for me so that I can keep on working on Drigg.
My current idea is to fund $1500/month, so that I can spend a week each month working full time on Drigg.

Please note that:

1) I will probably do more than that

2) I would wtill be underpaid but that's OK

3) Development will be towards Drigg IN GENERAL. People playing should NOT expect site-specific features. People will be paying for Drigg, not for personalisations

4) I won't be able to chase money each month. This will need to be a subscription payment done by paypal.

My idea is to find 10 people with 10 decently big sites, to pay for development.
FSDaily is probably one -- I think I can count on Dave for this one.
We need 9 more.

So, here is where people can decide how much they want this to happen.

Takers?

Merc.

Comments

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Bump

philbar’s picture

philbar commented

I would love too, but I'm still developing my site and it's on the back burner because of some other ventures I'm working on. So my resources for drigg are slim. Sorry.

nevets’s picture

nevets commented
Title: REVENUE MODEL FOR MERC WORKING ON DRIGG » Revenue Model For Merc Working On Drigg

Please do not use all caps in title. Thanks

ajayg’s picture

ajayg commented

My site is still being developed and can't pitch in that kind of money. For what it is worth I will be happy to contribute in my time to test patches.

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Hi,

Well, this is not looking good. It just means that I won't be able to spend much time developing new features - I will just spend a bit of time (limited) fixing bugs and supporting users whenever possible.

That's fine too. However, maybe we could actually go out there and look for 10 semi-successful drigg sites who might be interested in supporting it? They might be willing to pay such a small amount of money, they just don't know that Drigg needs it?

Merc.

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Hi,

BTW, my personal goal right now is to close bugs and answer those support requests... I am totally happy to do this for free and dedicate quite a bit of time to it.

Maybe not *that* many people use drigg after all...

Merc.

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Some thoughts before you give up, one day is not a lot of time, this may not have caught the "right" peoples attention. There is a way to put a donate "widget" on a project page (at least there are some out there), this would probably have better exposure. One week a month implies 40 hours of work, while 40 hours can go by quickly it is also a fair amount of time, a more concrete/detailed road plan might help generate interest.

ajayg’s picture

ajayg commented

My guess (and this is purely personal opinion) is any company willing to pay that kind of money will find it is very risky to invest that money when there is only one developer involved. The sooner we have more than one developer contributing the less risky it will become to invest money in drigg development. Secondly as a strategic move we should see drigg built on base drupal building blocks like CCK and views (yes I know there are some known issues with them) so the new feature development becomes that much easier. I think the modules which have relied on these building blocks tend to live longer and spread farther. It also make future upgrades easier since we don't need to upgrade everything (view will take care of its upgrade, cck it own etc). just a 2 cents. Sorry I have diverged from main topic but thought those are related.

ajayg’s picture

ajayg commented

I have seen one more thing working in drupal.org ecosystems. It is very natural (and does happen often) module developers don't have enough time for future development. So they just spend time in accepting patches and fixing critical bugs. If they get a patch for feature then they will accept it. So Merc, you can try that type of model where your time contribution is less in quantity (it is by no means less significant). This way atleast the patches that are being submitted will get accpeted and module doesn't need to be abandoned.

philbar’s picture

philbar commented

Perhaps you should place a bounty on some of the feature request.

Create some ChipIn widgets for the popular Feature Request.

Here are some possible candidates:

#253537: Bury

#244124: Promote stories based on the node's view counts

#247283: Demote

#341579: Make Drigg Widget Box PERSONAL

Around $500 for each. Not to much or people won't donate.

philbar’s picture

philbar commented

I just noticed Radioactivity never got implemented.

This seems like the biggest feature request:

#214354: Promotion based on multiple factors

#244124: Promote stories based on the node's view counts

Maybe you can put that up for $1000.

philbar’s picture

philbar commented

Here is a list of people ready to pay:

#400854: READY TO PAY TO GET A FINAL WORKING VERSION OF DRIGG AND EVB VOTING BUTTON ?

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Hi,

@neveset

* I am not willing to give a detailed plan/promises/whatever. $1500/month is the equivalent of $37/hour before tax. In my hands, that's about $30/hour, or even $25. I am not wiling to spend even more time showing progress and generally justifying the amount of work I am doing. People who chip in will be able to see issues being closed, CVS commit, etc -- and decide

* I am not wasting time with a "donate" button. We raised $45 in one YEAR at Free Software Magazine. It was more of a problem to actually add those small payments into accounting

@ajayg:

* "is any company willing to pay that kind of money" -- We are talking about $150/month. How many developers do people want to get _exactly_ for $150/month? Abut the technical stuff, let's leave it to the issue queue :D

* I agree with the "accepting patches" model. If nobody chips in, then that will have to be it, and that's fine too. However, there is User Support, for example, which is tricky and time consuming... but again that's OK too

@philbar:

* Bounties have several problems. One of them is that people don't tend to take them on board -- I've tried that. Also, people who pay _often_ end up asking for a _lot_, often things that are not quite generic. Finally, bounties are not a constant stream, whereas my mortgage is. What I am after, is a small but constant amount of money, if that's possible with Drigg. Maybe it's not, and again that's fine too. It's *crucial* that I am free from personalised requests when I develop, so that *all* users benefit from it...

OK, that's my 2c about this :D

Bye!

Merc.

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented
Title: Revenue Model For Merc Working On Drigg » REVENUE MODEL FOR MERC WORKING ON DRIGG

Hi,

I prefer this to be in capital letters.

Merc.

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Hi,

Closing this issue, it's meaningless right now; it's obviously going to be a labor of love for me and that's OK. LEt's just concentrate on getting bugs fixed -- all of them -- and then we can start relaxing again.

Merc.

philbar’s picture

philbar commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Did you forget to close it?

You should add a request for donations to the project page.

mercmobily’s picture

mercmobily commented

Hi,

Philbar, donate buttons don't work. Honestly :(

Merc.

kdes’s picture

kdes commented

what if everyone contributed for getting each feature request developed. So for every feature that drigg users want developed they form a small group and find out who can contribute how much and then everyone contributes and sends one person the money (maybe merc) and that person just puts up that project on elance or something. Anyone from here (merc or anyone else) who wants to work on the project can bid on it as well. I think that would give us a much better chance of getting things done.