This is really a continuation of the MIDI Controller for darktable topic. I wanted to shift gears to this topic so as not to pollute that one.
In that thread, @ukbanko asked the relevant question about why we might not have a central ‘fund’ for things like this when it comes up. Indeed.
Technically, anyone is free to donate using PayPal, but it’s not something I really push or talk about much (I’d much rather folks be focusing on having fun, learning, and sharing). It is really relevant to this idea, though.
Two related thoughts about this:
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Shared resources.
I’ve thought it might be a neat idea to possibly have some resources in rotation for folks to use as needed. A sort of “Lending Library” of things like (for example) a spectrometer/colorimeter, color charts, whatever else might be useful? Again, this is just a general idea I had. -
Purchasing stuff.
Relevant to the midi controller thread is that if we wanted support for something, then we either need to write the support ourselves - or get the hardware to willing folks. In that thread @houz seemed like he might be interested in helping, and pointed to existing supported hardware like the Korg Nano controllers as something that would likely make sense (it’s only $59usd, too).
So, does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Would a General fund make sense? Or would it make more sense to target a specific thing (like the midi controller)?
I want to be transparent. Paypal is great and easy, but opaque. With a little bit of work I think I could probably create some recurring donations using PayPal pretty easily (including one-time donations tied to specific items - like “Donate to get a Korg for support”).
Something like gofundme, indiegogo, or patreon are a little more transparent, but will also take a bigger cut of the donations.