Donations or Trust to support all this NZ freeware work?

[deeknow]

Looking at the swarm of fabulous freeware projects that have gotten off the ground or been released recently, and looking back at all the awesome FS9 and FSX projects us consumers get for free, I wonder if folks in this community would consider making donations to some sort of trust or fund that could be used to award or reward these developers in some way. These guys (no point in mentioning names, there are so many active) are all way too modest to charge for things that are worthy of a fee. I for one am extremely grateful and would gladly cough up some dosh each year to encourage this stuff.

It could be used to gather monies over the year and maybe award it to some group or individual to take their hobby to the next level, wouldnt matter if it was to commercialise stuff, as long as it lifted their game, and the quality or volume of stuff we get to use. We could all collectively vote on what the money got awarded for or to. Maybe it could be to license some modelling tool. Or to buy some council or government imagery or dataset. Maybe it could be to purchase something that would be collectively owned by nzff.org or the trust so that members of it could use it?

The recognition wouldnt just have to be for freeware projects either as we all well know lots of the commercial lads also release freebies during the year. Also, the reward might be something other than cash, an amazon or kindle voucher, or a night out for dinner with their long suffering missus?

Whadyaz reckon? Too much effort? Not enough takers maybe? Especially keen to hear what the non-developers think?

[Ian Warren]

Mmmm Breky at 'Tiffany's' .. a Steak at the 'Lonestar' or just a coffee at 'Joe's Garage' ... good idea Dean .. your a 'Classic' , now were do i pay

[Timmo]

My preference would be to support purchase of aerial photography for airports as that often is the thing that can cost and put people off. It also gives a solid positional base to align buildings and objects etc.
Travel to an airport for the purposes of taking photos, at least personally, is something that fits into the 'fun' category, most have a digital camera anyway, GIMP is free as is Gmax.....there are the VLC objects to help as well!

Again, personally, what would be really good is simply more people helping out! Lack of time can make it hard so the more work is shared around, the better.

[dart15]

I think that's a great idea - conceptually. I do wonder about the efficacy of it though. I'd like to ask a question before I finalise my thinking on this. Each year NZFF asks for donations to help keep this site viable. I would be interested to know what the total of those donations is. That might provide an indication of how worthwhile - in a practical sense - this idea is? I have no idea about the answer and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised...

[toprob]

QUOTE (dart15 @ May 27 2012,10:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that's a great idea - conceptually. I do wonder about the efficacy of it though. I'd like to ask a question before I finalise my thinking on this. Each year NZFF asks for donations to help keep this site viable. I would be interested to know what the total of those donations is. That might provide an indication of how worthwhile - in a practical sense - this idea is? I have no idea about the answer and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised...

Remember that NZFF donations are simply to cover the cost of hosting the site, so we normally aim for that amount.
This year we had 37 donations, totalling $540. I haven't seen the final hosting bill yet, but I'm confident that this will cover it, with a small reserve.

I do think that the number of donations represents the total 'hard-core' membership of NZFF, I wouldn't be surprised if this list was similar to the members who enter and vote in the screenshot comps. It would be nice to increase the number of forum 'contributors' (and I don't mean donations) but it would be an uphill battle.

[scaber]

QUOTE (toprob @ May 27 2012,10:38 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Remember that NZFF donations are simply to cover the cost of hosting the site, so we normally aim for that amount.
This year we had 37 donations, totalling $540. I haven't seen the final hosting bill yet, but I'm confident that this will cover it, with a small reserve.

I do think that the number of donations represents the total 'hard-core' membership of NZFF, I wouldn't be surprised if this list was similar to the members who enter and vote in the screenshot comps. It would be nice to increase the number of forum 'contributors' (and I don't mean donations) but it would be an uphill battle.

Maybe you should consider an alternative hosting site, I'm paying $180 for 2 years with no limits on traffic or data storage.

[toprob]

QUOTE (scaber @ May 27 2012,11:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe you should consider an alternative hosting site, I'm paying $180 for 2 years with no limits on traffic or data storage.

We did do some research a couple of years ago regarding hosting, but we are happy with what we have -- yes we can get cheaper hosting, but this normally comes at the expense of reliability. There are plenty of forums which go under due to cut-price hosting -- it only takes a few problems over a couple of weeks and the forum might not recover.

Local hosting is a lot more expensive that elsewhere in the world, I don't know why that is, but it certainly isn't getting any better. Bandwidth is the main issue, I think -- the Godzone site costs double the NZFF site, simply because it uses a lot more bandwidth. I actually have trouble buying extra bandwidth, at any price. (Well, I mean at any reasonable price...) NZFF is in fact on an 'unlimited' plan, but I'm not aware of any hosting company in NZ which would give me a similar plan for the Godzone site. So I have a fair idea of how much 'unlimited' actually means.

[creator2003]

My hosting was only $160 usd for 3 years unlimited ,ive only had downtime while under maintenance which ive only notice once or twice

[SgtPepper]

In principal I think it's a great idea, but in reality would be hard to administer, most people who want quality addons will pay, in my meagre time in this hobby that is obvious.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (SgtPepper @ May 27 2012,11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In principal I think it's a great idea, but in reality would be hard to administer, most people who want quality addons will pay, in my meagre time in this hobby that is obvious.

Be scary to think the years that i have created freeware / payware .. nice thing is least people enjoy the end result .. the one thing people ask is how can we help .. dedication is all that is required .

[toprob]

I was actually a 'not sure' here, as I tend to have a fairly pragmatic idea of the level of commitment you'd expect. But there are a few ideas which have been discussed here in the past, most of which haven't been successful, but that's not a good reason for me to be pessimistic.

The problem is that someone actually has to do the work required to keep something like this moving forward. This means a lot of effort, as you'd really need to push, push, push. But if someone was prepared to do this, then it would work out a lot better than in the past.

One idea which could work better than a vague donation system is crowd-funding, similar to what Kickstarter offers. Someone with an idea for a project but no resources could work out what it would cost, so that people would know exactly where their donation was going, and what the finished product would be. If there is enough interest (i.e. fully pledged) then you pay your money and the project goes ahead.

But there are a lot of ways to obtain resources without having to pay 'retail' so figuring out what is available and how to get it would be part of the process. My own idea of how this would work would be some sort of project-management/collaborative website, run by someone who is able to put the time and effort into seeing small projects through to the end. Lots of small projects can add up to a big result.

Personally I'd like to see any project website separate from NZFF, but using NZFF to promote it.

[deeknow]

Mmmm.. it's rather telling that despite really being a poll of non-developer types that the only folks who've replied are developers.
Over and out.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (deeknow @ May 28 2012,4:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

.. it's rather telling that despite really being a poll of non-developer types that the only folks who've replied are developers.

The big ditch (the difference between the one who do the work and the talkers) , in the many years I have been doing it .. the newbies putting hands up but simply fizzle out due the 'NO' is no money in it , ive done work for all NZ scenery designers and much of it is YEARS of work and many of my own projects without asking simply just for the passion , today is very typical off grab grab and grab , but hey welcome to the real world .

We course have the very well known aircraft designers - the Adrians and Deanes who just simply don't stop either Brilliant !

Enda the day many/some people cannot afford NZ photo or model packages but so those appreciate the final freeware packages , everyone dose or looks at as a payware and for a virtual hobby many simply love the results and get the personal attention if they run into trouble ... Hell of a team we have at NZFF

[IslandBoy77]

I'm not a developer...

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ May 28 2012,11:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not a developer...

Pete , you have the same gomer goggles and leather hat as i have ... all ya needed was a beak and wings

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ May 29 2012,10:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pete , you have the same gomer goggles and leather hat as i have ... all ya needed was a beak and wings

Ha ha Except maybe that I was only allowed to borrow mine on the day for a fly in a 'moth.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ May 29 2012,9:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fly in a 'moth.

Danmn fly's , and the 'moths' are'nt any better , be nice to get ya own headgear without the bugs