Re: Another happy lilypond user

[David Kastrup]

Alberto Simões <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi
>
> On 24/03/13 14:55, David Kastrup wrote:
>> Well, I am somewhat unhappy with that focus on the pricing of Finale as
>> my own work is being funded by LilyPond users who are typically paying
>> somewhat more to substantially more than the "Finale tax" would entail.
>>
>> For them, the important difference obviously is not that Finale costs
>> money to use.  On the one hand, they get quite more in return for their
>> payment than the right to run a single copy.  On the other hand,
>> everybody else gets the same, without paying.
>
> Given I use lilypond a lot for my own websites (that are also free
> work, but whatever) I went to lilypond website to check if there was
> an easy way to donate, but it only contains information about
> "exchanging money with features".

The community/sponsoring page has its main focus there, but in the
"personals" listing below it is mentioned that I'm working on LilyPond
proper in return for getting funded.  Maybe this needs to be put in more
clearly.

> Shouldn't a simplified "donate" button be placed somewhere in the
> website?

At some point of time, it might be worth reconsidering.  We did not do
so in the past because

a) having an official entity "LilyPond" receiving money means that we
need to bother about taxes, accountability, distribution rules etc
b) so far, I'm pretty much the only one supporting himself on LilyPond
core development, and it does not seem really likely that we arrive at
the possibility of making a living for more than one soonish.  And if we
do, it will be a real puzzler how to manage distribution.  As long as we
have just personal payments, everyone contributing money retains the
freedom to decide where he wants it to go.
c) by far the most work done on LilyPond is done without money changing
hands.  While I am currently the most prolific contributor of code (and
likely mails), it makes up only a minor portion of the totals.  There
were a lot of concerns that if we have one "LilyPond" pot and it
basically goes to one person, that this will demotivate more
contributors than what we could hope to gain.

So finding a solution doing every concern justice is not easy.  On the
other hand, keeping the possibility of contributing monetarily to my
continuing work on LilyPond overly secret appears unfair to those who
actually contribute since they might be carrying a higher load than
necessary if we got out the information more clearly.

-- 
David Kastrup