[Mageia-discuss] keep on donate or AUFML full transparency

[Per Øyvind Karlsen]

2010/9/29 Olivier Méjean <omejean at yahoo.fr>:
> Hello there !!
>
> Following my previous news about donation, on friday, let's refresh them !
>
> About paypal, you may have noticed that our paypal account has been limited.
> Yes, guys, it was your fault !!! You were so in hurry to give to mageia
> project that paypal asked us some informations. I phoned paypal, i sent paypal
> many documents, our vice-treasurer's phoned paypal and yesterday we were
> pleased to know that our paypal account was verified so no more limitation, we
> can overtake the limit of 2000€, and it is overtaken.
>
> While talking about paypal, you know that paypal take a commission on each
> donation. A the moment, donations arise at 2972.79€ but commission removed the
> donations are 2851.9€, a bit more than 4% of commission (well the real
> commission of a fixed amount plus a percentage of the amount). Donations using
> paypal are ranging from 3 to 500€
>
> Bank transfert allows to get 1810€ and bank check 75€, to give 4736.9€
>
>
> The announcement is translated into 10 languages, good job but i guess Maât,
> who's in charge of the page, is underemployed so let's get him some nice job
> by adding new languages! For example, what about greek , finnish, swedish (or
> norvegian?), russian, chinese, serbian announcements? Yes !! So translators,
> have a look at http://donate.mageia.org/ translate it and send it and Maât
> will be very happy to add new languages. Oh by the way, if there is another
> language I did not talk about, feel free to translate too! To end with, Maât
> you are really a nice guy ;-), dear members of Mageia don't forget to
> congratulate him, he likes it :þ
>
> We are still waiting for the creation of Mageia association and the bank
> account to give the donations to Mageia. I guess it will take some days, but
> no problem for us, we will still be happy to help receiving donations.
>
> I was about to forget, as Maât said in a previous mail, « Mageia IS definetely
> the answer to the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life,
> The Universe, and Everything »
>
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything#Answer_to_the_Ultimate_Question_of_Life.2C_the_Universe_and_Everything_.2842.29>
>
> <http://download.tuxfamily.org/cooker/mageia/stats/Capture-
> DonationMageia424242.png>
>
> I stop here, next step 10,000€ ? Ok ?
>
>
> --
> Olivier Méjean
> Président de l'Association des Utilisateurs Francophones de Mandriva Linux
> http://mandrivafr.org
> twitter : obagoom
> identi.ca : goom
>
*cough*

Not that I'll expect anything but  heavy flaming, lotsa hostility and
not really that much of a reward coming out of it, but I can't help
but raising a question..
Isn't it rather kinda questionable and odd to expect of people, and
for people to donate to an organization that's not established yet,
nor any common goals, objectivies or any discussions concerning it or
even knowledge about who's involved in such discussions?
I personally would feel uncomfortable starting to raise funds and
accept donations from people who don't even really know whether what
they're actually supporting will become what they want it to or not..
But maybe I'm just biased and not being objective expecting something
with at least not worse communication and without even the certain
degree of transparency and knowledge guaranteed by a public company
such as Mandriva..?

Although commenting on this with irony in tone, I really must say that
what seems to me as a general lack of knowledge, information and
involvement of people in discussions around much of this gives a less
assuring impression, leaving me wonder a lot about what all of the
work on this the previous months might've been, what discussions that
might currently take place, whether you've already decided on final
details, are about to decide on, or are planning on putting together a
proposal for commmunity discussion, feedback and consensus to worked
out around..?

Well, my bias is given, my devious motives being probably any evil
thing you could imagine and all, far to easy detecting way already and
then some before first, earlier, afterwards,
pastpresentfuturebeforeandall, but I think you should make sure to not
fall short of coming off as actually better on these things than the
company you want to distanse you from..

Having either these details in place before announcing the project, or
announcing the project with an invitation to participate in defining
it would seem more sensible to me, you might just find yourself in a
bad situation with people easily becoming aggitated and easily upset,
especially when there's money involved, demands greater, more pressure
put on you living up to different and perhaps conflicting
expectations..

Oh well, just some mostly constructive critic, or perhaps plain ol'
nagging, and some petty words of caution, hoping to see some of this
answered, accepting the scepticism and hopefully showing yourself able
to address it and also ultimately publishing some really neat goals
easy to relate to, and cool plans that could be of interest to all of
us. \o/

Best of luck and always remember that shoving is the answer, shoving
will protect you! ;)

--
Hugz&kizzez<3
Per Øyvind