[arch-general] Why are financial contributions not accepted?

older
[arch-general] broken suspend -...

Bill Day

1 May 2011 1 May '11

2:07 a.m.

It's not that I really have money to give away, but I was struck by the notice on the Arch web site that financial contributions are not currently accepted, although they have been in the past. Given that there has apparently been some discussion of lack of resources for the distro, it seems to me to be reasonable to ask why those of us who can't code can't try to provide a little relief and support for Arch's hard-working volunteers in other ways. -- Bill Day williamson.day@gmail.com

Show replies by date

Ray Kohler

1 May 1 May

2:13 a.m.

On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Bill Day wrote:

...

It's not that I really have money to give away, but I was struck by the notice on the Arch web site that financial contributions are not currently accepted, although they have been in the past. Given that there has apparently been some discussion of lack of resources for the distro, it seems to me to be reasonable to ask why those of us who can't code can't try to provide a little relief and support for Arch's hard-working volunteers in other ways.

The donations were done via PayPal and those in charge decided PayPal wasn't trustworthy for use by non-profit organizations who don't have official government non-profit status. I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible.

Johannes Held

5:35 a.m.

On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...

I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible. What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

Allan McRae

6:39 a.m.

On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:

...

On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...
I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible. What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

That would have taxation implications for that developer. Allan

Kaiting Chen

9:19 a.m.

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Allan McRae wrote:

...

On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:

...
On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...
I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible.

What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

That would have taxation implications for that developer.

At least the US allows for something like $5,000 tax exempt in personal gifts each year. --Kaiting. -- Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/

Thomas S Hatch

1:29 p.m.

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:19 AM, Kaiting Chen wrote:

...

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Allan McRae wrote:

...
On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:

...
On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...
I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible.

What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

That would have taxation implications for that developer.

At least the US allows for something like $5,000 tax exempt in personal gifts each year. --Kaiting.

-- Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/

I believe the amount was $11,000 for 2010, but I need to check. This is a serious problem, for a lot of reasons, especially that Arch could use some more money :). The server resources are limited, and having more resources would be great! I will check with my accountant as to the best solution for this problem, I think that the easiest solution would be legal formation of an entity that deferred taxation responsibilities away from guys like Aaron. I don't think that we need to become a 501(c)3. That can be very expensive for an organization like Arch, since it is not blatantly clear that we are a non-profit (They hand those out like candy to organizations that "help children" for instance, but it took the Linux Kernel Foundation years to get it, even though I would argue that Linux definitely helps children). But another organization format will almost certainly be cheaper (most legal business entities in the USA can be formed for less than $50) and most of what 501(c)3 buys you is letting your donors declare the donation to be tax exempt. -Thomas S Hatch

Martin Zecher

4:07 p.m.

What about Google Checkout? On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Thomas S Hatch wrote:

...

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:19 AM, Kaiting Chen wrote:

...
On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Allan McRae wrote:

...
On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:

...
On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...
I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible.

What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

That would have taxation implications for that developer.

At least the US allows for something like $5,000 tax exempt in personal gifts each year. --Kaiting.

-- Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/

I believe the amount was $11,000 for 2010, but I need to check.

This is a serious problem, for a lot of reasons, especially that Arch could use some more money :). The server resources are limited, and having more resources would be great!

I will check with my accountant as to the best solution for this problem, I think that the easiest solution would be legal formation of an entity that deferred taxation responsibilities away from guys like Aaron.

I don't think that we need to become a 501(c)3. That can be very expensive for an organization like Arch, since it is not blatantly clear that we are a non-profit (They hand those out like candy to organizations that "help children" for instance, but it took the Linux Kernel Foundation years to get it, even though I would argue that Linux definitely helps children). But another organization format will almost certainly be cheaper (most legal business entities in the USA can be formed for less than $50) and most of what 501(c)3 buys you is letting your donors declare the donation to be tax exempt.

-Thomas S Hatch

-- Martin No manden archivos por mail, usen DropBoxhttps://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTIwODk0MDk . 2GB + 250MB bonus de almacenamiento gratis online.

Seblu

6:44 p.m.

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Thomas S Hatch wrote:

...

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:19 AM, Kaiting Chen wrote:

...
On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Allan McRae wrote:

...
On 01/05/11 15:35, Johannes Held wrote:

...
On 01.05.2011 04:13, Ray Kohler wrote:

...
I also have donated in the past, and would do so again if it were made possible.

What about a normal bank transfer to one of Arch's core maintainers?

That would have taxation implications for that developer.

At least the US allows for something like $5,000 tax exempt in personal gifts each year. --Kaiting.

-- Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/

I believe the amount was $11,000 for 2010, but I need to check.

This is a serious problem, for a lot of reasons, especially that Arch could use some more money :). The server resources are limited, and having more resources would be great!

I will check with my accountant as to the best solution for this problem, I think that the easiest solution would be legal formation of an entity that deferred taxation responsibilities away from guys like Aaron.

I don't think that we need to become a 501(c)3. That can be very expensive for an organization like Arch, since it is not blatantly clear that we are a non-profit (They hand those out like candy to organizations that "help children" for instance, but it took the Linux Kernel Foundation years to get it, even though I would argue that Linux definitely helps children). But another organization format will almost certainly be cheaper (most legal business entities in the USA can be formed for less than $50) and most of what 501(c)3 buys you is letting your donors declare the donation to be tax exempt. What about create a association elsewhere in the world where it can be less expensive?

In France, we have an "association law 1901" (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_loi_de_1901) which allow a no taxes status. Regards, -- Sébastien Luttringer www.seblu.net

Cédric Girard

7 p.m.

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Seblu wrote:

...

What about create a association elsewhere in the world where it can be less expensive?

In France, we have an "association law 1901" (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_loi_de_1901) which allow a no taxes status.

I was also thinking about this. But I think it implies the person who is responsible against the law has an address in France, and/or is French. -- Cédric Girard

Thomas S Hatch

2 May 2 May

8:38 p.m.

2011/5/1 Cédric Girard

...

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Seblu wrote:

...
What about create a association elsewhere in the world where it can be less expensive?

In France, we have an "association law 1901" (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_loi_de_1901) which allow a no taxes status.

I was also thinking about this. But I think it implies the person who is responsible against the law has an address in France, and/or is French.

-- Cédric Girard

Have we considered joining SPI? They are an existing non-profit that allows people to donate to SPI and specify the open source project that they want the money to go to. It was set up by Debian to solve the same problem we are having. Arch would definitely fill the requirements for a joining member, we would be able to accept donations with a tax write off, and all we have to do it have an Arch representative go to the meetings every now and then. http://www.spi-inc.org/

Jim Pryor

1 May 1 May

7:33 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

Hi I'm the upstream developer of dcron (and an Arch user). As some of you know, I haven't been able to tend to this project much for the past year. Part of the trouble was I was in the middle of a large refactoring project when other responsibilities dragged me away, and I was never able to make enough time to catch up with the bug reports and patches several helpful users sent me. I appreciate all the help you guys sent my way; and I am sorry I wasn't able to push it out more quickly. I've now made some time to catch up with dcron. I've just seen that there's been a recent mailing list thread discussing the long time that dcron has sat with an unfixed scheduling bug, and whether Arch should switch to a different default cron daemon. I wanted to write and push this email out before I read that thread. There are two separate issues here. One issue is that the current developer of dcron (me) has demonstrated he won't always be able to respond to issues promptly. There were some times when development was active, but for the past year an important scheduling bug was left unaddressed. (A scheduling bug in a cron daemon!) Even if that bug will now be fixed, individual users may sensibly prefer to use a program whose development team can commit to being more responsive. Moreover, the Arch distro may itself sensibly prefer to use such as a default. I think those arguments are entirely reasonable; and I don't want to campaign for anyone to stay with dcron if it doesn't suit their needs. However, I still like dcron myself; that's why I took over development of it. And I believe the outstanding issues and most-requested refinements are fixed, or are in the immediate pipeline. So I do want to keep developing it for those who still value its balance of simplicity and features. That raises the second issue: what is the current status of dcron? As I said, my source tree contains a large refactoring push. I have deferred this, and back-ported some important bugfixes, and a few simple features or packaging changes, to a v4.5 release. I'll push this to http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html shortly; and I hope it can be packaged and pushed to [testing]. I'd welcome any testing and feedback any of you might be able to do. I will push those changes, as well as all the other deferred parts of my source tree, to dcron's git repo at http://repo.or.cz/w/dcron.git. And I'll update the dcron-git package on AUR, at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33377. If any of you were interested and able to test this, I'd very much welcome such feedback too. These will all be pushed in the next couple of hours. Thanks, and I apologize for any inconvenience my inability to keep up with this project has caused anybody. -- Jim Pryor profjimm@jimpryor.net

Pierre Schmitz

2:01 p.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Sun, 1 May 2011 03:33:37 -0400, Jim Pryor wrote:

...

... As I said, my source tree contains a large refactoring push. I have deferred this, and back-ported some important bugfixes, and a few simple features or packaging changes, to a v4.5 release. I'll push this to http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html shortly; and I hope it can be packaged and pushed to [testing]. I'd welcome any testing and feedback any of you might be able to do.

I will push those changes, as well as all the other deferred parts of my source tree, to dcron's git repo at http://repo.or.cz/w/dcron.git. And I'll update the dcron-git package on AUR, at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33377. If any of you were interested and able to test this, I'd very much welcome such feedback too.

These will all be pushed in the next couple of hours.

Could you also tag the releases in git (maybe you just forgot to push them using git push --tags) -- Pierre Schmitz, https://users.archlinux.de/~pierre

Jim Pryor

5 p.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Sun, May 01, 2011 at 04:01:01PM +0200, Pierre Schmitz wrote:

...

On Sun, 1 May 2011 03:33:37 -0400, Jim Pryor wrote:

...
... As I said, my source tree contains a large refactoring push. I have deferred this, and back-ported some important bugfixes, and a few simple features or packaging changes, to a v4.5 release. I'll push this to http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html shortly; and I hope it can be packaged and pushed to [testing]. I'd welcome any testing and feedback any of you might be able to do.

I will push those changes, as well as all the other deferred parts of my source tree, to dcron's git repo at http://repo.or.cz/w/dcron.git. And I'll update the dcron-git package on AUR, at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33377. If any of you were interested and able to test this, I'd very much welcome such feedback too.

These will all be pushed in the next couple of hours.

Could you also tag the releases in git (maybe you just forgot to push them using git push --tags)

Hi Pierre, yes I can, and indeed I didn't know what I needed to do to push the tags. However, I guess I'm going to have to make the history ugly. Here is how it currently looks: initial --- tagged as v4.0 --- ... --- tagged as v4.4 --- lots of commits \ in master \ ---- v4.5 branch I don't know yet how to push a new local branch to remote, though I know I'll be able to figure it out. But also, it's awkward having most of the releases as tags and v4.5 on a separate branch. And it seems like the only way to get everything back on a single branch would be to do something like described here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1526670/git-better-way-for-git-revert-wit.... In essence, I'll have to change the history to look like this: --- up to tag v4.4 --- up to present --- revert back --- tagged as ---+ as before master to 4.4 v4.5 | | rebase the present master on top of v4.5 If anyone has better suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. -- Jim Pryor jim@jimpryor.net

Johannes Held

6:44 p.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On 01.05.2011 19:00, Jim Pryor wrote:

...

I don't know yet how to push a new local branch to remote, though I know I'll be able to figure it out. That would be git push origin new_local_branch

-- Johannes

Jim Pryor

2 May 2 May

12:58 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

The git repo has been updated in the way I described. There's a single branch, whose history looks like this: tag="v4.4" ...many many commits... tag="reverted" (back to v4.4) ...a few commits... tag="v4.5" ...one or two more commits... (someday soon I will rebase all the reverted work back on top of v4.5) v4.5 was released as a tarball at http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html; but Paul won't be able to package it right away. But dcron-git is also now available at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33377, and if you like you can just add a `git checkout v4.5` to its PKGBUILD and get the same sources I tarballed. Please let me know of any difficulties you have; or if you're able to confirm that scheduling glitches you saw before have gone away. Thanks. -- Jim Pryor profjim@jimpryor.net

Grigorios Bouzakis

1:06 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

Jim Pryor wrote:

...

v4.5 was released as a tarball at http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html; but Paul won't be able to package it right away.

Pierre already built a 4.5 package, which is current in testing http://www.archlinux.org/packages/testing/i686/dcron ---- Greg

Jim Pryor

1:43 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Mon, May 02, 2011 at 04:06:47AM +0300, Grigorios Bouzakis wrote:

...

Jim Pryor wrote:

...
v4.5 was released as a tarball at http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html; but Paul won't be able to package it right away.

Pierre already built a 4.5 package, which is current in testing http://www.archlinux.org/packages/testing/i686/dcron

Super, thanks. I suggest these changes: --- PKGBUILD 2011-05-01 21:30:00.046676526 -0400 +++ PKGBUILD.new 2011-05-01 21:35:10.066676512 -0400 @@ -38,5 +38,8 @@ install -D -m0600 extra/root.crontab "$pkgdir/var/spool/cron/root" install -D -m755 extra/crond.rc "$pkgdir/etc/rc.d/crond" install -D -m0644 extra/crond.conf "$pkgdir/etc/conf.d/crond" - install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + #install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + install -D -m644 extra/crontab.vim "$pkgdir/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftplugin/crontab.vim" + sed -i -e 's=/var/spool/cron/cronstamps=/var/spool/cronstamps=' extra/prune-cronstamps + install -D -m755 extra/prune-cronstamps "$pkgdir/etc/cron.d/prune-cronstamps" } But none of those are especially urgent. Note that the logrotate file should not be installed if there continues to be a reference to /var/log/crond.log in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf. I distribute it as an example for users or distros who don't use dcron with syslog. -- Jim Pryor profjim@jimpryor.net

Andrea Scarpino

4:19 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Sunday 01 May 2011 21:43:42 Jim Pryor wrote:

...

I suggest these changes:

--- PKGBUILD 2011-05-01 21:30:00.046676526 -0400 +++ PKGBUILD.new 2011-05-01 21:35:10.066676512 -0400 @@ -38,5 +38,8 @@ install -D -m0600 extra/root.crontab "$pkgdir/var/spool/cron/root" install -D -m755 extra/crond.rc "$pkgdir/etc/rc.d/crond" install -D -m0644 extra/crond.conf "$pkgdir/etc/conf.d/crond" - install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + #install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + install -D -m644 extra/crontab.vim "$pkgdir/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftplugin/crontab.vim" + sed -i -e 's=/var/spool/cron/cronstamps=/var/spool/cronstamps=' extra/prune-cronstamps + install -D -m755 extra/prune-cronstamps "$pkgdir/etc/cron.d/prune-cronstamps" }

But none of those are especially urgent. Note that the logrotate file should not be installed if there continues to be a reference to /var/log/crond.log in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf. I distribute it as an example for users or distros who don't use dcron with syslog. Please file a bug report so we don't forget about this changes. Thanks

-- Andrea

Jim Pryor

8:48 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Mon, May 02, 2011 at 06:19:36AM +0200, Andrea Scarpino wrote:

...

On Sunday 01 May 2011 21:43:42 Jim Pryor wrote:

...
I suggest these changes:

--- PKGBUILD 2011-05-01 21:30:00.046676526 -0400 +++ PKGBUILD.new 2011-05-01 21:35:10.066676512 -0400 @@ -38,5 +38,8 @@ install -D -m0600 extra/root.crontab "$pkgdir/var/spool/cron/root" install -D -m755 extra/crond.rc "$pkgdir/etc/rc.d/crond" install -D -m0644 extra/crond.conf "$pkgdir/etc/conf.d/crond" - install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + #install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + install -D -m644 extra/crontab.vim "$pkgdir/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftplugin/crontab.vim" + sed -i -e 's=/var/spool/cron/cronstamps=/var/spool/cronstamps=' extra/prune-cronstamps + install -D -m755 extra/prune-cronstamps "$pkgdir/etc/cron.d/prune-cronstamps" }

But none of those are especially urgent. Note that the logrotate file should not be installed if there continues to be a reference to /var/log/crond.log in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf. I distribute it as an example for users or distros who don't use dcron with syslog. Please file a bug report so we don't forget about this changes. Thanks

Sure, it's now FS#24040. -- Jim Pryor profjim@jimpryor.net

Pierre Schmitz

8:47 a.m.

New subject: [arch-general] Status of dcron

On Sun, 1 May 2011 21:43:42 -0400, Jim Pryor wrote:

...

On Mon, May 02, 2011 at 04:06:47AM +0300, Grigorios Bouzakis wrote:

...
Jim Pryor wrote:

...
v4.5 was released as a tarball at http://www.jimpryor.net/linux/dcron.html; but Paul won't be able to package it right away.

Pierre already built a 4.5 package, which is current in testing http://www.archlinux.org/packages/testing/i686/dcron

Super, thanks.

I suggest these changes:

--- PKGBUILD 2011-05-01 21:30:00.046676526 -0400 +++ PKGBUILD.new 2011-05-01 21:35:10.066676512 -0400 @@ -38,5 +38,8 @@ install -D -m0600 extra/root.crontab "$pkgdir/var/spool/cron/root" install -D -m755 extra/crond.rc "$pkgdir/etc/rc.d/crond" install -D -m0644 extra/crond.conf "$pkgdir/etc/conf.d/crond" - install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + #install -D -m644 extra/crond.logrotate "$pkgdir/etc/logrotate.d/crond" + install -D -m644 extra/crontab.vim "$pkgdir/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftplugin/crontab.vim" + sed -i -e 's=/var/spool/cron/cronstamps=/var/spool/cronstamps=' extra/prune-cronstamps + install -D -m755 extra/prune-cronstamps "$pkgdir/etc/cron.d/prune-cronstamps" }

But none of those are especially urgent. Note that the logrotate file should not be installed if there continues to be a reference to /var/log/crond.log in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf. I distribute it as an example for users or distros who don't use dcron with syslog.

Thanks for the hint. Just applied that to the package. -- Pierre Schmitz, https://users.archlinux.de/~pierre

David Campbell

1 May 1 May

7:30 a.m.

Excerpts from Ray Kohler's message of 2011-04-30 22:13:24 -0400:

...

The donations were done via PayPal and those in charge decided PayPal wasn't trustworthy for use by non-profit organizations who don't have official government non-profit status.

Have the leadership of Arch considered applying for official non-profit status or joining an organization such as the Software Freedom Conservancy[1]? [1]: http://sfconservancy.org/overview/ -- David Campbell

Kaiting Chen

9:18 a.m.

On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 3:30 AM, David Campbell wrote:

...

Excerpts from Ray Kohler's message of 2011-04-30 22:13:24 -0400:

...
The donations were done via PayPal and those in charge decided PayPal wasn't trustworthy for use by non-profit organizations who don't have official government non-profit status.

Have the leadership of Arch considered applying for official non-profit status or joining an organization such as the Software Freedom Conservancy[1]?

[1]: http://sfconservancy.org/overview/

I had a friend offer to help Arch become 501(c)3 a while ago; but that is an expensive and involved process (usually a couple thousand dollars and a couple hundred hours of work). I think joining the conservancy would be a great move for tax reasons. --Kaiting. -- Kiwis and Limes: http://kaitocracy.blogspot.com/

solsTiCe d'Hiver

6:22 p.m.

Le samedi 30 avril 2011 à 22:13 -0400, Ray Kohler a écrit :

...

The donations were done via PayPal and those in charge decided PayPal wasn't trustworthy for use by non-profit organizations who don't have official government non-profit status.

The last time I donated was via Flattr. Not just a simple Flattr. You can donate the amount you wish with Flattr. but I guess not everyone got a Flattr account.

4751

Age (days ago)

4752

Last active (days ago)

List overview

Download

22 comments

15 participants

participants (15)

Allan McRae
Andrea Scarpino
Bill Day
Cédric Girard
David Campbell
Grigorios Bouzakis
Jim Pryor
Johannes Held
Kaiting Chen
Martin Zecher
Pierre Schmitz
Ray Kohler
Seblu
solsTiCe d'Hiver
Thomas S Hatch