On 5/7/05, Shachar Shemesh wine-devel@shemesh.biz wrote:
Before going into elaborate schemes here, I suggest that everyone consider the following points:
- Sure, commercial companies have something to gain from being listed
on the WineHQ page, but so does Wine.
So this is a mute point.
- If I, as a business owner, am going to be charged more than a token
amount, I had better get a receipt.
You should save all your small receipt's they will add up come tax time.
Otherwise the actual cost to me is
about double the amount I pay Wine. I don't mind if it's 50$ or 100$, but more then that, and I'd want it as a deductible expense. As Wine is not a legally existing body, however, there is no one to issue said receipt.
The "Wine Party Fund" is listed as a non-profit charity in the state of Minnesota so the listing fee could be a minimum donation to this fund. and as its a non-profit you should have the ability to write this off.
- On the flip side, if Wine is going to be receiving such amounts, it
will have to report them to some tax authority. Who will do the reporting, and how?
WPF is a non-profit...
- If we are going to go into 8 steps programs, a contract had better be
involved. Creating one costs money. Keeping it enforced costs money. This money, a.k.a. "overhead", had better come from somewhere.
The kind donations to be listed..
- More importantly than money, keeping the contract and money matters
enforced requires human supervision. This means that someone who could really spend their time hacking wine will need to make sure that the commercial companies adhere to our standards.
Okay, now we get to my concerns..... Who is going to do this even if the listing fee is a poultry $100.00 ? There sure as heck wont be any money to in force anything.
I really suggest we adhere to KISS - Keep It Simple.
And have nothing in place if a rouge company fails to adhear to the LGPL!!!!!!!
I actually liked
the "hackers rating" idea. If a company is well known among the wine hackers, they'll vote for it. If not, list it alphabetically at the end of the former list. As I said before, the token cost was meant mostly to make sure that the company is still alive, but as Andrew said, sending an email once a year to make sure someone responds also works, and does not get anyone in trouble with any tax authority.
Having said all of that, I think I'll actually go with Brian's idea. Let him phrase the criteria. Unlike me, he does not have a commercial interest in Wine.
I say we have a *OPEN* vote on this..... Democracy at its best...
Tom Wickline
Shachar