Indeed. I wonder how much just joining Google's ads network would rake in for Wine. ( https://www.google.com/adsense/ )
I have also made this suggestion!
I suppose that's arguably a better way of monetizing our page rank.
I have to confess that I don't have a clearly articulated argument against it, just an unease in my gut.
For example, if we do raise money, who gets to decide how it's allocated? I've been pretty uncomfortable essentially being the person deciding for the ~ $2K/year we've been raising. How do we decide if we raise $10,000? Every time I tried to find a way to spend money on Wine, basically folks have said 'never mind'.
(As a side note, the purse strings are now in the hand of the Conservancy; they basically require proof of a clear consensus of the Wine project before disbursing funds).
Second, I really like the idea of a campaign specifically for travel expenses. Every time I've tried to spend Wine money on things other than Wineconf, it just hasn't worked out, or been necessary. But if we have a campaign just around travel sponsorship, then it's clear to folks donating what it's for.
But I wonder if it makes sense to move this discussion to a broader venue? (Or, perhaps, send an email to wine-devel letting folks know that this discussion is going on here).
I think this is one of those areas where people may have strong opinions that they've been too polite to air, and it may be useful to air them.
Cheers,
Jeremy