Thanksgiving - no donation this year

Maturin

Maturin

I was just giving my annual donation to the foundation, and to thank the developers, the foundation, and the community, for FreeBSD, and this forums, for all the help.
It turned out: Just simply donate the usual amount ain't possible anymore.
It asks me, if I want to donate monthly/quarterly/yearly - no.
Keeps asking me again, if want to "upgrade" to a monthly payment - NO!
And even I was telling I want to donate anonymously, it insists on name, email, address, telefonnumber, and town, ask to subscribe to some mailing list ("Newsletter" - No, thanks!), which by experience will happen anyway if you gave an email address, even when you explicitely told them not to, and they told you they won't then - No! -
and to agree to the privacy policy. So no!
No. No. No! And NO!

So, no donation by me this year.

Thanks guys.
 
I don't even know what to say... it's easier to donate, for example, to someone who actively helps others on this forum. Isn't that a way to directly help someone in our community?
 
I am not aware of how one can donate to a single person of the communtiy, and that's not what I wanted.
I donate(d) every year a (small) amount to the foundation. By my understanding this money gets into a pot, which the foundation hold, and decides together with head developers for what the money is spent best on to keep FreeBSD alive, and improve it.
All the years before it was simply done by simply click on "donate [ ] bucks" - "thanks" done.
Now they want everything - even if I explicitely checked the button for anonymous (Maybe somebody with a dictionary explain to them what 'anonymous' means) - some email address ain't enough (even that was too much to ask.) For what? ("Better customer experience." Yeah, right.)
To me that's a no go.
What comes next? You need to register to download FreeBSD?
Maybe it's time to look for alternatives again... :-/
 
Some modernization in the donation pipeline might not be out of order, though. Don't get me wrong, agree full heartedly with everything you wrote.

Just one example: You could have different "wishlist" items with a budget bar that needs filling, a little like gofundme. That way different projects that the users and developers feel are pressing can get effectively "voted" on and executed. I don't mean willy-nilly, the foundation could curate a list. But just one possibility. I'm pretty sure research shows that if you make something interactive and you involve people in the process, they will spend more money.

It also might help in reminding that FreeBSD is a (needed) service, by tying money donations to actual functional utility.

I don't know. I'm a starving artist, but I might shell out a few bucks for a proper C interface to zfs. Or if somebody makes a case for some subsystem I didn't even know about that I needed..

Some thoughts, since we're on the subject.
 
That you all could do before: You could give additional information, if you wanted to - freely.
But now you cannot anymore. You have to give away personal information - no matter what.

And there always was the way to tell "please, use this money for primarily on..." But that's not what I wanted.
I'm no company donate some ten thousands dollars for getting a certain functionality, I'm just a user who just uses FreeBSD - and want to stay this.
Apart from the foundation will lose money (I hope so. Some only learn the hard way), because others will see it the same way, and not donate (anymore), the worse part I see this is a trendsetter.

Yeah, yeah, I know - "it's all completely strictly confidential. Nothing is given to anybody else, ever." Yeah, right. How often I heard and read that one. And then very short after that suddenly, by pure coincidence of course my spam input significantly rises, which source I cannot prove of course, plus I receive newsletters that I never wanted, told them I didn't want them but cannot be canceled and keep on coming anyway, not matter how often I click on the link "no newsletter anymore", or send them emails, telling them I expilicitely asked for not getting any newsletter at all in the first place, that I don't read that crap anyway, it all goes directly unread into the trash bin, and my spamfilter already blocks most of that shit anyway, but you cannot completely cancel this, because they find ways to get you their damned newsletter, except you block the whole domain or delete your email address, wich I don't want as long as I am still a user of FreeBSD, this forums, and subscribed to several mailing lists...
Can't be that hard to understand that.
I thought FreeBSD guys were aware of that.
Maybe somebody can explain it to them in a way they understand.
 
I believe 501c3 nonprofit orgs such FreeBSD Foundation must keep donor records for at least 5 years for IRS purposes. If you want almost total anonymity, give your money to a friend who can then pass it on in their name! All such nonprofits will try to tempt you to give them more money &/or want your email or snail mail address to touch you for more money in future! It is what it is.
 
It worked before.

Normally I - the donator - need to name where I donate money to, if I want to get some tax refund for it. The recipient normally needs to fully tell the complete amount of money he receives, not to tell from where it came - unless it's a politician or a political party, and is only needed over a certain amount. I am not from some country of the "Axis of evil" (at least last time I checked I wasn't) and not trying to support some revolutionary plutonium dealers, or whatever, but an open source operating system. If this was some kind of a new law, I don't care. There are ways to collect donations anonymously elsewhere - maybe open a branch in Canada, or Europe? 😁

Long story short:
As long as donations are bound to give any personal information (beancounters prevention: any additional information, as they get by a credit card transaction) they don't get a single cent by me.
End of story.
 
Oh yeah lol, European Union and Canada, those bastions of liberty and personal freedom, where government doesn't allow anybody to collect anything form you, much less do it themselves!

Alright, fine, I'm done.

It all went to the Devil after they went after the Holy See for money laundering. You may think what you want about the institution, but it was at least a symbollic admission that there was a limit to governments.

Now?

All anybody can think who reads these thigs you write is "he's right... but good luck with that!"
 
lost_in_c said:
European Union and Canada, those bastions of liberty and personal freedom, ...
Click to expand...
Shouldn't FreeBSD deserve to reside in a country of the remaining free world?
I might donate a substantial amount of money, if the FreeBSD Foundation would relocate away from US-legislation to Canada, Europe or Island.
 
POSIX.1 said:
I might donate a substantial amount of money, if the FreeBSD Foundation would relocate away from US-legislation to Canada, Europe or Island.
Click to expand...

This sounds like "I'll move to Canada if Trump wins."

No you f won't.

Kind of obscene places where the order in which you put your socks on is legislated claiming to be the free world. But there it is. One day the free world might really go down, and I suppose you will finally have the complete servility you crave. I wonder if you would like it as much as you think.
 
POSIX.1 said:
Shouldn't FreeBSD deserve to reside in a country of the remaining free world?
I might donate a substantial amount of money, if the FreeBSD Foundation would relocate away from US-legislation to Canada, Europe or Island.
Click to expand...

If they did that US donors would not be able to deduct donations from their taxes.
 
lost_in_c said:
Kind of obscene places where the order in which you put your socks on is legislated claiming to be the free world. But there it is. One day the free world might really go down, and I suppose you will finally have the complete servility you crave. I wonder if you would like it as much as you think.
Click to expand...

You are talking to people who have actually lived in multiple countries. Your simplified views are of little use on this forum.
 
cracauer@ said:
I just went through the process until paypal and I had no problem staying with a one-time donation except for one nudge to upgrade to monthly.
Click to expand...
I think the OP just wanted to complain! 🤷
POSIX.1 said:
Shouldn't FreeBSD deserve to reside in a country of the remaining free world?
I might donate a substantial amount of money, if the FreeBSD Foundation would relocate away from US-legislation to Canada, Europe or Island.
Click to expand...
You can setup a parallel org in Eu or anywhere else and, if you wish, collaborate with the US foundation to donate. It would have to follow whatever local legal requirements for a nonprofit. If you don’t care about donation related tax deductions, you can directly support whomever you wish!
Maturin said:
Long story short:
As long as donations are bound to give any personal information (beancounters prevention: any additional information, as they get by a credit card transaction) they don't get a single cent by me.
End of story.
Click to expand...
Why bother complaining here?
 

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I have to agree - too much harvesting of personal data on the donations form e.g:

"Are you currently employed?

(Yes)

(No)
This field is required"

(no idea why that would be a mandatory field)

Also, phone number and email, etc...
 
blackhole said:
I have to agree - too much harvesting of personal data on the donations form e.g:

"Are you currently employed?

(Yes)

(No)
This field is required"
Click to expand...
This is obnoxious. It's really none of their damn business.

blackhole said:
Also, phone number and email, etc...
Click to expand...
I got these in the credit card flow, and I'm pretty sure it's the card that requires 'em. You could always snail mail them a money order, I guess.

I suspect this nonsense is driven by their use of the Donorbox service. I'm creeped out by the fact there are no last names for the company leadership in their "About" page:

About Donorbox

donorbox.org donorbox.org

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence or trust.
 
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