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

Thu Sep 30 01:00:50 CEST 2010

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
+