Re: Linking to non-free websites from gnome.org

[Jim Nelson <jim yorba org>]

...it seems totally reasonable that people might loosely refer to crowdfunding as fundraising in this sort of context. If you were confused, then you only needed to ask for specifics. :D

I wasn't confused, and I wasn't speaking about the recent Groupon fundraiser.  There's been a few calls here for free software alternatives to Indiegogo as well as GNOME becoming involved with those alternatives.  Many of the proposed alternatives were not crowdfunding and shouldn't be treated as drop-in replacements.  I don't feel I'm being pedantic making that point.

As a side note, I really don't think the Groupon experience should be held up as a shiny example.  That issue went viral in a matter of hours and carried with it an urgency that's impossible to replicate.  What's more (as far as I'm aware) funds were not disbursed to any community projects.  I would hesitate to say the Groupon event "proves" GNOME could or should be involved in project fundraising.

That said, I'll leave the propriety (or reality) of GNOME being involved in project fundraising to others.

I do think it is fair to concede that a banner is an endorsement.

That's what I meant by context.  If the discussion had stayed with a banner on the GNOME home page, I wouldn't have brought the link question up.  When the discussion veered into a link policy on the wiki and blogs, that's where I felt the need to speak out.

-- Jim