Escrowed Dreamwidth points

[pauamma]

Title:
Escrowed Dreamwidth points

Area:
shop

Summary:
Allow escrowing points to earmark them for work on specific features

Description:
Example use case: I'll give 271828 points to whoever implements an "electrocute commenter" client-server protocol feature inspired from the "electrocute webmaster" option some browsers support. I know that feature is complex and you may be reluctant to work on it with no guarantee of payment, so I'm putting those points in escrow, and I can't touch them or use them for the next 3 years except to transfer them to you.

This may overlap with the Dreamwidth baazar idea that I think someeone suggested long ago, or be a component of it. It may also work at cross-purposes with it.

The main problem is likely handling disputes on releasing points to recipient vs. reclaiming them for sender.

Poll #2673 Escrowed Dreamwidth points

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
7 (19.4%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
7 (19.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
7 (19.4%)

(I have no opinion)
15 (41.7%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[yvi]

/me is running an unofficial thing :)

(With which I mean: YES! Please! Tomorrow???)

[pseudomonas]

yvi, could you act as escrow for the project you're running? People could transfer points to you (or, perhaps better, to a secondary account you control) and you could transfer them on when appropriate. Relies in people trusting you to be the judge of when a job is completed, but it's non-bureaucratic and doesn't involve Dreamwidth's management. Obv if it gets too big for you to manage personally it'd need another arrangement.

[yvi]

Hmmm, I'll think about it. Specifically, whether I really want people to transfer points when someone starts a bug, as this is not what I'd planned... I know that sometime you start coding something and then it doesn't work and you need to 'throw it back'.

Would you mind leaving a comment on the post so I remember to think about it some more?

(EDIT: Also, user-to-user point transfer probably won't be available yet when my project starts. So not necessarily possible in the first weeks anyway...)

[pseudomonas]

Well, I guess for most bugs you don't need escrow at all, just work on trust. This'd only be in cases where the coder insists on it.

[melannen]

Me *likes* this idea. Especially in association with DW bazaar. I suddenly have visions of DW points becoming a widely-accepted international internet currency.

...DW may not want to link it too closely with unofficial-thing-that-is-unofficial, though. Especially because you might want to be careful about having the volunteer developers start to work under anything like formal paid contracts. Unofficial thing is awesome but really needs to stay unofficial.

[cesy]

This would be awesome, but a bit of a nightmare to manage. So yeah, great idea, but I don't want Dreamwidth to get bogged down arbitrating disputes rather than getting on with it's core mission.

[jadelennox]

This, but I still think it would be nice idea. So I would support this suggestion if somebody could write out a fuller spec of what it would mean to manage this, and how disputes would be resolved. Because there would be disputes. Somebody would escrow some points, and then they would be given to somebody who fixed the bug, and then the person who escrowed the points would say "I don't like the way that fix was implemented, give me my points back."

If we can resolve how we would handle managing that, I would support this.

[pauamma]

Hmm, wouldn't the management headaches be of the same kind and intensity as the bazaar would cause? (I sorta kinda expect them to be close, and likely no worse, but I may be overly optimistic.)

[cesy]

If you mean Yvi's unofficial bug auction thing, then no, because it is totally unofficial and she has deliberately said that she offers no guarantees and won't arbitrate either way.

[yvi]

I like to keep myself at least 5% sane :)

[pauamma]

5% of what base level? *ducks*

[yvi]

5% of yours? ;)

[pauamma]

That assumes I have any.

[pauamma]

No, I meant my suggestion.

[goodbyebird]

The ability to also lock your points into paying for account time would be nice. Some people may not be that able to restrain themselves otherwise.

[pauamma]

Hmm. That's different enough that it should probably be a suggestion of its own.

[pauamma]

Where "with changes" is "there are a number of aspects I left unspecified that need to be hashed out before the spec is complete.

[syderia]

This.