Help and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is FreedomSponsors?

FreedomSponsors is a crowdfunding platform for programming tasks of Free and Open Source Software.

You can place money bounties for issues that you care about getting fixed, and you can collect bounties by working on open issues.

What makes FreedomSponsors different from other crowdfunding sites?

The main difference is that we are focused on helping the Open Source and Free Software community.

But we believe that what really makes us unique is that we have a strong philosophy based on openness and freedom.

That philosophy means we put the community first in everything we do. Here's a few examples:

• We want to build a community based on trust and reputation. Sponsors only have to pay their bounty after the developer resolves the issue (but you can choose to pay before, if you wish.)

• We want to build free, libre, open source software. Our users' software freedom is important to us, so this website is libre/open source on the front-end and the back end. We don't use third-party javascript code that can allow our users' online activities to be spied on. This includes Google Analytics, Facebook Like buttons, and things like that. We also follow the FSF guidelines for free, libre javascript code.

• We want to be the change we wish to see in the world. We're "open everything", so everything we do is out in the open: Check out our website statistics, browse our blog, and see the way we handle all feedback. It has a lot in common with the "open company" concept pioneered by our friends at Gittip.

Last but not least, FreedomSponsors is proudly made in Brazil. If you ever come visit , let's get together and have some caipirinhas! :-)

Do you really think that idea could work?

Yes. Honestly, we do.

We believe that there are enough decent, honest people in the world for this to work.

A wise guy once said, stay foolish. We intend to do just that.

Have you heard of the Agile Manifesto? FreedomSponsors is all about taking the third Agile principle to its ultimate consequence: "Customer collaboration over contract negotiation."

We want to give people the ability to push forwards the projects they love. No contracts, just trust that developers also love these projects too, and feel happy when they can be paid to put more work into them.

How do I change my profile picture?

Use Gravatar.

Gravatar is a nice and simple online service that will let you upload avatar pictures and associate them with an email address.

For example, the email tony@freedomsponsors.org is linked to this image.

So create your Gravatar account and associate an avatar to the email you use here.

Simple.

How can I tell if a sponsor is serious about his offer?

Like eBay, you should check out their profile and take a look at their history. If there are a lot of unpaid offers on resolved issues, that's a bad sign.

So you have a reputation system?

Yes, but later (that's the way clever people say no).

We just display the user history attached to a profile. But we intend to have something more sophisticated in the future.

How do I add credit to FreedomSponsors?

Actually you just pay each developer directly.

What about privacy?

Our purpose is to do business in public. We don't show your email address, but everything that you do here (making an offer, saying you'll work on an issue, all your comments) is public for the world to see.

How do payments work?

Payments can be made either in USD via Paypal, or in Bitcoins

If you don't have a Paypal account, setting up one is very easy and you can do it when you're making your first payment.
Setting up a bitcoin wallet is also very easy, see "What is Bitcoin?".

Before you can receive payments, we recommend you have both a Paypal account and a Bitcoin address so you can accept all offers. We check that each Paypal account is valid before allowing anyone to make a payment to it.

FreedomSponsors charges a 3% fee on top of offers, regardless of the payment method. We clearly state this on each payment page. To keep things simple, we use Paypal’s Parallel payment type, so a single payment is sent to two or more receivers.

For example, when you want to pay a US$ 100 bounty, you may decide to give US$ 50 each to 2 developers. On Paypal’s website, you will see:

• Developer A: USD $50
• Developer B: USD $50
• FreedomSponsors' 3% fee: USD $3
• PayPal's Fee: USD $4.60 (may vary)
• -----------------------------------------------------------
• TOTAL: USD $107.60

Bitcoin has no “parallel payment.” Instead, you send us, we verify the transaction, keep 3%, and transfer the rest to the developer(s) being paid.

Since our system is libre, you can review the code that processes transactions for both Paypal and Bitcoin .

I don't have a Paypal account or a Bitcoin wallet, is that ok?

To be able to receive payments, you’ll need to set up one of these options on your profile page.

If you're sponsoring issues, you don't need that until right before making your payment. If you made an offer in USD and you don't have a Paypal account, you'll be prompted to setup one when you're making your first payment (and it's very easy to do so).

What is Bitcoin?

If you don't know what Bitcoin is, you should! This short video (1m44s) does an excellent job explaining it.

If you still don’t have a Bitcoin Wallet, it’s really easy to set up one – and it’s free. You can either host your wallet on your computer using a Bitcoin client, or you can create a wallet online in a web wallet provider. Take a look at this link to learn more about those options: http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Two developers are claiming to have resolved my issue. What should I do?

First, verify that the issue is really solved. It's perfectly OK to pay only after your problem is really fixed.

Then you have to decide whether you'll pay developer A, developer B, or both. To make a fair choice, do a little digging and check out the original issue to see how it went down.

Maybe one person submitted a pull request for a bugfix, and another person had to rework it and then merged it. If so, they both deserve some thanks, and your money. You decide how much you pay to whom. The choice is yours.

How a fix done by an independent developer will return back to the main project (trunk)?

Ideally, there should be no "independent developers". The best way for a developer to contribute to an open source project is to actually get involved with the corresponding community.

In most cases, it is also a bad thing for the end user (meaning, the sponsor) if the work is done on a branch, or a fork of the main codebase, because then the user would not benefit from new improvements that eventually get added in the future.

The "Sponsor issue" form has a "No Forking" checkbox as part of the acceptance criteria. By checking it, the sponsor is telling that only solutions that are implemented on the main project's codebase will be accepted.

We want to encourage sponsors to actually fund the original projects, so that checkbox comes checked by default.

I resolved an issue, but the sponsor just didn't pay me. What can I do?

Normally we have an atmosphere of gratitude and collaboration among sponsors and developers. However we do know that conflict situations may come up.

Try to resolve conflict with compassion. An excellent book that explains how to do this is Marshall Rosenberg's "Non-Violent Communication: A Language of Life".

Simply, tell them how you feel without judging them or evaluating the situation, then request a description of what their ideal situation is, and ask for suggestion about how to get there.

If you feel upset, and judge the sponsor as not trustworthy, remember that the issue - and its comment history - will be publicly linked to the sponsor's account. If you feel unhappy, we suggest you go to sleep before posting anything you might later regret.

Can I get paid before I complete the issue?

Yes. When you start working on an issue, simply check the “start accepting payments” box, and kindly ask your patrons to pay you.

We recommend only doing this when you're confident that you will be able to complete the issue. If you think the total payment should be higher, track down some other users who suffer from this issue and ask them to check it out on FreedomSponsors.

Can I send a payment before the issue is completed?

It depends.

Normally you have to wait until the developer has marked the issue as “DONE”.

However you can do this when the issue is “IN_PROGRESS” and the developer has indicated that they wish to start accepting payments. But remember that it's ok to wait until the issue is finished before you pay the developer.

We encourage you to only pay beforehand to developers you know you can trust!

I paid for an unfinished issue, and the developer won't deliver. What can I do?

Politely ask for a refund — from the developer. We cannot refund you because payments are made directly to developers.

(This is why we encourage to only pay beforehand to developers you know you can trust.)

Does FreedomSponsors have any kind of integration API?

Yes but it's still very basic. Please check out the developers section. If you feel you need services there are not available, don't hesitate to open a feedback issue.

Who is behind FreedomSponsors?

Calleri Informática is the legal entity behind FreedomSponsors.

CNPJ:10.522.445/0001-95

Address:Rua Araçuaí, 89, Bosque dos Eucaliptos.>São José dos Campos - São Paulo - Brazil.

CEP:12233-380

Phone numbers:+55 12 39371638 / +55 12 81440013

We've also had a lot of help from awesome people who love libre, to whom we are all deeply grateful

Tell me more about FreedomSponsors!

You are keen! Here are 3 simple ways to get stuck in:

• Read our Blog, starting on the About page to learn more about our history and what we'll do next
• Follow tonylampada on Twitter to keep easily informed about his progress (or Like us on Facebook if that's your thing)
• Join our mailing list to chat with others in our community.

What technology and tools are used to build this website?

FreedomSponsors is a Django web application using a Postgresql relational database. The front-end also uses a little bit of AngularJS.

The source code is publicly hosted on Github and we use Jenkins for continuous integration.

A special thanks goes out to JetBrains for providing the Open Source license for its awesome Pycharm IDE, which is heavily used for the development of FreedomSponsors.

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What can I do to help?

We need all kinds of help, not just coding. Check out our README file's section on Helping out.

I have more questions!

If you don't know what a Github is, but you found an issue with our website or have any suggestion or comment at all, we want to hear from you! Drop your thoughts on our feedback section.

If you do know what Github is, log in and create a new issue on our repo. Write what you wish to be better and we'll hop to it.

(If you don't know what a Github is but want to find out, spend 15 fun minutes on try.github.io)