offering my services for $$$ to remove people's names from the archives?

offering my services for $$$ to remove people's names from the archives?

[Christopher Faylor]

I think I'm spending way too much time trying to explain site policy
regarding editing of the archives.  And, I really don't want to start
editing archives for the clueless as a matter of course.  I'm just a
volunteer here.  I'm not a Red Hat sysadmin or anything like that.

I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
service.  Is that a really terrible money grubbing suggestion?  Does it
set a bad precedent?  I vaguely recall that someone might have suggested
this in the past but I don't remember if it was a serious suggestion or
not.

Part of my reason for wanting to do this is that I got scammed on ebay
recently while trying to purchase a laptop and I'm scrounging around
trying to get back some of what I lost so that I can actually buy a
laptop.

But, I also think there is a certain justice in being paid for my time
fixing other people's screwups.  I spent a fair amount of time dealing
with the fact that people let viruses onto their system last weekend so
this would be a small recompense for that as well.

If someone else wants to undercut my $20 and do this for less, I'm
perfectly fine with that too, of course.

If this seems unprofessional or otherwise untoward let me know and I'll
stick with the current state of affairs.

cgf

Re: offering my services for $$$ to remove people's names from the archives?

[Christopher Faylor]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 12:30:38AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>I think I'm spending way too much time trying to explain site policy
>regarding editing of the archives.  And, I really don't want to start
>editing archives for the clueless as a matter of course.  I'm just a
>volunteer here.  I'm not a Red Hat sysadmin or anything like that.
>
>I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
>service.  Is that a really terrible money grubbing suggestion?  Does it
>set a bad precedent?  I vaguely recall that someone might have suggested
>this in the past but I don't remember if it was a serious suggestion or
>not.
>
>Part of my reason for wanting to do this is that I got scammed on ebay
>recently while trying to purchase a laptop and I'm scrounging around
>trying to get back some of what I lost so that I can actually buy a
>laptop.
>
>But, I also think there is a certain justice in being paid for my time
>fixing other people's screwups.  I spent a fair amount of time dealing
>with the fact that people let viruses onto their system last weekend so
>this would be a small recompense for that as well.

Just to be clear:  I have no qualms about helping out actual contributors
to the free software community free of charge.  They are already providing
me with more than I can hope to repay.  If we do change policy so that
we are willing to change the archives and an Andrew Cagney or Mark Mitchell
or Jonathan Larmour wants a change, I'll do it gladly.

However, the vast majority of the requests that we get for this kind of
thing come from the cygwin community and the messages they need to edit
are generally of the order of "How do I cygwin my desktop with my
account so that I can remote the shell login?  Please call me at
555-1234." variety.  These people generally want to engage in bitter
dialog about why their two year old mailing list archive message
desperately needs to be changed within the next hour.  Those are the
people for whom I'd like to offer some relief at a price.

cgf

Re: offering my services for ... to remove people's names from the archives?

[Jason Molenda]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 12:30:38AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:

> I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
> service.   

I have no problem with this.  There's no way I'd personally be
willing to explain PayPal to the sorts of people who need this
help, but more power to you if you want to do it.

We're all volunteers on this, even though you happen to be working
for the company that is paying the net access and power fees.  If
there's support work that I don't want to to do, I'm a volunteer
-- I don't do it.  If you're willing to do this lame stuff in return
for a bit of compensation, go for it.

J

Re: offering my services for $$$ to remove people's names from the archives?

[Jason Molenda]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 12:30:38AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:

> I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
> service.   

I have no problem with this.  There's no way I'd personally be
willing to explain PayPal to the sorts of people who need this
help, but more power to you if you want to do it.

We're all volunteers on this, even though you happen to be working
for the company that is paying the net access and power fees.  If
there's support work that I don't want to to do, I'm a volunteer
-- I don't do it.  If you're willing to do this lame stuff in return
for a bit of compensation, go for it.

J

Re: offering my services for ... to remove people's names from the archives?

[Christopher Faylor]

On Tue, Jun 03, 2003 at 10:15:30PM -0700, Jason Molenda wrote:
>On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 12:30:38AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>>I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for
>>this service.
>
>I have no problem with this.  There's no way I'd personally be willing
>to explain PayPal to the sorts of people who need this help, but more
>power to you if you want to do it.

I thought I might get a certain amount of evil pleasure from explaining
the options to these people.

>We're all volunteers on this, even though you happen to be working for
>the company that is paying the net access and power fees.  If there's
>support work that I don't want to to do, I'm a volunteer -- I don't do
>it.  If you're willing to do this lame stuff in return for a bit of
>compensation, go for it.

Thanks.  I'll let you know if I retire thanks to all of the cash that will
roll in...

cgf

Re: offering my services for $$$ to remove people's names from the archives?

[Per Bothner]

Christopher Faylor wrote:

> I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
> service.  Is that a really terrible money grubbing suggestion?  Does it
> set a bad precedent?  I vaguely recall that someone might have suggested
> this in the past but I don't remember if it was a serious suggestion or
> not.

I suggested it.

Is $20 enough to compensate for your time?  After all you now also have
to explain Paypal to them as well ...

Perhaps $29.  Explain it in terms they can understand: "that's the
amount my credit card company charges me when I'm late or bounce a
check - and they do it all automatically.'
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/

Re: offering my services for ... to remove people's names from the archives?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, Jason Molenda wrote:
>> I was thinking of having people donate $20 to my paypal account for this
>> service.
> If there's support work that I don't want to to do, I'm a volunteer -- I
> don't do it. If you're willing to do this lame stuff in return for a bit
> of compensation, go for it.

I'm a bit hesitant whether that's acceptable for the gcc.gnu.org side of
things, though for sources.redhat.com/cygwin.com, why not?

(Just a hint: I'm not familiar with the US tax system, but I suppose you
may need to pay income tax for these "donations" in case someone of those
having paid reports you to the IRS.)

Gerald
-- 
Gerald Pfeifer (Jerry)   gerald@pfeifer.com   http://www.pfeifer.com/gerald/