At my former university there was a large plaque on the second floor wall with the gold title "Contributors to the University." It had the names of various organizations that had donated sums of money to the school.

You might consider a "Cherished Monks Who Have Given To Perlmonks Via The Offering Plate" page.

Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Recognize Contributions
by tachyon (Chancellor) on Jul 02, 2001 at 20:09 UTC

    Perhaps I am just a cynic but one of the beautiful mystical things about this place is that money gets you nothing. Be helpful and witty and you are rewarded, being an A$$#()|E, even a rich one gets you zip. Pity to spoil that but I guess some form of recognition would be a very good idea to help vroom out back in the real world.

    cheers

    tachyon

    s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n\w+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

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Re: Recognize Contributions
by scottstef (Curate) on Jul 03, 2001 at 17:15 UTC
    I have to disagree with this one, how do you recognize those that donate $cash versus the others here that donate their time? Look at the rates the programmers here bill- most of us here make our livings doing this stuff and help each other for no compensation other than personal satisfaction. All cash donations should be kept away from the other users of the monestary to prevent someone who is well off and donating large sums of cash from taking their ball home if they don't like the rules. One of the most frequent threads here are about anonymity. Lets keep it that way, anonymous donations are fine.

    "The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." -- Larry Wall

[reply]
      scottstef, I agree with you up to a point. Participating at Perl Monks is great, helpful, and is good for the community (well... and fun too.) However none of that helps vroom pay bills. This site isn't free to him. That's why the Offering Plate was developed. To make sure that there was some mechanism to try to help keep Perl Monks running financially.

      What I think the point was trying to hit at was a way of recognition for the people who not only make their time contribution, but a financial contribution to keep Perl Monks alive. I don't think that would necessarily be a bad thing. Just think of other donations... you have options. For example my college calls me, and if I want to make an annonymous donation I can, or if I want to be recognized I can. It's the donator's choice. I don't see that to be a big problem. I think it might even generate some more donations if people started to look at the 'donation node' and could see what is (or is not) going on. Even with my college, you never 'really' know what people donated since they put people in 'dontaion ranges' (ie: $0 - $100, $101 - $200, ...)

      Perhaps it's just that I just don't understand one of you're comments: "...donating large sums of cash from taking their ball home if they don't like the rules." I'm not sure what you mean by that. Perhaps I'm just missing you point.

      - Mission
      "Heck I don't know how to do it either, but do you think that's going to stop me?!!"
[reply]
      I have seen several nonprofits/charities/groups broken up because someone that heavily donates $cash gets upset with a decision. Either the people donate so much that the group can not function w/o their support and dies, or they start making decisions based on what the donor wants.

      "The social dynamics of the net are a direct consequence of the fact that nobody has yet developed a Remote Strangulation Protocol." -- Larry Wall

[reply]

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