Set up Open Collective and utilize ethical ads on ReadTheDocs

[tim-schilling]

It was brought up to me that there is revenue source (albeit small) on ReadTheDocs that we could collect to then fund various systems. It also sets up the baseline process for the organization to collect funding in the future and dispense it to others.

If a repository's admins wants to utilize the ad revenue for their own needs that should be the priority.

We used Open Collective for Djangonaut Space which had the requirement of a minimum of 50 people in the group before they would be accepted.

[tim-schilling]

@django-commons/admins I'm curious about your thoughts on this. There isn't a rush on it.

[cunla]

Re: readthedocs, I think the tradeoff of income vs. "ads fatigue" of users is not great.

I am using it on fakeredis and so far (8 months) I haven't reached the threshold to be paid (20CAD out of 100CAD needed :) ). I am considering whether to remove it or wait for the threshold at least on my package.

Though, if package admins want to pursue it, they can do that.

[Stormheg]

I'd rather see less ads than more, but as long as the ads aren't intrusive (pop-ups/animated ads) I would tolerate them on an Django Commons-hosted project.

Getting some form of revenue doesn't sound like a bad idea. It could cover future expenses, but judging from Daniel's comment about the ads payout threshold it sounds like an obstacle that could make it 'not worth it'.

What about attempting to move people to donate instead? Chipping in to support open-source could be a more normal thing.

[tim-schilling]

What about attempting to move people to donate instead?

If revenue becomes a major concern, I'd recommend us becoming a WG of the DSF. Right now, I believe these ads run regardless. I look at it as a way to find a small revenue stream and help normalize funding OSS devs in some small fashion.

Regarding the threshold, right now the debug toolbar does about 25,000 page views per month, which is about $40/mo.

[williln]

I don't mind the idea of running ads via ethical ads on ReadTheDocs, but I have some implementation questions if we decide to do it.

If a repository's admins wants to utilize the ad revenue for their own needs that should be the priority.

Would this become part of the onboarding process, an option to run ethical ads on their project and an option to direct those proceeds to django-commons maintenance or keep the revenue for their own project?

[tim-schilling]

I hadn't thought that far ahead, but yes that would make sense. It'd also impact changing project admins and transferring a project out.