I have an idea for donationcredits.
How about a system where a number of users can request certain types of software, and anyone who requests that software can enter a donation "bid" amount. Any other members, or even one of the submitting members, could choose to accept the current total of "bids" and make the software release within X amount of time. If it's done in time, all bids go to the developer. If not, they are either returned or left in the project for the next developer.
Users could retract their bid at any time, but I'm thinking to make it fair you cannot retract your bid within X days of the deadline, so that if a developer was relying on a certain bid price, for example to pay back something he had to purchase during development or whatever, he's not stuck with nothing at the end, unless he goes in expecting nothing, which is fine too (eg. people don't HAVE to actually bid credits, you can just request the software).
Hey, the system could even be called, *trumpets* ... Donation Coder
What do you think? I think it would be a unique way of interaction between developer and user, and it would give that extra incentive for developers to create software that their users want.
Updated ideas:
It also would be cool to allow sorting by topic, title, number of users requesting, full bid amount, etc. Maybe filtering too, if you're trying to pay off your software or something you could filter it by the amount of the software. Just another idea to go along with the above.
Also, a developer showcase would be nice. if certain developers consistently cater to users needs and complete a number of requests, they could be displayed as a top developer. As a side feature to this, users could maybe even vote on completed software or graphics, and all of the votes for a developer's software add up to be his/her rating.
Thanks,
Ben M