This proposal is a larger suggestion that is out of scope for the Community Tech team. Participants are welcome to vote on it, but please note that regardless of popularity, there is no guarantee this proposal will be implemented. Supporting the idea helps communicate its urgency to the broader movement.
Develop community wishlist into crowdfunding platform
Problem: Too few community wishlist items get implemented each years, those that are implemented took too long to develop, not enough funding allocated by WMF to push these community wishes
Proposed solution: Let people put their money behind their ideas and use the money to hire professional people to contribute toward specific woshes once they are filled.
Who would benefit: Every Wikipedia users, and WMF
More comments: WMF can also get more donation from the process, and the Mediawiki can get more help in becoming more polished.
Hello there @C933103, the Wikimedia Technology Fund may relate to the desired functionality of this wish. We've discussed this wish as a team. We are moving it to Larger Suggestions and brainstorming ways to receive feedback on the Wishlist process. Let us know if the Grants information helps with this idea! Thanks. NRodriguez (WMF) (talk) 19:50, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Those funds require technical knowledges and expendable time that many users might not have. They also use up existing WMF funding instead of attracting more funding for the project. It would be like the opposite of the project: The grant programs mentioned let people who have time and technology contribute by receiving financial help from WMF, while the proposed crowdfunding would allow people provide financial assistance to development in specific way they desire in exchange for third party time and effort to help with development. C933103 (talk) 00:59, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Putting a donation button on the relevant toolhub page would be nice. Most professional code forges have similar functionality. (Vaguely related discussion: T231814) --Tgr (talk) 03:15, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
This idea isn't possible (the methodology might be up for grabs, but true crowdfunding attached to ideas could be implemented). There would be fairly substantial queries about what to do with ideas that get some money but not really enough to act on - say a string of ideas with £5000. Nosebagbear (talk) 09:55, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose There is enough money already, the WMF isn't in debt or something. So, there's no need for crowdfunding. I'd rather suggest crowdsourcing. If you want things get done faster, make it possible for community volunteers and/or non-Wikimedian programmers to claim a CWS task and work on it for some stipend. —(ping on reply)—CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 07:50, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Geofferic (talk) 08:29, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
Oppose There is enough money already, the WMF isn't in debt or something. So, there's no need for crowdfunding. I'd rather suggest crowdsourcing. If you want things get done faster, make it possible for community volunteers and/or non-Wikimedian programmers to claim a CWS task and work on it for some stipend. —(ping on reply)—CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 07:50, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
