Upgrade or move to Home Assistant?

[sihui]

@moody_blue

but not the BountySource one

Remove Bountysource links?

It seems that Bountysource has been shut down. Some months ago I tried to get a bounty for https://github.com/openhab/openhab-android/issues/257, but they didn’t pay me out and also didn’t answer my mails. Now the website isn’t reachable anymore. I guess we should remove all badges to this site, like I’ve done in the Android repo: https://github.com/openhab/openhab-android/commit/7312e2f50b37a0dbfb4b45e8cdc61de96202c19c

[Artyom_Syomushkin]

Sorry, just my 5 cents. I donate 1 euro/month to Openhab foundation since quite a few years and will be donating as long as I use OH. BTW I don‘t use Openhab cloud and stay at 2.4.0 cause my Home Automation is mission-critical.

And I assume I‘m not the only one and that OH Foundation entity in Germany as a non-profit organization has enough money to pay to maintainers, which can not be called „volunteers“ anymore in my understanding, as opposite to somebody‘s explanation here. Their contribution should be paid!
If OH foundation doesn‘t pay for OH support, cloud and whole OH Project is „volunteered“ - let me know and i will stop supporting this useless organization.

[hmerk (Hans-Jörg Merk)]

@Artyom_Syomushkin

Sorry, just my 5 cents. I donate 1 euro/month to Openhab foundation since quite a few years and will be donating as long as I use OH

And the foundation is thankfull for every donation received.

@Artyom_Syomushkin

And I assume I‘m not the only one and that OH Foundation entity in Germany as a non-profit organization has enough money to pay to maintainers

I really wonder how you can tell how much money the foundation has.

@Artyom_Syomushkin

which can not be called „volunteers“ anymore in my understanding, as opposite to somebody‘s explanation here

I think you are referring to my earlier explanations and I am happy to repeat myself.
Reason for not being able to pay maintainers or developers is not a lack of money, but German tax regulations. This is hard to understand for non German residents. The openHAB foundation was founded with a clear goal written in the constitution, customer information and customer safety. This is the base we received the non-profit status and tax exemption for.
Spending money for other purposes would risk those and we would have to close the foundation. And guess what would happen to all the servers (myopenHAB, discourse, jenkins, website) the foundation is paying for? We would need to shut them down.
So please, don’t ever call the foundation a useless organization again.
It is far, far from that.

[Artyom_Syomushkin]

@hmerk

I really wonder how you can tell how much money the foundation has.

Shouldn‘t it be in open report? It‘s not a confidential information, isn‘t it?

@hmerk

The openHAB foundation was founded with a clear goal written in the constitution, customer information and customer safety. This is the base we received the non-profit status and tax exemption for.

I‘m a german resident too btw.
Sorry, now I read the Satzung and i‘m lost.

• Who pays for OH Cloud?
• who pays for OH Repos, Build and CI Servers/Infrastructure?
• Who pays for Openhab website hosting and this community server?

[hmerk (Hans-Jörg Merk)]

@Artyom_Syomushkin

Shouldn‘t it be in open report?

No, it is confidential.

@Artyom_Syomushkin

I‘m a german resident too btw.

Ok, could not know this.

@Artyom_Syomushkin

Sorry, now I read the Satzung and i‘m lost.

• Who pays for OH Cloud?
• who pays for OH Repos, Build and CI Servers/Infrastructure?
• Who pays for Openhab website hosting and this community server?

The openHAB foundation is paying for all the servers running the above, as they are needed to fulfill what the foundation stands for.
But if you read the constitution, there is nothing written about development. So paying a developer would not be covered by the „allowed“ expenses, in German „Betriebskosten“.

[Oliver2 (Oliver)]

I read a few times (also in other threads) that important tasks for openhab (such as marketing, coordination or payment of developers) may not be pursued by the foundation at the risk of losing its NPO status. Understood. What is the downside of losing the status and become a non-NPO as we gain more (monetary) flexibility to support and fund important tasks around openhab?
I certainly have limited information but at the moment it seems to me as this model (how old is it anyway) is ancient and cannot cope with challenges of today.

[hmerk (Hans-Jörg Merk)]

@Oliver2

What is the downside of losing the status and become a non-NPO as we gain more (monetary) flexibility to support and fund important tasks around openhab?

We would also loose the tax exemption and it will make it more difficult to receive donations.

But this is nothing to be discussed in this topic here!

[matt1 (Skinah)]

@hmerk

But this is nothing to be discussed in this topic here!

Agree not the place but this should be looked and discussed. In my country and a member of a non for profit association, the association likes to have yearly meetings with members and are open on bank balances and vote as to where the funds get spent to ensure the goals of the association are moving forwards and the members feel the funds are in trustworthy hands. Perhaps this can get moved to a new thread and discussed? With bounty source now closed there are a number of areas that need sorting out.

[hmerk (Hans-Jörg Merk)]

@matt1

In my country and a member of a non for profit association, the association likes to have yearly meetings with members and are open on bank balances and vote as to where the funds get spent to ensure the goals of the association are moving forwards and the members feel the funds are in trustworthy hands.

We have an annual assembly where all foundation members are invited and can discuss anything. Bank balances are published to the members on those meetings as well.