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Miro Asks Users To "Adopt" Lines of Source

Posted by kdawson on from the pray-you-don't-get-refactored dept.

soDean writes "The FOSS video player / downloader Miro is asking its users to support development by 'adopting' a line of source code for $4 a month. Each adopted line of code comes personalized with a little avatar character that will grow older over the year. PCF, which makes Miro, says they think the project is the first of its kind and they believe it's a chance to 'to have a truly bottom up funding base.'"

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Smart FOSS Marketing! by alain94040 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Finally an Open Source project with some real marketing geniuses on board! That alone deserves celebration.

    I don't think this will quite work, but it's a step in the right direction. Will users get to pick which line they adopt? You could even imagine an auction system. Some lines might become very trendy: "I own the main function declaration of the program, but that cost me $500".

    I'll ask the people on my entrepreneur network if they like the model!

  2. The Sims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the developers at Miro will spend all their time making sure their emoticons age properly instead of actually coding!

  3. Whole Function or Class by some_guy_88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they let you adopt a whole function or even a whole class, this could be a cool way of not only making money but also minimising bugs.

    People who adopt are likely going to read the code they get so this is a good way to get lots of eyes on the source.

    Just a thought..

  4. Re:$4 a line?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hah, I know! I write thousands of lines of code a day!

    My coworkers keep telling me I could do the same thing in just 10 lines of code of decent, maintainable code by refactoring and using abstraction, but I'm pretty sure they're all just slackers.