Thoughts about (micro) funding for modules, gamification to Drupal.org

Drupal profits from a lot of input from many people. Feature development as well as bug fixing or security updates.

In the Drupal universe I read several articles/posts on social media about how this work can be honored with merits as well as getting a financial funding. I know that Drupal is an Enterprise content framework (far more than a classical content management system) and so main focus is on bigger projects/companies/agencies with a bigger opportunity to contribute bigger amounts of money. For me, as a hobby user and advanced auto-didactic Drupalista, it's simply financially impossible to sponsor a Drupal partnership or similar for several 100$.

But what is possible for me is to put smaller amounts for supporting single projects or support some features of a project. So, crowdfunding is (maybe) the magic key. Nice side effect: People could support Drupal Association in the same way once the technique is implemented.

Micro-funding for the run - one click away

We see it on several websites: Instead of only offering sponsorship to Drupal in general, we could use micro-funding per project additionally. 

Implement a virtual currency and a wallet per user: Do you like "Drops"?

Each Drupal.org user gets a wallet for Drupal's virtual currency (why not let's call it "Drops"?). Everybody could purchase Drops as one-time-transaction or as recurring payments. With purchased drops you could do different things:

• A funding button/widget as call-to-action on every project page 
  Make it easy to help people funding their favorite project on drupal. Implement a widget or a button on every project page. Let them choose how much Drops they want to give for each project.
• Funding button for module features or milestones 
  Strongly wanted features can be supported with "Drops" too. Multiple smaller features could be bundled to milestones.
• Support the Drupal Association with Drops 
  One for all, all for one. Be as musketeer and support the association with a Drop.

Gamification - Move things forward with fun

If you know Duolingo, you probably know what I'm talking about: Gamification can help to motivate people to keep their goals. Similar approach we can use for the Drupal universe.

Crediting is nice, Kudos are better

Allow users to give Kudos to the makers (to be clear, Kudos don't have to be developers only, every helping hand counts). Receiving Kudos should also be possible for projects (perhaps in combination with reviews like at Amazon - so this would help choosing modules for a project)

• Rankings for (a bit) competition
  Rankings for active users for (a little bit) competition. This perhaps will motivate people as long as it's not too extreme (here Duolingo is too annoying sometimes for example).
• Virtual badges and achievements
  Partly already available in drupal.org's DNA. Be good and show this to others (not for blaming but for motivation of course) 
• Rewards for Kudos
  If someone gets a lot of Kudos, they should be rewarded: T-Shirts or a discount in the Drupal swag shop or Drupal events could be examples.

In these approaches I see a great potential to bring a bit more revenue into a great open source project, as long as everybody is friendly and respectful with each other (like it's usual at the awesome Drupal community for years 🤗).