How do we make sure we can release new versions?

Hey everyone,

So as you might’ve seen in the README we are currently blocked from releasing new versions because no one maintaining this project has an Apple developer subscription. They are $100 a year and no one of the maintainers has any other use for such a subscription, so it makes no sense to purchase such subscription for this reason only.

After adding that info to the README I got a few people contacting me about wanting to help (big thanks!), but between the time I added that info and now Apple changed how they handle Safari extensions. Before you could just compile your extension in Safari, get a .safariextz and use that binary to share your extension. No person dependency. Now it seems like you must publish your extension to the Safari gallery (see #99).

This makes it really hard because someone will have to own this extension in the gallery, and having a person dependency in an open-source world is never a good idea. So even though one of these fine gentlemen who contacted me during the past days would submit a new version of the extension we would be tied to their account for new versions. Not ideal.

Me and @jad talked via e-mail and he proposed crowd funding a subscription. That got me thinking we could maybe have a special account that multiple people have access to just for this purpose (if that’s allowed). I think this is a good idea, and I don’t think $100 would take too long to collect.

I would appreciate your opinions on this, and if people think crowd funding a subscription is a good idea I will set it up.

@guyht @jad

[simeg]

What I’m looking for in this issue are thoughts on starting a funding campaign for a Apple team subscription. I’m willing to write up a summary of what it would mean to get us funded, in terms of commitment towards this extension. I like what @jad mentioned above about committing to fixing critical bugs etc. I am committing to working on this extension for the upcoming year, if we are able to release new versions.

Use this post to vote for if you think we should start a crowd funding campaign. If you want to explain your vote in a comment then please do. Thank you.

[simeg]

Thanks for voting everyone, when writing this there’s 8 👍’s and to me that’s enough to start this process. I’ve put together a document where I specify everything a potential donator would like to know, and I’ve setup a donation button. Please read it (see README). If you feel like something is missing or something is wrong, let me know.