@gingerale @fluffypony, You guys catch the kernel of my idea. Great suggestions for improvement. If you think there's value to setting up something like this, then glad the ball is rolling. Whatever form it takes to make it work; I'm happy with that.

@fluffypony, Hooking the donate.getmonero.org addresses up to a general funding thread for visibility and a place to discuss general donations is definitely a good start IMO. Building more purpose around it other than just being this passive address posted on getmonero. Donations are more likely to roll in if there's a process to be involved in. Maybe building this idea around that is the way to go.

@Gingerale, As far as who gets what, when and how much. Good points on the details of delegating the funds. I don't have an answer for the best method. Hopefully others chime in to figure out what may work most effectively. Really, It could just be at the discretion of the core dev's just as any current donation funds that find their way to the donate.getmonero.org addresses. Maybe a public vote among them and any community members who have verified their donations. Possibly a good idea or possibly that would be getting too convoluted. What do others think?

The reason we introduced the forum funding system is specifically to stop "bounties"...they don't work, and they result in sub-par product. Here's what we've observed with bounties:

1. Invariably there is a major disconnect between what the bounty-raisers think something costs, and what it actually costs. This can swing both ways, but it usually means that they put forward a lot less than it is worth.

2. The knock-on effect of (1) is that good software engineers, existing contributors, and freelance developers alike are all turned off at the prospect, as it doesn't appear to be palatable.

3. Because of (2) you end up with mediocre developers pushing out a barely passable solution just to get the bounty. Not only is their code / solution sub-par, but they don't stick around to maintain it afterwards, because they just wanted to get the bounty, not to create something they're proud of.

Ideas can be proposed by anyone, but before it goes to a funding stage it has to be picked up by someone who can do the work, and who is able to indicate how much it will cost.

I'm not proposing a work-around to the implemented system. I'm proposing a complement to it. Just a general development pool for proposals that have made it to the "funding required" section. This way people can can approach the situation and present their ideas with some confidence that funding is available. Especially important if trying to attract developers, which from my understanding is something greatly needed. At the point that anything reaches the funding required checkpoint, it will have already been picked up by someone and they will have set their terms. At this point funds from the pool can be committed. Nobody helping fund the pool will be dictating the terms or level of funding for any given task.

I know the xmr dev's general sentiments on bounties :P Possibly using the term "bounty" was incorrect and confuses what I was proposing. Anyways, if it turns out being something others are interested in it's of course open to be optimized.