Chip In Box For Mods

[carubmun]

Im guessing what he means is a system in which a user like himself can request an extensive modification.
Then a coder would look over the needs of the user and quote a price.
The price might be too much for the user, in that situation most users either look for other alternatives, or they try to get others to pool money with in order to get the modification made.

The pooling of money is not always easy. Organization and trust of strangers being difficult things sometimes.

This can be alleviated by a simple and transparent system in which a coder sets a price and folks are able to contribute towards the funding of the modification via a series of micropayments.

Lets say the mod costs 100 dollars.
The user that was interested in it can only afford to pay 25 dollars.
But i really like the mod as well, and while its not worth 100 dollars to me, its surely worth 25 or 30, so i contribute some money as well.
Then some other person reads the thread and decides they want to chip in as well because they would like to have this brand new modification.

The asking price is met, the thread is marked as Paid, and the funds are processed and transferred to the coder so he can start work on the modification.

It would have to be some sort of middleware between vB and paypal.
When a person contributes 30 bucks, they arent really sending any money, its more of a promise to contribute 30 bucks.
Nothing has happened the paypal end yet, its all just held on vB.
Once the amount is met, then automatically the amounts are deducted from each persons paypal and sent to the coder.

There can even be further safeguards put in place.
Emails/PM's can be automatically sent alerting the parties involved that the price has been met and that it was time for them to go and give a final authorization for the transfer.
Or it can check to make sure the funds are available, and if they are not the price goes back to its previous status of Unpaid, and the amount submitted by the person who could not meet the funds is removed from the equation.
Another person would then have to then continue the process as before.