[Dev] Some doubts about Parabola's donations

[Luke]

On 04/07/2017 01:05 AM, fauno wrote:
> Luke <g4jc at openmailbox.org> writes:
>
>> Unfortunately, most any of those ideas couldn't be "declared" which
>> leads me to wonder if the money ever really existed at all - other
>> than to be a stressful headache for yourself and everyone involved in
>> the project.
> please tell me when we couldn't make a payment because of romanian laws
> or personal payments couldn't be reimbursed.  what stresses me is your
> concern trolling.
>

Certainly.

June 15th 2016: We already designed the stickers for FISL, you and Ceata
agreed to pay for them after a somewhat lengthy debate about how
expensive and useless they are.
I get the company to make the custom stickers and go the extra mile of
sending a custom invoice. The sticker company is ready to ship expedited
to us just in time for the event. During this internal conversation, we
learned quite a bit.

1) Ceata can't use the invoice sent by the sticker company through
PayPal, goes off on their own trying to make stickers in Romania.
Quote Ceata: "Oh, sorry. _I didn't know Romania isn't a billing option
in PayPal_."
"IMO, _these high-quality stickers are too expensive_ for the small
funds Parabola has for the moment. I can try to get stickers of close
quality at much less by _making them in Romania and billing Ceata
wouldn't be a problem here._"

2) No communication for awhile, the sticker company keeps asking me for
payment since they were going to put them into production to meet our
deadline. I pay them with my own money.

- June 16, 2016: Somehow Ceata ends up getting correct 'declarative
receipt' from the sticker company saying it was paid in full. I've no
idea how how they managed to finally get the proper invoice outside of
Paypal, but I was not kept in the loop on this venture and it was
already too late.

Quote Ceata: "It reads "paid in full", so I suppose Luke has made the
payment. If this
is the case, Ceata can refund Luke provided he sends me the proof of
payment (forwards the PayPal receipt)."

- Obviously, the invoice, which I already paid is invoiced to my name
now - so I tell you and Ceata both to forget it.

3) Ceata claims bitcoins are not illegal in Romania, but receiving and
spending is not allowed because of "transparency" and tax concerns.
Quote Ceata: "Receiving donations in Bitcoins and converting them in
national currency
for later payments is not prohibited in Romania. However, _receiving and__
__spending Bitcoins is not allowed, because it's not transparent in the__
__eyes of the authorities_ and _we can be suspected of tax avoidance_."

4) Ceata doesn't have any option of using a pre-paid credit card or
debit card for miscellaneous purchases.
Quote Ceata: "No, we can't. _Because organizations can't request gift
cards from banks_
(_at least not in Romania_), only individuals can request such cards."

5) Ceata says they are unable to pay anything in advanced for FISL,
requesting invoices and receipts from each event after FISL occurs.
Quote Ceata: "I don't understand the problem here. André doesn't have
the funds to pay in advance for the travel to and food at FISL? If this
is the case, _I'm sure family or friends can help him._ When presented
with any or all receipts, Ceata will refund him."
..."It's not for a lack of trust, but because it's an accounting
nightmare to record the transactions involved and _it raises suspicion
in the eyes of the authorities._"

The correspondence between June 15 to July 6th proves the situation of
actually utilizing donors money is not only ridiculously complex, it
was/is unsustainable.
If you wish drag this trivial debate on and publish them all in full as
ParabolaLeaks, please redact names/addresses.

Needless to say, the same thing happened, again, with the chasis, power
supply, and RAM.
With the /small/ possibility that they would be able to pay for a
shipping label. Based on previous experience, I believe there is a
strong chance of being unable to fulfil on that as well.

There was also the internal discussion of not having a chasis at all:
Quote fauno: "to me, the chassis is optional.  you can have the
motherboard bare or on
a recycled chassis or on a box, and buy a new power supply and maybe an
extra one just in case."

I really would rather our primary build server doesn't have to look like
this: https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1122857

So really, if this "general fund" cannot be used by anything we have
proposed, what is it used for? Why do you vehemently defend it?


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