I have been debating with myself whether this would be a good idea or not, but since I can't really decide it's time to ask your opinion. First, the problem: I have limited time, and also my own agenda for the future of osu! (which mostly involves under-the-hood improvements to keep things running smoothly, or personal projects which could result in awesome new features). There are new feature requests daily that are only growing in number, which I used to be able to keep up with but now it is a very challenging task to even read through them all.

So I propose a new system: People can put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. This would mean donating money to "sponsor" a feature. Sponsored features would get priority in the feature request forum similar to the star priority system in beatmap forums. osu! supporters would get x credits to sponsor features (a small number) and further could be posted to a specific feature requests through subsequent donations.

I would of course still require some input to sponsored features. Those which I highly disagree with or aren't technically feasible would be denied and credits would be refunded to the sponsors.

This system would give osu! supporters one more small perk (every existing supporter would get a number of credits) as well as give those willing to invest in a particular feature a chance to do so. It would mean the most frustrating missing features could get more attention, and supporters would have a greater say on how the future of osu! will play out.

That said, what is your opinion? If you don't agree with this, please explain yourself by replying to this thread!

Thanks as always.

I like the idea, but some people don't even have the money to sponsor even if they'd want to (me being one of them).

I would totally chip in a few bucks for variable (non .5x / 2x) slider speeds ;D

I have been thinking about donating a little bit more outside-of-subscription once the semester is out and my finances are sorted...

This would be a great way for supporters to see where their money is going more visibly.

I would totally put $25 on slider speeds and $10 on combo colour reordering.

If we can sponsor bugs, I'd sink $10 into i46.

Donating code is also something I'd be interested in.

Edit: It also occurred to me that you should be offered a refund (or credits) if a feature you invest in truly dies. As in, no one else supports it and it's forgotten.

I'd pay 100 to reorder Kiai timing parts!

But yeah, I would support this.

Yep, although the way I see it is that as soon as a feature gets sponsored I would consider it and kill or praise it on the spot. There could be an auto-refund after 4 weeks system, though.

I see that one person has already voted against this without any explanation. Please avoid doing this if possible.

There's still going to be that middle class of requests that aren't outright infeasible, so don't get denied, but also see little attention.

We'd have to see if the priority boost from one supporter is enough to give the feature attention from others.

Well there shouldn't be a huge list of sponsored features if this works how I see it working.

As an alternative, I did consider swapping to a getsatisfaction account for feature requests but feel that I don't want to rely on an external entity for this, and also give supporters a bit of an extra advantage in the process.

I support this if it's called Kudo$u.

This idea is a great idea. There are some great feature suggestions on the forums, and some, if not most of them usually never see the light of day.

With this, I would be glad to chuck a few $$ towards a great idea.

i guess this sounds fair for the people who has money to spend, and unfair for the people who don't.

don't have much to say, this sounds like a good idea

Hm, guess I'll spend some for custom-slider speeds and customizable LayeredHitSounds value per Timing Section...~

Though I do hope the costs of these donations aren't too large?

It will be relative to how much you pledge, ie. $1 = 2 credits. Subscription gives you x months worth of credits. Just an example and may be tweaked.