Xfce Foundation status

[Jannis Pohlmann]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:00:01 +0200
Jon <proedie at arcor.de> wrote:

> >   * Would you prefer "Xfce e.V." or "Xfce Foundation e.V." to be the
> >     name of the organization?
> 
> Xfce e. V. A foundation, (German stiftung) is not an e. V.! A
> stiftung is a proper legal form in Germany and having both in the
> name always looks wrong IMHO. (I know, a lot of foundations in
> Germany ignore this fact, but I still do not like it -- I am just
> saying it, I would join Xfce Foundation e. V. as well. On the other
> hand, I probably would join "Xfce Industries Enterprises Foundation
> Inc. e. V. as well as long as the name is the only ridiculous thing
> about it.) 

I agree, a Stiftung is very different from a Verein (e.g. it has no
members). However, the word "foundation" seems to be widely used for
this type of non-profit organization all around the world. Technically,
the GNOME Foundation is not a foundation either, it's a "non-profit
public benefit coporation".

The thing is, if we just call it "Xfce e.V.", it will be hard to
distinguish the organization from the project. KDE have a separate
website for their "KDE e.V." called ev.kde.org. But since nobody
outside Germany can be expected to know what "ev" means, I think
"foundation.xfce.org" is a much better choice than "ev.xfce.org".

So, I have three main arguments for calling it "Xfce Foundation e.V.":

  1. this naming scheme is widely used, so we should not worry about
     whether the Stiftung vs. Verein issue is confusing or not

  2. it helps in making clear to people from all around the world what
     type of organization our e.V. is. i don't want to explain what
     "e.V." means to each and everyone out there (and I fear that might
     be necessary if we just call it "Xfce e.V." because then we'll
     always have to carry the "e.V." with us; with "Xfce Foundation
     e.V." we can simply call it "Xfce Foundation" and there will be no
     confusion)

  3. it clearly helps separating the organization from the project
     itself. also, the name is very catchy and easy to remember

So, to sum it up, I am strongly leaning towards "Xfce Foundation e.V."
myself.

  - Jannis
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