title = "About"
^L
{% extends templates/about.html %}
{% block page %}
<div class="col">
    <h2>What Is Gittip?</h2>

    <p>Gittip is a way to give <b>small weekly cash gifts</b> to people you
    love and are inspired by.</p>

    <p>Gifts are <b>weekly</b>. The intention is for people to depend on money
    received through Gittip in order to pay their bills, and bills are
    recurring.</p>

    <p>Gifts come with <b>no strings attached</b>. You don't know exactly where
    your gifts come from, and the maximum gift from one person to another is
    $24.</p>

    <p>Gifts are <b>public</b>. The <i>total</i> amount you give and the
    <i>total</i> amount you receive is public. Participants on both sides of
    the equation are rewarded publicly for their participation. (You can opt
    out of publicly displaying your total giving.)</p>
</div>


<div class="col1">

    <a name="details"></a>
    <h2>Details</h2>

    <p>Gifts are distributed <b>every Thursday</b>. Gifts come out of your
    current balance (the money people have given to you), and if that's not
    enough, Gittip can charge your credit card to make up the difference. We
    add an additional <b>30&cent; + 3.9%</b> fee when pulling money in from
    your credit card, to cover credit card processing (as well as hosting and
    other expenses). We also charge you no less than <b>$10</b> at a time, to
    minimize credit card processing fees. Any extra remains in your account to
    be used next week. Recipients get the <b>full face value</b> of your gift
    to them. If you give someone $3, they will have $3 in their Gittip account
    every Thursday until you run out of money.</p>

    <p>For example, let's say that you have $2.00 in your account, and
    you are set up to give $1.00 each to 20 people. Here's what we will
    charge your credit card on Thursday:</p>

    <p style="font-family: monospace; font-size: smaller; padding-left: 33%;">
        &nbsp;$&nbsp;1.00<br />
        <u>x&nbsp;20&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;people<br />
        &nbsp;$20.00&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;total gittips<br />
        <u>-$&nbsp;2.00</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;current balance<br />
        &nbsp;<b>$18.00&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;amount needed</b><br />
        <u>+$&nbsp;0.30</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fee<br />
        &nbsp;$18.30<br />
        <u>x&nbsp;&nbsp;1.039</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;fee<br />
        &nbsp;<b>$19.02&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;amount to charge</b><br />
        <u>-$18.00</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
        &nbsp;$&nbsp;1.02&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;total fee<br />
    </p>

    <p>Participants in the U.S. can <a
        href="https://www.gittip.com/bank-account.html">connect a bank
        account</a> to have funds <a
        href="http://blog.gittip.com/post/30116848405/with-payouts-gittip-is-minimally-viable">deposited
        weekly</a> (less a $0.30 fee). It takes one business day for deposits
    to clear, so generally they will <b>clear on Friday</b>. We're
    working on automated payouts <a
        href="https://github.com/gittip/www.gittip.com/issues/126">outside the
        U.S.</a> Right now they're handled manually&mdash;<a
        href="#contact-us">contact us</a> as needed&mdash;with postage and/or
    fees charged at cost.</p>

</div>
<div class="col2">

    <a name="get-involved"></a>
    <h2>Get Involved</h2>

    <p>We're building Gittip openly and in public, and you're welcome to join
    us. Here is how to get involved:</p>
    
    <ul>

        <li><b>Newsletter</b>. The best way to get involved is to <a
            href="https://tinyletter.com/gittip">subscribe to our
            newsletter</a>. This goes out about once a week and summarizes all
        of the activity going on in the Gittip community. From there you'll be
        able to identify projects that are a good fit for you and get involved
        further. You can view past newsletters in this <a
            href="https://tinyletter.com/gittip/letters">archive</a>.</li>

        <li>

        <li><b>GitHub</b> (different than Gittip!) is a <a
            href="https://github.com/gittip">collaboration platform</a> used by
        the software teams within Gittip. Anyone can register an account there
        and participate in discussions on any issues related to the software
        side of Gittip.</li>

        <li><b>Freenode</b> is an internet relay chat (IRC) network. It's for
        online chatrooms. We hang out in the <a
            href="irc://irc.freenode.net:6697/#gittip">#gittip</a> channel. You
        can <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=gittip">join</a> in
        using your web browser, and there's a read-only <a
            href="https://botbot.me/freenode/gittip/">archive</a>.</li>

    </ul>

    <p>We also use Skype and Google Hangouts to talk by voice and/or video. Our
    Freenode chatroom is the launching place for these conversations.</p>


    <a name="contact-us"></a>
    <h2>Contact Us</h2>

    <p>GitHub and Freenode are great ways to get in touch (see just above).
    You're also welcome to contact Gittip's founder, <a
        href="/whit537/">Chad Whitacre</a>, via <a
        href="https://twitter.com/whit537">@whit537</a> or <a
        href="mailto:chad@zetaweb.com">email</a> or by phone at <a
    href="tel:+1-412-925-4220">+1-412-925-4220</a>, or visit him at 
    716 Park Road in Ambridge, PA, 15003, USA.</p>

</div>
{% end %}