I'd like an option to pay for prioritization, or pay outright for fixes. "Pay $100 to raise the priority of this issue X points" or something like that. Wouldn't be that hard to sell to my management when we're running up against a bug that affects us directly but perhaps doesn't have a huge impact on the community at large.
> Pay $100 to raise the priority of this issue X points
That could lead to some perverse incentives, but it points in the right direction. Some "mechanism design" / "reverse game theory"[0] needs to be applied, to turn the problem of frustrated users into a net benefit for the software, rather than escalating the conflict between developers and users.
For example, if a user provides incomplete information about a bug, you could respond with a message like:
"Thanks for your interest in the app and the information you have provided so far. We're currently deciding on bug fixes that will be in the next release, which should come out 3 months from now. Our decision will be influenced by the number of votes for the issue, the clarity of the bug report, and the amount of money pledged. Please head over to our forum to find other users of the software who might vote for this issue or might provide the missing information, and head to our Bountysource page to pledge a financial incentive for the fix."
