Why not something like this: have the BitPass entry page link to a page that generates a unique code. That code is E-mailed to you (or stored in a database on your server) and shown to the person who just paid. This gives you a unique entry for each donation. When you ran the raffle, you'd just have a small program choose at random from all of the active codes. When the raffle was over, you could post the first half of the winning code or something, and the person with the other half would mail you with it to confirm.

Alternatively, you could just have the person E-mail you as soon as he or she gets the code, thus "registering" the code with you so you'd know who had which codes.

A little complex, yes, but it might work out. A person would have to buy each entry individually (unless BitPass' payment program will output to your site the amount paid), but I doubt people are going to be buying more than a few entries.

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could have users set up accounts and authenticate against that, allowing them to register active codes to their account so that they wouldn't have to E-mail you with them. Sort of like those Pepsi games where you get a code on your bottle cap and go to Pepsi's Web site to register it with your account.

"We currently do not pass any information to Earners about Spenders, whether they are donating or buying."

If you're buying, how does the Earner know who has actually paid for their product if no information is passed? I assume it's something like using some sort of CGI link to "donate" with user information attached to the donation at the Earner's site, but whether this is the case or not, couldn't you use whatever system is used by people selling stuff to set up your raffle?

I think if I can see the various amounts that were donated -- $3 from one person, $4 from another, $1 from another -- in the BitPass system, I'll probably do that code generating thing Stephen mentioned. It'll probably be a "push this button to enter your tickets" sort of thing on the results page BitPass will send you to. Pretty good solution, sir!

To the next comment, the Earner doesn't know and, in most cases, doesn't care who purchased something. All the purchases through BitPass are for web content delivery, so the Earner doesn't need to know exactly who purchased the work. All the typical Earner wants to know is how many people viewed the work. The only place where information about Spenders and what they've done with their BitPass accounts is at BitPass. According to the BitPass website, they "do not share information with third parties". All Earners are considered third parties.

You still have questions and I do as well. I'm going to have to do more research on this. More updates later.

I'm curious how subscriptions will work through BitPass -- will you just have access to a "subscriber's only" area or something? If they don't pass any identifying info to the earner, it's not possible to tie that into an account. That's kind of lame.

Currently, they don't offer recurring subscriptions. Items that are purchased through BitPass, like Scott McCloud's "The Right Number", are placed in a protected directory.

Let's say that the archives for PE(aott), the archives for Kozy K, and the archives for Spade Phillips were three separate items offered only through BitPass. I would have three different links on the main page, each to a form at BitPass.com that allows you to enter that comic's archive section. If you subscribe to Kozy K, your BitPass account says you have access to Kozy K and no other. You head through the link and log in, then head out and have access to Kozy K.

All the account maintenance and routing of people to content is handled via BitPass; all I do is provide a link to BitPass's gateway page for my content.

(And to everyone who might think this is complicated, it's nothing more than entering your username and password to access your mail online.)

Well! I just heard back from the nice folks at BitPass and I will be able to do the raffle. Thanks to BitPass and Stephen for coming up with a solution to make this work.

Now all I've got to do is take some time this evening and start coding that ticket number generator...

Duh. I just realized how to do the raffle so it's even easier on me.