JWZ's DNA Lounge now accepting donations on patreon

Maybe they should instead consider accepting credit cards, and otherwise being a less customer-hostile venue.

Post with more details on the financial situation: https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2016/12/19.html

It's quite candid and interesting to read. For those of you that don't know jwz, you may know:

- He was one of the first employees at Netscape and came up with the name Mozilla

- He maintains XScreenSaver

- jwz's law: Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

- Originally maintained XEmacs.

Clicking the link leads to some balls.

If he really doesn't want his stuff to be seen, why is it being posted here on this site? There are way too many interesting things made by people who want them to be seen for me to waste my time fighting someone to see the stuff they've made.

There's a lot of great events and talks there. JWZ frequently allows the EFF to use the space. DNA is more than just a dance club, it's an important community space.

I'm really on the fence about this one. I think the DNA Lounge is a great venue, have always been impressed by the creativity of their events (for example, the night(s) he turned DNA into Cyberdelia, the club from "Hackers"), enjoy reading jwz's blog posts, and of course would really like to see the place stick around. As a developer, I also appreciate that they have one of the few night club websites around that's actually pleasant to use; it's trivial to find any event on their calendar, and their ticket checkout process is hassle free.

All of that said, I'm still having a bit of trouble justifying the jump up to giving the place free money. I already feel like I'm being pretty generous with our current arrangement: they provide a venue, and I pay for too many $12 drinks and $7 slices of pizza on top of whatever it cost to get in the door.

Its made a bit worse even by what seems to be an ideological stand that a Patreon patron should get nothing in return (except DNA's continued existence). At least Borderlands put your name on a wall and invited you to a few members only nights.

I'll have to think about it a little more, but so far I'm leaning towards just trying to patronize the club as much as possible. Did anyone else take the plunge?