Show HN: Buy Me A Coffee – A free, fast and friendly way to receive donations

I would strongly recommend investing effort in the Search function though. It’s extremely unresponsive: I literally can’t type a full word without it “losing” characters due to background processing. Probably it should wait at least a second before attempting to retrieve any results (assuming I even want instant results, which frankly I do not; a “Start Searching” button would be just fine).

Also, it isn’t really clear how search categories work, since there are no drop-down menus in a profile to select a category. In the text field beneath your name that describes what you “do”, are you expected to type the name of a category verbatim to match that category? And if your description doesn’t match any of the categories, does that mean you can’t be “found”?

Finally, I find the site very “large” on the desktop; I can see almost nothing without scrolling around. I know a lot of sites have this issue these days but it’d be really nice if you could just fit the minimal content on one screen.

There's a huge difference between using something for free, and paying for it, however small an amount it was.

To myself, I often justify paying for something I can otherwise have for free (or not have at all, especially if it's supporting a campaign) by thinking "I would not think twice if I were to get a cup of coffee for this amount. So instead of buying a coffee for myself, I'll send $5 towards ____".

Another aspect of this branding it that it reminds people that there are are actual, real people behind the things they enjoy, be it art, software, or political activism. That their money, no matter how small, will go towards an actual person and can have an actual, tangible benefit to that person.

"Give me money so I can support myself" is a scary message - I certainly don't to take on that burden, and I'd automatically think: how much difference $4 would make on the scale of paying rent?

"Buy me a coffee", on the other hand, makes the contributor feel that that their contribution is both personal and tangible. Sending $4 will, in fact, allow the recipient to buy a cup of coffee.

Additionally, this makes the contribution focus on the positive impact, rather than the negative impact due to lack of contributions.

It's the same reason why some homeless people in SF have signs saying "I won't lie, it's for beer" -- because for a lot of people, it's much more pleasant to throw a buck for a beer and know that it's their guilt-free choice to do so than to be guilted into doing it.

In short, why so serious - literally? And kudos to the people who make parting with money a happier, easier experience.

I'd buy them a coffee.