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I received my first donation on my open-source side project

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Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#11

Post by fierarul »

susam wrote: post #7

I have been running an open source MathJax-based mathematics pastebin[1] since 2012 and I had received 2 donations for it until recently. Then a mathematician tweeted[2] about it convincing others to send some donations. After that kind gesture by him, I received 3 more donations. So pretty sure I can't make a living out of donations. :-) But I still appreciate them because they help in covering a portion of the host…

Honestly, I think I heard about the website you are using about donations but I wouldn't necessarily put my credit card in there.

It would be trivial for you to also put a PayPal address, which seems safer for one-off donations.

You might also be tempted to put BTC/ETH addresses but I doubt there's many donors that way.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#12

Post by emilfihlman »

Hamuko wrote: post #10
emilfihlman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, you can have a donation link on your page and projects just fine. t. another Finn

How is that compatible with Rahankeräyslaki, which explicitly forbids soliciting money from the general public without a permit?

The iirc court of appeals has confirmed that merely having a donation link is okay.

So you might legally be somewhat limited in what you can write there (like "donate to me SO THAT I can write more code YOU enjoy"), but saying

"Support me / donate to me / Support my work through Ko-Fi"

is entirely fine.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#14

Post by d33 »

Hamuko wrote: post #10
emilfihlman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, you can have a donation link on your page and projects just fine. t. another Finn

How is that compatible with Rahankeräyslaki, which explicitly forbids soliciting money from the general public without a permit?

Not a lawyer, but perhaps this perspective would work in Finland?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10863939

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#15

Post by Hamuko »

emilfihlman wrote: post #12
Hamuko wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that compatible with Rahankeräyslaki, which explicitly forbids soliciting money from the general public without a permit?

The iirc court of appeals has confirmed that merely having a donation link is okay. So you might legally be somewhat limited in what you can write there (like "donate to me SO THAT I can write more code YOU enjoy"), but saying "Support me / donate to me / Support my work through Ko-Fi" is entirely fine.

"Donate to me" sounds like a pretty explicit appeal to give money, so I would personally steer away from that to not get in trouble with the law ("rahankeräyksellä [tarkoitetaan] toimintaa, jossa yleisöön vetoamalla kerätään vastikkeetta rahaa" & "yleisöön vetoamisella [tarkoitetaan] suullisesti, kirjallisesti tai muulla tavoin ilmaistua pyyntöä tai kehotusta antaa rahaa keräykseen").

AFAIK, just adding your PayPal details or bank account number to your website would be okay because you would not be making any sort of an appeal.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#16

Post by Hamuko »

d33 wrote: post #14
Hamuko wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that compatible with Rahankeräyslaki, which explicitly forbids soliciting money from the general public without a permit?

Not a lawyer, but perhaps this perspective would work in Finland? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10863939

Selling software should be okay, but I imagine that's a significant burden to a lot of open-source developers who are not aiming to make it a job.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#17

Post by u678u »

emilfihlman wrote: post #12
Hamuko wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that compatible with Rahankeräyslaki, which explicitly forbids soliciting money from the general public without a permit?

The iirc court of appeals has confirmed that merely having a donation link is okay. So you might legally be somewhat limited in what you can write there (like "donate to me SO THAT I can write more code YOU enjoy"), but saying "Support me / donate to me / Support my work through Ko-Fi" is entirely fine.

If you say something like "Dont worry its not illegal you'll be fine" you really need a link to some proof. :)

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#18

Post by input_sh »

fierarul wrote: post #11
susam wrote: post #7

I have been running an open source MathJax-based mathematics pastebin[1] since 2012 and I had received 2 donations for it until recently. Then a mathematician tweeted[2] about it convincing others to send some donations. After that kind gesture by him, I received 3 more donations. So pretty sure I can't make a living out of donations. :-) But I still appreciate them because they help in covering a portion of the host…

Honestly, I think I heard about the website you are using about donations but I wouldn't necessarily put my credit card in there. It would be trivial for you to also put a PayPal address, which seems safer for one-off donations. You might also be tempted to put BTC/ETH addresses but I doubt there's many donors that way.

You can pay via PayPal and the author likely receives money via PayPal.

One could cut out the middle man, but at the same time, it's a prettier interface to look at specifically made for the purpose of donations.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#19

Post by gbraad »

Also received 2 donations in total for my 2FA authentication app for mobile phones (and web runtimes) over a span of over 7 years. Since a few years I haven't madeany contributions to it as my daytime jobs took over and have kids since. Over the years noticed many companies suggested my projct as an alternative, but this caused people to expect me to be their support for lost bitcoins, etc. If there would have been some incentive I might have reconsidered working on it, but recently archived the project.

Re: I received my first donation on my open-source side project

#20

Post by sneak »

It makes me sad to see developers donating time and effort to support an ecosystem (VSCode) built explicitly to spy on users and promote proprietary software.

The fact that VSC's core is released under an open source license is irrelevant to the harm that is being done.

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