I received my first donation on my open-source side project • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by offtop5 » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 4:45 PM UTC

_hl_ wrote: post #58

offtop5 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm stupid , but what exactly do mathematicians do ? I'd assume economists are a significant portion of them ???

I've seen questions of this kind a lot on HN, and I think they really deserve a better answer than what I can come with. Here's my best shot at an answer: Mathematics is a bit like art. There is no functional purpose to art, people just do it for the sake of itself, and for the intellectual stimulation. Likewise, mathematics deals with building theory on top of previous theory, with no real purpose other than for the…

So I'm guessing there's a handful of professorship positions, of pure mathematics and getting the published papers.

And everyone else kind of just gets normal jobs in the private sector. I think a lot of quants come from PhD mathematics

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

#62

Post by hpeinar » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #15

emilfihlman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Very interesting read as an Estonian. Apart from being legal, we even have a special field on our income declaration form (which we fill every year) that is specifically for money earned through ways like that. If I recalled correctly it's under "Income received abroad -> Salary and other remuneration".

I also run a donation based site (which also has ads) and I declare both of these on the form and pay my share of taxes from it. But it is then fully legal money and I can do whatever I like with it from government perspective.

I don't speak any Finnish at all, but if the wording is so important, wouldn't it work if you ask the money to pay for the services cost instead? Not as a donation to yourself. Servers cost, your time costs etc. Could all be counted as an upkeep of the project.

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

#63

Post by _hl_ » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

offtop5 wrote: post #61

_hl_ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen questions of this kind a lot on HN, and I think they really deserve a better answer than what I can come with. Here's my best shot at an answer: Mathematics is a bit like art. There is no functional purpose to art, people just do it for the sake of itself, and for the intellectual stimulation. Likewise, mathematics deals with building theory on top of previous theory, with no real purpose other than for the…

So I'm guessing there's a handful of professorship positions, of pure mathematics and getting the published papers. And everyone else kind of just gets normal jobs in the private sector. I think a lot of quants come from PhD mathematics

There's a handful of extremely accomplished professors, but beyond that contributions come from all over the place. Anyone with a bright idea can contribute. As for getting paid to do it, well, you are probably right, but for many people it is probably also just a bit of a hobby.

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

#64

Post by input_sh » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

fierarul wrote: post #29

input_sh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't see a PayPal logo underneath the 'Pay' button.

I guess it's country-dependent then? I can see debit/credit card and PayPal as options as soon as I click on "support".

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

#65

Post by davide_v » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

I still remember the first donation I received from my project [1] back in 2017, yeah it felt amazing. The person who donated also sent me an email with subject "much thanks".

[1] https://github.com/DavideViolante/Angular-Full-Stack

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

#66

Post by Whitespace » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

You can donate to the author here: https://ko-fi.com/gorvgoyl

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

#67

Post by naikus » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

Congrats and thanks! you inspired me to add a ko-fi dontaion link to my github project https://github.com/naikus/svg-gauge

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

#68

Post by jimbokun » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:46 PM UTC

_hl_ wrote: post #58

offtop5 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm stupid , but what exactly do mathematicians do ? I'd assume economists are a significant portion of them ???

I've seen questions of this kind a lot on HN, and I think they really deserve a better answer than what I can come with. Here's my best shot at an answer: Mathematics is a bit like art. There is no functional purpose to art, people just do it for the sake of itself, and for the intellectual stimulation. Likewise, mathematics deals with building theory on top of previous theory, with no real purpose other than for the…

To elaborate on the idea that Math is like art, others have pointed out that despite mathematicians best efforts to avoid practical applications, it often ends up being useful anyways:

http://faculty.cord.edu/andersod/wigner-hammingresponse.pdf

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

#69

Post by joostdecock » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

The first donation to my open source project (1) came from someone who went through the trouble of emailing me to ask how they could donate.

Since then, I've embraced receiving donations and last year I ended up receiving more than 10.000 euro. (2)

I (re)donate everything to charity, for reasons (3), but even then it's a great motivator. If it wasn't for the money I would have burned out long ago. It really means a lot when people show their support in such a tangible way.

I recommend everyone to both accept donations, and donate to others.

(1) https://freesewing.org/ (2) https://freesewing.org/blog/bye-2020/ (3) https://freesewing.org/docs/various/pledge/motivation/

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

#70

Post by ajkjk » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 6:16 PM UTC

fyi, your extension's description is missing spaces after all the commas, which would make it seem very suspicious if I was considering installing it.