Why don't you accept donations? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#31

Post by Levitz » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 8:45 PM UTC

cheeseomlit wrote: post #19

snarf21 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done a similar thing with a few past employers after I've moved on. "Hey, can you explain this code to the new person?". In some cases, I'd be glad to do a 1 hour call or whatever. They frequently ask me to submit a bill for my time and I always refuse. I don't want to turn into some kind of staff augmentation and be at their beck and call "because they are paying". Way better to think of it as a gift and I get…

That just sounds like you're being taken for a ride

I do a similar thing when a friend asks me a favor that is going to take enough of my time, think the classic "Can you help me build my PC?" or "Something has happened to my computer! Can you fix it?"

If I'm helping then I refuse any kind of money. I don't give guarantees or service like a business does, I don't want money like a business does. I do often ask that they try to learn from the experience, I'll gladly explain everything I'm doing.

The other option is I refuse, for whatever reason that is.

This keeps my choices those of a friend and my responsibilities those of a friend. I like keeping them that way.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#32

Post by paxys » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

irrational wrote: post #24

KMnO4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donations should also result in no expectations. It’s a donation , not a support license.

Theoretically the same applies to Kickstarter. Supposedly it is not a pre-order platform, but everyone treats it that way and gets all bent out of shape if the reward never materializes.

Not quite the same. Kickstarter does require projects to commit to delivering whatever they promised to backers at the time of the contribution as long as the project is fully funded. They themselves aren't going to process refunds, but you do have a legal avenue if you really want your money back, which isn't the case for any random donation.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#33

Post by vikingerik » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #27

> I don't want the administrative workload coming with donations. It's absolutely shameful that over three decades into the internet age, we still don't have zero friction ways of accepting, sending and accounting for money on the internet.

Bitcoin is pretty close to this, right? Anyone can publish a Bitcoin address and accept donations with no friction.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#34

Post by Phenomenit » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:09 PM UTC

Levitz wrote: post #31

cheeseomlit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just sounds like you're being taken for a ride

I do a similar thing when a friend asks me a favor that is going to take enough of my time, think the classic "Can you help me build my PC?" or "Something has happened to my computer! Can you fix it?" If I'm helping then I refuse any kind of money. I don't give guarantees or service like a business does, I don't want money like a business does. I do often ask that they try to learn from the experience, I'll gladly ex…

I'm with you on this but my question is, what happens if you brake your friends stuff? Like expensive components?

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#35

Post by paxys » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:15 PM UTC

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #27

> I don't want the administrative workload coming with donations. It's absolutely shameful that over three decades into the internet age, we still don't have zero friction ways of accepting, sending and accounting for money on the internet.

That's because it isn't a technology problem but a legal one.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#36

Post by treszkai » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:19 PM UTC

vikingerik wrote: post #33

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #27

> I don't want the administrative workload coming with donations. It's absolutely shameful that over three decades into the internet age, we still don't have zero friction ways of accepting, sending and accounting for money on the internet.

Bitcoin is pretty close to this, right? Anyone can publish a Bitcoin address and accept donations with no friction.

You still should pay your taxes on Bitcoin you earn. Tax evasion is easier, but not when your address is on the top of your project's website.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#37

Post by Anthony-G » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

I understand why gorhill doesn’t want to accept donations. I’ve seen him post on Hacker News every now and again so I would like to suggest that he encourage users of uBlock and uMatrix to make a donation to a favoured charity similar to how Bram Molenaar encourages Vim users to donate to the ICCF in Uganda¹. I usually make a few donation around this time of year to FOSS projects and other valuable services such as archive.org, Wikipedia, FSF, EFF, etc.

¹ http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#38

Post by faet » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:31 PM UTC

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #27

> I don't want the administrative workload coming with donations. It's absolutely shameful that over three decades into the internet age, we still don't have zero friction ways of accepting, sending and accounting for money on the internet.

Regardless of how you access it you just take what you've been paid and add it to 'other income' when filing your taxes.

If you're getting "big" donations, stripe or paypal will send you a k1 if you make > 20k. Otherwise there are not really any other administrative things to worry about.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#39

Post by bjourne » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:31 PM UTC

smnrchrds wrote: post #6

> no donations = no expectations No donations should result in no expectations , but unfortunately all sorts of people will have all sorts of expectations from you when you release an open-source project, donations or not.

People can have expectations about whoever they like. It's a free choice whether you want to live up to those expectations or not.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#40

Post by marginalia_nu » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 9:34 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #16

bspammer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the feeling of doing good in the world is reward enough for them, especially if they already have more than enough money to get by (as most devs in the west do).

Nothing would prevent him to donating the excess money to causes he cares about?

There are other ways of supporting a project than via money. You can talk about it and recommend it to others. That can often be worth more than donations to an independent project that doesn't have much in terms of marketing capabilities.