Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why don't you accept donations?

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 193 posts

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#51

Post by squeaky-clean »

Phenomenit wrote: post #34
Levitz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Not the original person you asked but I do the same thing and I would buy them a new one if I damage it. I'm confident that I'm not going to damage their things.

And if it's something where I'm not confident, or its not replaceable / way too expensive, that's when I'll decline. But typical computer repair or building is really easy and safe. Need help delidding your CPU or some other uncommon thing? I'll give advice but I'm not handling it.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#53

Post by bsder »

jyap wrote: post #17
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…

Doing free labor is devaluing your work. You are free to decline this work.

It may also cost you your current job if you take money.

Most employment contracts have stipulations about working for competitors. They're rarely enforced, but you can sometimes get caught out if something goes pear-shaped.

If you haven't taken any money, it's a lot harder to hang this on you.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#54

Post by BEEdwards »

one_off_comment wrote: post #23
cheeseomlit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a personal choice. I respect their choice.

Working for free devalues the work of others and give them an excuse to not even offer pay next time.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#55

Post by kingcharles »

approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

Browsing the Web of 2021 with a mobile hotspot on a desktop is impossible without an ad blocker. There is so much shit on web pages now that: (a) site assume you're on a desktop and have infinite bandwidth, (b) on a mobile connection the pages take forever to complete, and (c) the pages use up all of your mobile data allowance.

I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through advertising, but I have no choice if I want to view the content at all.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#56

Post by softwarebeware »

paxys wrote: post #35
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.

Exactly. Sure you can set up and accept money quite easily using any number of methods. The problem then comes in of how you are legally classified with each governmental jurisdiction that each donation happens to fall under, and now you're in a mountain of registrations, reports, audits, licenses, and other red tape.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#57

Post by ghufran_syed »

snarf21 wrote: post #8
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.

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…

sounds more like you are uncomfortable billing your market value, like most of us - you should charge at least a day’s worth of your old (or current) salary for one hour of this kind of on-demand work. If they don’t want to pay, that’s great, it means it really wasn’t that important after all…

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#58

Post by lars_francke »

kingcharles wrote: post #55
approxim8ion wrote: post #3

I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.

Browsing the Web of 2021 with a mobile hotspot on a desktop is impossible without an ad blocker. There is so much shit on web pages now that: (a) site assume you're on a desktop and have infinite bandwidth, (b) on a mobile connection the pages take forever to complete, and (c) the pages use up all of your mobile data allowance. I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through a…

I'm with you on the last part. I've avoided using an Adblocker for years and finally caved in a few weeks ago.

I've always wanted an opt-in blocker. One that is off by default but on the worst offender sites can be turned on by the click of a button. This has never been possible easily but I haven't looked in around five years.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#59

Post by sedatk »

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.

GitHub has GitHub Sponsors program. It's pretty much zero friction.

Re: Why don't you accept donations?

#60

Post by TimWolla »

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 am not taking raw money with friends either. But when it's assistance I can't offer virtually, i.e. when I need to drive to them in person, then I expect them to order pizza to eat together in return after the job's done. It brings the point across that my time's not free, but it's not as unpersonal as handing over a Euro bill. One can also have a nice chat while eating.
Post reply on HN