Sorry, this a bit off-topic for jQuery, but still on the topic of donations. Thanks Karl for reminding me to donate to jQuery.
I had someone donate some money to me this morning through my website and have been thinking about it all day. The "donation-ware" idea is definitely something I'd like to see take off. It got me thinking about other revenue streams like Google's Adwords. A significant chunk of Google's earnings (and other websites) are made this way, but like many people I block adverts. Even if I'm not using Adblock, my eyes will skip past adverts. So the profit Google makes from each user must be tiny. If it was easy enough to send money, I really wouldn't mind paying a couple of dollars to use Google. It's a shame Micropayments didn't take off because there's no easy way to make small donations. Many people use Paypal for donations, but anything smaller than 30cent or so will get sucked up in PayPal fees (since the credit card companies charge per-transaction I believe). I started thinking about having something built into your browser that let's you give sites a 'thumbs up' - then have tiny donations sent based on how much you visit the site. The size of payments could be dictated by how much you 'top-up' each month. Say $5 a month on top of your ISP bill wouldn't be too much out of the question, and that would be divided among the sites you visit. Or maybe something you can put into your page that triggers a 'We recommend an optional donation of $0.20' notice, while you wait for your download, or while you read your favourite tech blog or comic. I've seen jQuery in use all over the place, in many commercial websites as well as personal. I can't imagine how many people are using it, but I know that a dollar from each user would bring in lots of money to use for hosting or staff and most importantly, more of John's time. Making donations easier has to be the way forward, then we can see some much more exciting projects popping up on the web. Of course as Karl said, it relies on the basic goodness of people for this to work, and maybe the hope of an advert-less web is enough to nudge people in the right direction. Cheers, James Hall www.amusd.com On Sat, 2006-11-18 at 15:39 -0500, Karl Swedberg wrote: > On Nov 18, 2006, at 1:05 PM, Rey Bango wrote Re: [jQuery] Firebug 1.0 > coming soon: > > Absolutely! Firebug is an awesome tool and IMO well worth spending > > some > > cash on. Not sure if I'd do it for FoxyTunes but Firebug is a > > definite > > yes. :) > > > Since we're on the topic of paying for things, I thought It would be > worth mentioning that there is a donate button at the bottom of the > jquery.com home page for anyone who might want to help out the cause > financially. ;-) > > > I do realize, of course, that the members of this mailing list already > contribute enormously to jQuery by sharing their time and expertise > with others in the community. I also know that some are more able to > contribute financially than others are. So I don't mean this as a > pressure thing at all. The Firebug thread just got me thinking about > the time that John puts into this library that we all love so much and > the fact that he offers it to everyone for free. And with Christmas > and the other gift-giving holidays coming up, now is as good a time as > any to show our appreciation. > > > In a more general sense, I find the whole "donation-ware" concept > fascinating. It seems like a business model that assumes -- and > fosters -- the basic goodness of people, kind of like the "honor > system." I'd love to see it become more widespread. > > > If you've read this far, thanks for indulging me. :) And just so you > know, John has no idea that I'm writing this. > > > One more thing: Thanks to everyone on this mailing list for all of the > time and effort you put into this whole enterprise. The quick and > intelligent answers to both novices and experts, as well as the > thoughtful and considerate debate has generated a sense of camaraderie > that quite frankly has taken me by surprise. > > > I think I had better stop now before I make a complete sappy fool of > myself (I hope it's not too late). > > > Cheers, > Karl > _______________________ > Karl Swedberg > www.englishrules.com > www.learningjquery.com > > > > > _______________________________________________ > jQuery mailing list > [email protected] > http://jquery.com/discuss/ _______________________________________________ jQuery mailing list [email protected] http://jquery.com/discuss/
