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diff --git a/src/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc b/src/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc deleted file mode 100644 index de687ed..0000000 --- a/src/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc +++ /dev/null @@ -1,231 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Funding Yourself As A Free Software Developer -date: 2017-12-21 05:29:26 -tags: FreeSoftware Programming Funding -description: > - An overview of multiple funding platforms, with pros and cons, from the - perspective of a free software developer. It's intent is to help others find - a possible form of income while doing what they love, and what I consider is - immensely important for society. ---- -= Funding Yourself As A Free Software Developer -:toc: preamble - -I've been meaning to spend more time on developing free software, helping out -new users on IRC and writing more tutorials to get others started. All of these -cost time, and time is money - so I've set out to set up donation accounts. -In the hopes of helping other developers who struggle to fund their work, I've -written up this article to talk about my experience. This is a living -document! As you explore this yourself, please send me your thoughts on each -platform and turn me on to interesting platforms I missed. - -I'll be focussing on platforms allowing for recurring donations, as these are -more useful for procuring a stable income. - -== Platforms -=== BountySource -[WARNING] -==== -- Requires 3rd-party link:/articles/on-cloudflare/[Cloudflare]-hosted - JavaScript sources to function. -==== - -BountySource lets people donate money towards an issue on Github your projects. -Once an issue gets fixed, you can claim the "bounty" that was on this issue. -This can also help in making clear which issue you should aim for next, and -can increase interest in contributors for your project. - -There's also BountySource Salt, which is a recurring donation platform. -Projects or teams can use this to gain monthly income to sustain the -development of their project(s). - -Support for this platform is offered through the IRC channel -https://kiwiirc.com/client/chat.freenode.net:+6697/#bountysource[`#bountysource` -on Freenode]. - -The BountySource platform itself is also free software, and the source code -for it can be found https://github.com/bountysource/core[on github]. - -You can find BountySource at https://www.bountysource.com/. - -=== LiberaPay -This service seems to be completely free as in freedom. They even -https://github.com/liberapay/liberapay.com[publish their source on GitHub]. -Their own funding comes through donations on their own platform, instead of -taking a cut of each donation like most other services. - -It's possible to connect other accounts to your LiberaPay account. While this -feature in general is pretty common, they allow you to link to sites which are -interesting to show as developer, such as GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket. They -also let you link to a Mastodon account, if you have one. - -To let people know you're accepting donations through LiberaPay, you can use -one of the widgets they make available for you. This will show a donate button -which will link to you profile. Do note, this is not a regular HTML button or -cleverly implemented anchor tag, but a JavaScript-based button. - -Another thing LiberaPay lacks is a rewards system. Most other platforms allow -you to set reward tiers, which allow you to give certain benefits to donors. - -You can find Liberapay at https://liberapay.com/. - -=== MakerSupport -[WARNING] -==== -- The site requires a 3rd-party hosted jQuery. -- You have to solve a Google reCaptcha in order to register a new account. -==== - -MakerSupport seems to be another option, aimed at content creators who might -need freedom of speech more than others. It seems to be less focused on -software development, as you cannot link to any of the major git hosting -platforms. - -There are options here to set up "tiers" for your donors; which is a convenient -way to provide them with perks for their support. For a free software -developer, this might be something like access to more direct support from the -developer. - -Sadly, registration wasn't as smooth as most other platforms. My preferred -username, "tyil" is too short. There's no indication of the requirements of any -of the fields, you just get a popup on submission of the form saying a field is -wrong. - -Additionally, the registration form requires some 3rd-party JavaScript to work, -and a Google reCaptcha to be solved in order to get the submit button to show -up. As I have set up uMatrix in my browser, this cost me some extra time to -finish registration. - -Setting a profile image proved to be a little harder. First off, I'm still -using uMatrix so I had to allow a 3rd-party (Amazon, in this case) XHR -requests. Secondly, their error when uploading a "wrong" format is also not -very user friendly, as it won't give you any details on why it's disallowed, -nor what images are allowed instead. - -[NOTE] -==== -It seems they check the extension of the uploaded image's filename. As far as I -can tell, you're allowed to upload files that end with `.jpg` and `.png`. -==== - -You can find MakerSupport at https://www.makersupport.com/. - -=== Patreon -[WARNING] -==== -- Requires 3rd-party link:/articles/on-cloudflare[Cloudflare]-hosted - JavaScript sources to function. -- You have to solve a Google reCaptcha in order to register a new account. -==== - -Patreon is possibly the most famous donation-based funding platform available -right now. Its popularity is a good thing, since this means there's probably -many donors already using this platform. - -At Patreon, you can set up so-called goals. Goals are the thing I haven't found -with other funding platforms. It allows you to set a goal for an amount of -money, and add a reward to this. This way, you can inform your donors you will -be creating a certain kind of content once a one-time goal has been reached. -Basically, you can show your donors what you're going to do with the money -they're donating to you. - -Another interesting thing that I haven't seen on other platforms is the option -to charge donors per creation, instead of per month. While this may seem less -fitting for software developers (unless you want to get paid per commit, I -guess), it's an interesting feature that's pretty unique. If you publish many -tutorials, guides or other posts, this might fit you very well. - -You can link your account to other services, similarly to other platforms, but -it seems to only allow you to be linked with proprietary social media -platforms. - -You can find Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/home. - -=== (Dis)honorable mentions -==== Hatreon -I've included this because I found people talking about it on IRC. However, it -seems to be nothing more than a joke that's gone too far. Its main reason for -existing seems to be to get away from the political correctness found with -earlier crowdfunding platforms, yet their site is invite-only, so those who are -actually interested can't even use it. It seems that pledging is currently -disabled as well, and has been for at least 10 days. - -== But that's not all -Just setting up an account on a funding platform isn't enough. There's more to -keeping a healthy and happy supporter base. - -=== Spread awareness of your work -Whether you're writing articles or publishing new releases of projects, tell -the world you're doing whatever it is you're doing. If nobody knows about your -project, they won't be able to give any kind of appreciation for it. Use social -media outlets, public forums, mailing lists, anything! Tell them what you made, -why it's useful and how they could use it to improve their digital life. - -[WARNING] -==== -Ofcourse, don't spam it to unrelated communication channels. This will only -backfire. -==== - -=== Using the rewards system -On the platforms that support a rewards system, make use of it. There's some -little things you can do that go a long way with your supporters. For instance, -you can offer things like stickers to donors that donate a certain amount of -money to you. These are reasonably cheap to produce and ship, and many people -like these. - -Another idea that seems to strike well with donors is having a way to talk with -the person they're supporting directly. This can be done by giving them access -to an IRC channel for you and your donors. You can use another platform for -this, but most free software enthousiasts are already on IRC, and there's few -real-time communication alternatives that they're already using. - -=== Don't stick to a single platform -There's multiple platforms out there, use them! Not all of them have the same -userbase, and you can reach more people by giving them more options to work -with. - -=== Let people know you're accepting donations -If people don't know you're even accepting donations, chances are pretty high -you won't get any. Or if it's too hard to figure out how to donate to you, -people will simply not take the effort. Make sure people can easily find out -that you're accepting donations, and how to donate to you. - -=== Show what you're doing with donation money -Have a page with information about what you're using with the money. This can -be as simple as just saying you pay the rent and buy food with it. Most donors -don't mind too much what you're doing with the money they donate to you, but a -few do appreciate having this information available to them. - -It can be as simple as adding a `/donate` link to your site where you explain -how to donate to you, and what you do with the donation money. - -[WARNING] -==== -Don't let it turn into an annoying advertisement though, this will surely have -an opposite effect. -==== - -== Further reading -There's more places to go for tips and tricks in getting funds to sustain your -free software development work. I've listed a couple of these here for those -interested. - -- https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-research/other-crowdfunding[snowdrift.coop wiki on crowdfunding/fundraising services] -- https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand[A handy guide to financial support for open source] - -== RFC -I'd love to receive feedback on this, as I think being able to get donations -easily for the work free software developers put in to their projects is -important. - -Getting to know more platforms and giving them a small write-up should help out -other developers like me looking for the best platform for their use case. I'd -also like to hear from developers already using a platform, to extend this -article with more useful information on how to successfully get donors for -their work. - -If you want to contact me, do take a look at the link:/[Contact] section, and -let me know about your experiences with funding. - -And if you liked this post, consider link:/support/[donating] ;) |