From d16530d61a04435fd8cb4d4770c4ac715ac8ef0e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Patrick Spek Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2018 15:46:56 +0200 Subject: Initial commit --- ...unding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc | 231 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 231 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc (limited to '_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc') diff --git a/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc b/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d292790 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2017-12-21-funding-yourself-as-free-software-developer.adoc @@ -0,0 +1,231 @@ +--- +title: Funding Yourself As A Free Software Developer +date: 2017-12-21 05:29:26 +tags: Article FreeSoftware Development 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] ;) -- cgit v1.1