Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Considering taking donations to support the MagicMirror project. Interested in your thoughts!
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5 years ago I started the MagicMirror project as a fun project for myself only. After blogging about it, the responses to the project where overwhelming. With the advent of MagicMirror², the project has grown to something I never dared to dream of.
The MagicMirror project has a huge community behind it, mainly in the form of this forum. Hosting this project not only takes up some of my time, but also a fair amount of money.
I absolutely want to keep this forum Ad free. Just as I want to keep the MagicMirror² free and opensource. More importantly: I’d like to free up some of my work hour to spent more time working on the core.
Unfortunately this isn’t possible without some additional funds. Because of this I’m considering taking on donations. In what way or form isn’t completely clear yet. And for that I’d like to hear your ideas …
What are our thoughts about taking donations to support the MagicMirror project? Would you be willing to donate? And if so, would you prefer one time donations, or recurring donations. What platforms do you prefer to send donations? And do you think this is possible without giving additional perks to supporters?
Your thought in this process are very valuable to me. Please let me know what your thoughts are and what you think is the best approach to do so.
Don’t worry: you’ll always be able to use MagicMirror even without any donations.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: I’ve added to option to donate: http://magicmirror.builders/donate
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@michmich said in Considering taking donations to support the MagicMirror project. Interested in your thoughts!:
What are our thoughts about taking donations to support the MagicMirror project?
I’d rather donate to the forum than have ads.
Would you be willing to donate? And if so, would you prefer one time donations, or recurring donations.
Yes, I absolutely would/will donate. I think a one time donation is best, with the ability to donate again at any time
What platforms do you prefer to send donations?
My kids make use of a few cash apps. I’ll be guided by the majority here. If possible, a free app that has no fee for the transfers.
And do you think this is possible without giving additional perks to supporters?
I think you’d have a better response if you at least offer some sort of recognition (instead of perks). People, being people, will expect something. So, how about a color coded Tier Level Badge? Bronze, Silver or Gold, depending on the amount of the donation. You get the idea.
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@michmich what are u committing to do for us with the funds?
I’m interested, but if u have a job, and no free time, then there is no return.
This could turn this project into a job. -
I am willing to donate as long as it remains voluntary.
Possible would be eg: PayPal or similar.
If I understand correctly, it is mainly the costs for servers, hosting, etc. paid.
And please forgive no title, that is then automatically a demotion for those who can not afford it.
You will be more likely to respond to those with gold than those with silver, etc.
This then creeps in automatically.
So I’ve seen many forums dying. ;-) -
I think it is a good idea to make donations voluntarily so that the project continues to grow or at least to be maintained and, if possible, without advertisements.
It could be chosen by the person who makes the donation if they want to make a punctual or periodic donation.
As for the payment method, I could not advise you much, since I only know paypal.
Another idea could be that from time to time there will be a draw where interested people pay a small amount for each number (for example, numbers from 00 to 99). And the prize could be a raspberry, a screen, even a complete magic mirror. With the idea of financing the project. I do not know, it’s just an idea.
Regards!
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I would certainly donate, but appreciate it being voluntary.
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Echo what the others said voluntary bases would be good I’ll contribute.
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I’m sorry, but are you expecting even more of Mitch than he already has given? Personally I think he is well worth a donation without asking anything more from him.
Domain name costs money, webhosting costs money. Especially if you have a lot of traffic and need reliable service (trust me, the cheap web hosts may offer " unlimited bandwith" but that is rarely the case in reality).
If he gets more funds over what the pure running costs is, then kudos to him. He can maybe take some time off work and adress fixes and improvements. (You get more done on a 10h day than a 2h day). But this is (for me at least) not a demand. As long as the donations first and foremost goes to keeping this forum and the repository online, any left overs Mitch can do whatever he wants with.
And, “one time” donations is the better choice in my opinion. Just don’t do the awful nagging that wikipedia did/does. (I donate, but I wan’t to do it on my terms).
And a title that says “sponsor” is the best option (with a 1 year time limit) as a “reward”.
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Thank you all for the overwhelming and positive responses. Your feedback is very valuable.
First let’s state the obvious: donations will be absolutely voluntarily and optional. No obligation whatsoever and no nagging! I promise! :)
I like the idea of adding some sort of recognition system. This can be a nice perk for those who contribute. This can be done on the forum using badges, as well as a list of all the supporters in the repository.
I’m currently considering the following:
- Silver Supporter: anyone who gave a one time donation.
- Gold Supporter: anyone who gives recurring donations.
- Platinum Supporter: anyone (mainly focussing on companies) who gives a large amount of money allowing me to spent more time on the project. Platinum sponsors will get their logo on the project homepage and in the readme. This might be interesting for companies that use MagicMirror² in their everyday work.
Initially the money will go towards the forum (and website). To host this forum, we are running a dedicated server. Additionally a lot of mails are being sent daily (forum digest, update notifications, registration confirmation, etc …), those cost money as well.
If I manage to get more funds over the running costs, that money will allow me to spent more hours on the project. I try to do as much as I can in my spare time, but dedicating a few of my work hours a week to this project would be highly beneficial to the project.
I’m currently looking at the following services to handle these donations:
If you have any other suggestions, or have any experience with one of the above, I’d like to hear from you!
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@michmich I’n my opinion you’re doing this the right way! You are actively initiating a discussion about this topic and keeping it transparant.
Keeping donating voluntarily and optional will likely assure that people can enjoy working on there Magic Mirror as a hobby. The positive effect of accepting donations in my opinion is that it can boost the project in a good way by getting more resources available for it. Which enables more growth for the project and people involved.
The idea of companies supporting is very nice, The only potential loss for these future relationships is that it would be a nightmare if they get the ability to hijack and/or steal the project or influence it too much.
Looking forward to the reactions on this topic.:slightly_smiling_face:
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I am willing to donate as long as it remains voluntary.
paypal will be prishate as payment method -
Would absolutely donate, time is money in my book.
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I use patreon for another techy thing that I like to support. Its neat because you can set goals and once you reach the goals, you can set higher and better ones. I’m not sure if you can do a one-time donation with them. Otherwise Paypal would be my votes.
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MagicMirror is taking a prominant place in our household to keep the overview.
I’m willing to pay fot this product. I always like the once a year donation via PayPal. Send me after a year a reminder for the next donation. Maybe you can give the poeple who donate something extra.
For example a extra feature or a notation next to their name that they post something that they are a donor can be a extra motivation to donate. -
Donations are definitely reasonable, and I prefer PayPal for one time, or patreon for on-going. I have gotten some great support in the short time I have used this forum, and want it to continue.
Of note for revenue streams: I think most people on here are at least linux/pi competent and (like me) have an add blocker. White-listing is a PITA, so I don’t tend to frequent sites that nag me about it.
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Not that you’ll consider this as you don’t currently even answer anything I’ve ever written or asked but here’s an idea…
How about a section within the forum where users can go to get one on one individual help in exchange for a donation. I would have NO problem donating to get extra help on something that I’m stuck on. I don’t mean for basics such as config help and such.
Perhaps someone wants help to modify a module for their particular needs…something more along that lines… BUT donations to continue operations would never be a bad idea!
Great project and asking for help is well worth it.
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@cowboysdude said in Considering taking donations to support the MagicMirror project. Interested in your thoughts!:
Perhaps someone wants help to modify a module for their particular needs
but most of the modules are not written or maintained by Mich.
I would not ask for payment to help someone modify my modules. or theirs or anything else…Operations, i got… whats the budget shortfall that we need to make up?
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I’m quite new and have enjoyed this forum, but don’t know how long I’ll be hanging around. It looks to me like those that have posted above me are already some of your greatest contributors - with their time, skills and help. I also don’t know much about ad revenues or the amount of traffic your forum is getting. I would suspect though, that you will be better off getting some corporate sponsorship and allowing some non-intrusive ads. I do run an adblocker but it is simple enough to require white listing to view content. I don’t mind the ads if they are relevant and not obnoxious. I’m a paypal fan myself.
And thanks for what you have built over the last 5 years, it is truly wonderful.
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@cowboysdude said:
How about a section within the forum where users can go to get one on one individual help in exchange for a donation.
The problem with this idea is that individual support is very time consuming. Essentially you are hiring me on an hourly basis to give support. This would only work I I would charge my hourly development fee, which for a project like this probably won’t work.
Perhaps someone wants help to modify a module for their particular needs…something more along that lines… BUT donations to continue operations would never be a bad idea!
As others have said I only maintain the core and the default modules. Most modules a third party, so I won’t be able to give support on those anyway.
Thanks for your suggestions though! Good to know what people are looking for.
@rts58 said:
I would suspect though, that you will be better off getting some corporate sponsorship and allowing some non-intrusive ads.
If I limit the support to one company, this might give users the idea it’s owned by a company or that the company will have some influence on the project. I think it’s important that the project will be community supported, not company supported. That being said: I probably will allow companies to be become some sort of “platinum sponsor” with in return a logo on the project page.
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@michmich i guess there is a little bit of vagueness in the words ‘support the project’…
if you mean support this community site, then that is one thing,
if you mean support the development and maintenance of the runtime (thing we install from github). that is another.
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