Considering taking donations to support the MagicMirror project. Interested in your thoughts!

sdetweil · Feb 1, 2019, 3:17 AM

@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?

rts58 · Feb 1, 2019, 4:43 AM

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.

MichMich · Feb 1, 2019, 1:37 PM

@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.

sdetweil · Feb 1, 2019, 2:02 PM

@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.

MichMich · Feb 1, 2019, 2:14 PM

@sdetweil That’s a valid point!

The support is focussed on the total project, including the development, maintenance and running costs like the website and forum.

Like I said before::

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.

bhepler · Feb 2, 2019, 5:23 PM

I’m currently working on my 4th mirror and I have plans for two more. I have gotten so much out of @MichMich’s original idea. I would love to donate some cashy money to help him keep this idea flourishing.

Additionally, I trust Mich to use collected funds for the project appropriately.

Mykle1 · Feb 2, 2019, 10:43 PM

I’d be disappointed if he didn’t use at least some of the money towards drugs and alcohol, or is that a separate donation?

justjim1220 · Feb 3, 2019, 12:33 AM

@mykle1 :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

justjim1220 · Feb 3, 2019, 12:35 AM

I would be interested in providing some kind of donation, on limited income, but will try to do what I can, when I can.
I would prefer to use PayPal. Or I could donate time in helping out with issues and and stuff that I could do.
(still in relearning phase after no programming for 15 years)

delightedCrow · Feb 3, 2019, 7:04 AM

PayPal seems like it would be the most accessible for people generally (esp. for one time donations), but I think Patreon could work really well for this. You could have one of the higher Patreon tiers be that Patrons get to vote on their their favorite feature in your list of what to work on next (or something like that), which might be a nice way to get donations and community involvement at the same time.