Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
Considering taking donations to support the MagicMirror project. Interested in your thoughts!
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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.
