I've started a Patreon page
I've decided to give Patreon a go for the purpose of funding libre game development. My page is here:
https://www.patreon.com/onpon4
I'm hoping this could be a more versatile source of funding for my work on libre games than game-centered crowdfunding campaigns like the one for Hexoshi. Those won't be going away, since they're useful especially when I need to raise funds to pay an artist for something, but for my own work, Patreon's model could work better if I get enough supporters. It would make it more realistic for me to work on smaller projects, like my MegaGlest tactical scenarios and my contributions to Naev.
Coinciding with this, I have also re-released ReTux as a gratis download (I'll be posting an announcement about this later):
If you like my work developing libre games and want to see it go further, please consider becoming a patron. Every dollar helps. :)
Neat - I want to support free games with free culture things in them so I'll give you money.
Thanks! :)
I don't like that Patreon blocks Tor users because it uses CloudFlare. I hate CloudFlare: https://people.torproject.org/~lunar/20160331-CloudFlare_Fact_Sheet.pdf https://blog.torproject.org/blog/trouble-cloudflare
Anyway, isn't it better to donate directly to you instead on relying on a middleman that will charge you more fees, resulting in less money reaching you?
This is untrue. CloudFlare doesn't block Tor users; it just requires them to complete a CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA used to be broken in non-JavaScript mode, but it works just fine now as long as you're properly blocking it (i.e. not using LibreJS). I just tested it; I was able to look at my Patreon page through Tor Browser just fine (though of course, I had to switch the security level to "medium" to see the actual page; this is unrelated to anything CloudFlare does).
> Anyway, isn't it better to donate directly to you instead on relying on a middleman that will charge you more fees, resulting in less money reaching you?
Patreon charges contributors' cards on a monthly basis rather than just once, so that's the advantage. It's a steady stream of contributions, more similar to Trisquel or FSF membership than donations.
But yeah, if Patreon is something you can't or won't use, sending me money directly would be helpful, too. I have a public Bitcoin address (bitcoin:1Ko772jMW2ZDXaPT4Pi9VYi8612eSXCxfU), and there's also my PayPal account (name at domain).
Some minor changes have been made to the page:
* Someone on Reddit confused the meaning of "patron-only updates", so I changed that wording to "patron-only news posts".
* The opening paragraph in the description has been reworded, since at least one Reddit commenter interpreted the original wording as "blaming" proprietary software for the fact that I don't have millions of dollars at my disposal, rather than what it actually said, that libre games can't possibly get that kind of money the same way proprietary games do.
* The "corrupt politician" pledge level is now just $20, and the limit on vote doubling frequency has been removed.
If you haven't become a patron yet, please consider doing so! :) Every dollar helps.
I am a member!
Does donating with Patreon require use of JavaScript code that is not under a free software license?
If so, you are recommending proprietary software on this free software forum.
Calher ;-)
Opon4 is one of the most ardent combatant against proprietary Javascript on this Forum
(Bravo +++)
It does seem to be the case though. Try it out.
It would be a mistake to make the perfect the enemy of the better. I won't say that Patreon is good, but there currently isn't any better alternative for making it easy for people to give me monthly donations without entrusting me with their credit card information (which I doubt most people would be willing to do).
If a similar service without JavaScript requirements becomes available, then I will switch over (by which I mean, copy over and then advertise as the new main one). But until then, temporarily and conditionally accepting an unacceptable circumstance for the purpose of advancing forward is better than insisting on absolute purity and getting nowhere as a result.
Or put another way: I am asking you to make a personal sacrifice in the hopes that this will help improve something about our sitution (in this case, libre games) in the future. That sacrifice is some of your liberty, because Patreon requires proprietary JavaScript code embedded onto a Web page. If this is too big of a sacrifice for you, I fully understand. In that case, I hope you will consider sending Bitcoin to my public Bitcoin address (bitcoin:1Ko772jMW2ZDXaPT4Pi9VYi8612eSXCxfU). However, please also appreciate that one-time donations such as this are not easy to sustain and cannot properly replace my day job, for example.
Other than replacing Patreon, one thing that you could do if you are familiar with JavaScript (I am not) is develop replacement scripts for Patreon. You could probably use Greasemonkey for this.
By the way, the need for personal sacrifice of liberty to support me on Patreon is one reason why I have been saying that game-specific crowdfunding campaigns on CrowdSupply will not go away. It's also why most of the places advertising my Patreon page also advertise my public Bitcoin address (and my PayPal email address, but PayPal isn't any better ethically than Patreon).
Perhaps there is the possibility of doing wire transfers. :)
--
- [[https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno]]
- Palestrante e consultor sobre /software/ livre (não confundir com
gratis).
- "WhatsApp"? Ele não é livre, por isso não uso. Iguais a ele prefiro
GNU Ring, ou Tox. Quer outras formas de contato? Adicione o vCard
que está no endereço acima aos teus contatos.
- Pretende me enviar arquivos .doc, .ppt, .cdr, ou .mp3? OK, eu
aceito, mas não repasso. Entrego apenas em formatos favoráveis ao
/software/ livre. Favor entrar em contato em caso de dúvida.
I'm not very familiar with any platform, but have you heard about Liberapay? From what I've read, it's a libre (free software) platform for recurring donations; they even handle translations with Weblate, which is also free software, I believe (although the Esperanto translation is in dire need of correction). Here's a link if anyone wants to take a look.
I've never heard of that before. In any case, I've started a page there as well:
I don't think it's something I can point not-libre-software-supporters to first because it's horribly ugly and doesn't give me any way to offer perks or multiple goals. But it works as an alternative, at least. I've added links to it both on my Patreon page and everywhere my Patreon page is linked to.
I've set an initial goal of €25 a week there (roughly the same as the initial goal on Patreon).
I am a member!
The FSF recommends Crowd Supply for crowd funding. It works sans JS.
Yeah, that's what I used for the Hexoshi campaign, but that's for one-time funding, not recurring donations. I will continue to use it for large projects (e.g. Milestone 2 of Hexoshi).
> I've never heard of that before. In any case, I've started a page there as well:
>
> https://liberapay.com/onpon4
Your Google+ link in Liberapay is broken. I have created an account there too: https://liberapay.com/jorgesumle. If this could help me to get an small amount to cover Freak Spot small server expenses and support my contributions to free software projects, I would be happy. It is nice than I can have my statement in different languages (for now only in Spanish and in English).
Onpon, I don't have a stable income, but when I have it, I'll definitely support you through Liberapay or Bitcoin. For now, I try to contribute with translations and some code improvements in my little free time, and a donation or purchase from time to time.
> I don't think it's something I can point not-libre-software-supporters to first because it's horribly ugly and doesn't give me any > way to offer perks or multiple goals.
I don't think that Liberapay is ugly: it is minimalistic, easy to use and almost completely responsive. At least, I can enter and use the website, not like Patreon, which requires me to enter a CAPTCHA, which I won't, and execute proprietary JS.
> Your Google+ link in Liberapay is broken.
That's because I don't actually have a Google Plus account. I have a Google account, but I only use it to upload some videos (mostly game trailers) to YouTube. That's mostly for distribution sites that support linking to videos, but require (usually) either YouTube or Vimeo.
I have no interest in Google Plus.
> I don't think that Liberapay is ugly: it is minimalistic, easy to use and almost completely responsive.
That's not what I was talking about. The layout is fine. The problem is the colors, specifically that yellow banner and the yellow "donate" button. This is a terrible color choice and it's even worse to mix it with blue. The text also has bad contrast, so it's difficult to read, and the white background is overly bright.
Combine these together and if I were to point most people to this page, they would click straight away before I even have a chance to sell it to them.
> That's not what I was talking about. The layout is fine. The problem is the colors, specifically that yellow banner and the yellow "donate" button. This is a terrible color choice and it's even worse to mix it with blue. The text also has bad contrast, so it's difficult to read, and the white background is overly bright.
I don't understand much about colors, for me they're fine. But maybe your feedback is useful to solve Liberapay issue #183 Making the Liberapay site visually attractive.