AutoHotkey Community

Many other sites use "donate now" buttons or something like this:


It's already 2007 and this great and very helpful site *still* has no donate buttons!

I donated a few times in the past because I really wanted, but others (who could easily afford it) might not even think of that just because they are not asked (that's just human psychology). So, please ask more!

If you don't want/need the money, I suggest you find some awesome, trustworthy coder at a site like http://www.rentacoder.com/ and pay him/her to optimize the code and/or to improve certain features.

I'd love that!

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DonationCoder.com brings AHK to the newbies!
Fan of AutoHotkey? Consider an occasional donation to its developer, Chris Mallett.

Thanks.

Based on the donation statistics of other projects, I think donate buttons tend to do more harm than good because 99% of visitors have no intention of donating (and I don't blame them) -- so to them, the button is just a nag or distraction. Also, the site has been given free hosting by Aybra, which helps too.

I doubt a donate button would collect enough to fund a significant amount of development time unless a single donor gave a large sum, which is unlikely. I think it would be far more valuable to have another developer voluntarily join the project.

This is not to say there will never be a donate button. But as long as the project/site doesn't need the money, I'd prefer not to have one.

Thanks.

You're are saying that exactly like many site owners (or entrepreneurs for that matter) - they assume many things.

I have good news for you: I'm helping several not-for-profit site owners improving their site, growing bigger, getting more users, etc. - and while you are right that many don't care about a donation, some do! Some even donate $100 at a time, and while they are the absolute minority I still figure that $500 to $1000 could really have a noticeable, positive effect on AHK. Don't you?

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DonationCoder.com brings AHK to the newbies!
Fan of AutoHotkey? Consider an occasional donation to its developer, Chris Mallett.

True, but I feel it would distract slightly from the purpose of the site. When you multiply that slight distraction by the thousands of visitors per month, I think the total cost to them outweighs the benefit.

On the other hand, I understand why many open-source and freeware projects ask for donations. The costs of maintaining their sites can be enormous in cases like Wikipedia, not to mention that donations provide an incentive for continued development.

I won't deny that donations are an incentive for me too. But I think the total cost of nagging every visitor (admittedly only slightly) would be too high unless the project needed the money to continue operating.

Thanks for your comments.

In my experience site owners greatly overestimate the potential dangers of fundraising, be it a "please donate" button or even Google ads (the harmless text ads). In one case we even asked users how they feel about it, and almost all said that while they hate flashy big banner ads, they are totally OK with this.

Once you show users that you aren't there to rip them off, but that you care for them, that you want to give them the most perfect software to make their lives easier (and all that even for free!), they feel they can trust you. I think that's why they don't hold it against you when you try to raise money for the good cause.

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DonationCoder.com brings AHK to the newbies!
Fan of AutoHotkey? Consider an occasional donation to its developer, Chris Mallett.

Chris, can you please confirm that the donate link in brotherS' signature is valid? I just have that fuzzy feeling about it...

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Is there another word for synonym?

Thanks for the info. I know many users here feel that way too.

Yes it is. But if you prefer, you can just manually send to support@autohotkey.com.

@ Chris: OK!

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DonationCoder.com brings AHK to the newbies!
Fan of AutoHotkey? Consider an occasional donation to its developer, Chris Mallett.

I won't donate (except my time...) because I am broke... (three years without paid job...)
Note that the "nagging" can be a plain text link on the home page, that would point to a page explaining how that would help and how to do it.
Discrete and not nagging, but it is here for those searching for it and easily skipped by those not interested...

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

I would donate. AHK is a lifesaver to my twisted excuses of hands/wrists.

I agree.

Summary:

1. A text link or button saying "Donate" or "Donations", would irritate very few people. (People are used to seeing such a thing.)

2. Everytime someone donated even a symbolic sum of 1 dollar, it would make you happy

Almost a year hast passed since my first post and the site looks exactly like back then.

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DonationCoder.com brings AHK to the newbies!
Fan of AutoHotkey? Consider an occasional donation to its developer, Chris Mallett.

A nice comment about the program is better than a symbolic donation of 1 dollar. It would be more appreciated by the makers of autohotkey. Making it possible to donate, would enable those who want to give a large sum of money to do so. Those who don't want to donate won't care about the the text link saying "To donate, click here". Very few people would be irritated by that, since they are used to it and you aren't forcing them to pay in order to use the program.

If 100 people donate 1 dollar each then the sum is 100 dollars, which would be quite appreciated by the makers of the program.

I don't think a donation button is nagging. Its not like its an in your face pop-up. I also think the donation can make people feel good about supporting AutoHotkey.

Chris's argument that he does not need money to support the AutoHotkey website is very understandable, so he does not want to deal with issues with handling money that it may create.

However, there are some ways that money could be helpful:

1. It could be used as prize money for the winner of a poll.

For instance, the most useful "script" or "scripts" for 2007. There could be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

There could also be a vote for contributing to the AutoHotkey source code.

2. Perhaps it could be setup to donate to registered AutoHotkey scriptwriters at AutoHotkey.net

3. It could go to renting C++ programmers to implement difficult AutoHotkey solutions.