

Donate to Zed Shaw's Mongrel2 Fund - petercooper
http://mongrel2.org/wiki?name=Donate

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gommm
I've just donated a bit, I've been using Zed Shaw's work a lot over the years
so it's good to try and help him have time to work on that :-)

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pragmatic
After reading the manual I had to donate.

1\. Entertaining manual 2\. Made me excited about a new technology for the
first time in a long while.

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HNer
I never found any success with donations. Instead I'd suggest creating a new
pain while solving a problem. So then you charge for that...

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petercooper
Only a single data point, but in 2005 I had several thousands in donations
over $several months for a basic online service (only a Perl CGI script at the
time..!) and my buddies over at Phusion have had a crazy level of success with
them: <http://pledgie.com/campaigns/2975>

Given Zed's stature, I doubt he will have problems getting enough donations to
keep him sustained for a while even if it's not a permanent situation.

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HNer
A 'few k' is a lousy return IMO.

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petercooper
Yeah? For just hanging out your shingle and asking, anything seems like gravy
to me. In Phusion's case, I know that the $13k in donations made a huge
difference for getting Passenger 2 out of the door and in my case it validated
the business idea (a little) and was a factor in the angel investors
approaching me.

But your milage might vary and if you have to struggle and beg for those
donations, you are probably right. Time may be better spent elsewhere. I can't
see Zed having that problem!

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HNer
I suspect he'll make a few k, but in truth I can't see it being too fab. Also
it lowers his valuation in some peoples eyes, who will say 'look Zed's broke'
which strangely changes the dynamics of many relationships. When people see
your desperate they generally dismiss or avoid you.

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zedshaw
I'm not desperate at all, in fact I had saved up money to fund the project
myself for a couple months. The donations are because my goals in Mongrel2
changed once I realized I could actually change the lives of programmers and
maybe put an end to at least a tiny bit of the language religion that seems to
infect the web programming world. With a bigger goal and one that needs me to
give the software away for it to succeed, I decided to ask for donations.

The donations serve two purposes: They make it so I can work on Mongrel2 for a
while and get something awesome started. It _also_ demonstrates that other
people are backing what I'm doing. When you don't have a large community at
the start, people will take monetary amounts donated as a sign that the
project might go somewhere.

I can't say I agree with folks who judge a project's success by donation
amounts or community size over technical capability, but I can understand it.

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HNer
I would like to qualify that I personally don't equate lack of monetary
success to failure or such, however, I once ran a large successful electronic
design manufacturing and distribution business, while I was extremely
successful from the outside looking in, on the inside I was suffering. I hence
gave it all up, at which point a markedly evident change occurred in family,
friends, business associates, perception of me which was a clear as ice. You
would not be alone I'm sure facing the dialema of making something cool but
not making financial success from your efforts :
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1563441>

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jayjay1010
Zed Shaw should just contine to make no cash and ask for donations, because
they will pay his bils for a few months.

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greenlblue
Gotta hand it to Zed, the guy never skimps on quality documentation.

