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Question to Everyone: Setting aside the technical meaning, does Donationware...

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JavaJones:
As others, I can only offer my opinion. I'm glad you asked the question actually because my answers were a bit of a surprise - or at least not already known - to me.

What I realized is that, for me, "donate" gives me the psychological impression of a "weaker" and somehow less appealing offer (vs. "pay what you want"), regardless of the product in question. This is what I think is going on in my head.

Donating to me is associated with non-profits and, less commonly but as a greater extreme, the street performer or anyone else looking for a "hand out". If DC were a registered non-profit with tax decuctable status maybe my feelings would shift but since it's not, it *feels* like any other commercial enterprise asking for donations, i.e. not as "justified" as non-profits. Now I don't see mouser and donationware authors in general as actually looking for a "hand out", they produce real work in exchange, yet somehow the impression is not so different when the word "donation" is used. It has somehow a slightly negative, almost "pathetic", connotation. Let me be clear, I do not like that feeling on my part, I express it solely because it is true and it is interesting and hopefully it helps inform those who are seeking to find equitabl, non-traditional compensation models for their work.

On the other side, "pay what you want" has a rather impishly enjoyable, flippant quality to it, a casualness that perhaps obscures the true underlying similarity in the request ("support me"). Perhaps I should say more about it, but I think that captures my *impression* fairly accurately. Essentially, that there is a "heavyness" to "donation" and a "lightness" to "pay what you want". One is guilt, the other is freedom.

What I can't say for sure is which actually motivates me to donate more. Is it more compelling to feel guilty about not donating, or to feel like it's truly my choice and I am free either way? Honestly I lean toward the latter intellectually, but practically I have no actual evidence to base such a conclusion on.

Interesting topic, good question.

- Oshyan

skwire:
http://www.paywhatyouwantcoder.com, p'raps?   :P  Doesn't roll off the tongue quite like DonationCoder.com, eh?   :D

mouser:
Very interesting points by Oshyan.

I can't help but feel that both terms turn people off..
I wonder if there is something better.

wraith808:
I think anything to do with money or time is going to turn some people off.  That's just the way of the world, unfortunately.  Time and money represent the measurable things in our lives, and most people are very conscious of both.

bob99:
Very interesting points by Oshyan.

I can't help but feel that both terms turn people off..
I wonder if there is something better.
-mouser (September 26, 2011, 10:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

What about "...pay what you can?"  To me it doesn't sound as much like "here it is... pay what you want... don't really care."

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