"a yearly donation would definitely be something I'd do for a substantial amount"
There's a word for this, it's called 'subscription' : )
They provide a service, you pay for it.
It's how most of the world works.
I think the underlying issue is price discrimination: how to get the large numbers of those unwilling/unable to pay some value, while providing value to the higher order users as well.
It's a paradox that people will pay more for a coffee than they will something that can help them substantially :)
> There's a word for this, it's called 'subscription' : )
I avoided that word because it's the wrong word.
A subscription implies I get something that normal users don't get. I don't want that. I hate services like Dropbox where the free users get benefits for installing it on their Android or from referrals (shitty stuff) and live off of the backs of paying users. Yet here I think it's much more akin to something like open source software, which is for the general good and is worth supporting for those who are able to afford it.
Edit: There is no need to downvote the person, though. To me he seems to be contributing to the conversation.
"A subscription implies I get something that normal users don't get."
Fair enough - but there are very, very few value creating engines that can feasibly exist in such a context.
Wikipedia is one.
Stackoverflow probably could not.
Someone mentioned it creates 'billions' in value, well, that's probably not too far off.
There's nothing wrong with people paying for things.
But to your point - it would be nice to find a way to do intelligent price discrimination. Students, hobbyists get it free, other entities can pay. etc..
I don't think that would work for Stackoverflow either because there is an inherent 'open-ness' that it needs ... that said, again, there's nothing wrong with paying for things.
There's a word for this, it's called 'subscription' : )
They provide a service, you pay for it.
It's how most of the world works.
I think the underlying issue is price discrimination: how to get the large numbers of those unwilling/unable to pay some value, while providing value to the higher order users as well.
It's a paradox that people will pay more for a coffee than they will something that can help them substantially :)