New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Comments
I think you are very strong to put up with all this ****.
I would have thrown the towel long ago.
Respect.
I don't see it as morally wrong to give an option to pay. I do see a legal wrong with calling such an option a donation, when in reality it isn't for a not-for-profit organization. It's just for a single person, so it could be considered tax fraud depending on your jurisdiction.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with an "optional fee". I have a problem with people misusing the term "donation", when "gift" is MUCH more accurate.
We have no right under any circumstance to judge joepie about his life or moral grounds unless we know him in real life and genuinely think he's in trouble. (If you are not going to donate, just don't post in that thread, that is what I did? :P) But from what I can see here, a simple donation thread is no harm and completely legitimate. I'm posting as just a spectator, but I do visit these forums and engage in activity from time to time. The best advice I believe is he should work for a larger corporation and make a salary or whatnot. I think that would be the best income for him. But then again, I don't know him that much and don't want to assume. (I also currently don't know if PHP has any salary based jobs? Mostly freelance work eh?) I myself will not donate unless a) I have a job, b) I am blown away by someone's code, other than that, he is a smart guy and I see nothing wrong with his previous donation thread.
Not everyone wants to just go out and "get a job" I feel the same, luckily for me, financial aid lets me go to college to make something out of my life. And no I'm not one of those kids who spends their financial aid money on trying to be a weed dealer in school.. (God I met so many in college, taking advantage of the system... shame on them) But this is a whole other issue >_>
In any event, I wish joepie the best, some people will just be trolls over the internet, I'm sure you heard it before but it's best just to stay humble and ignore them.
Just my personal observation - that last thread didn't come over as 'hey guys, I need a bit of help financially, if you like/use my stuff, please consider chipping in' - it came over more as 'hey guys, I need a bit of help financially please consider chipping in', which is where you get the people equating it to 'begging' I would guess. The way the thread escalated didn't help that situation.
Personally, I have no issue for you requesting a few quid for the work you do from the people who benefit from it, it's perfectly right and proper that they should send something your way if they can afford to do so - if I used anything you'd written, I certainly would.
I was planning not to start any arguments or discussions in this thread, but this particular one is so incredibly wrong that I want to highlight it anyway.
Uh, no, no, and no.
First off, the word "donation" has nothing to do whatsoever with registered non-profit organizations.
donation n 1: a voluntary gift (as of money or service or ideas) made to some worthwhile cause [syn: {contribution}, {donation}]Second off, a donation is not tax fraud. If I am correct, it can be considered a form of taxable income in the Netherlands, just like every other kind of income. In other countries, it is either treated as taxable income or as a gift. What you are probably thinking of is a "tax-deductible donation", which is something very different.
Third off, there are exactly zero legal issues with me accepting donations.
"Donation" is the appropriate term to use here, and "gift" is something that is given (and not explicitly asked for) without anything in return (other than through social convention sometimes, but that is unrelated to the word itself).
I'd hoped the "if you like my stuff" would become clear because of the link to http://cryto.net/~joepie91 and my signature, but if that wasn't the case, then sorry for that. I'll attempt to be clearer about things like that in the future.
hehe Capitalist at work
I have no objections to you operating strictly on open-source work, and am happy to fund you doing so, as I believe is apparent
This might be true for some, but I have a problem when someone is scratching to make it, I offer some funds, then get bit when I don't agree later on, so naturally like a normal human being I took the low road and snipped some of the snide comments.
@joepie91 maybe needs to add focus to his plethora of projects, many have no commercial value, but some do, but I have seen little progress on the one in particular I am interested it. I "donate" about $4k a year to Solus, make your mousetrap usable to capture some of that.
If joepie91 is going to live off donations, he is going to have to learn to be a lot more humble at times and not irritate those willing to donate or he will be seeking to figure out how to modify his situation to live off nothing as that is all that will come in.
@Joepie91 - Perhaps slightly off topic but how old are you if that's not too open and personal and were you at some point in a 9-5 type role and basically decided fuck it one day and changed or...
I had seen on the thread you made asking for donations that you had a particular view on working and "supporting the bigger system" as i believe you put it, but whenever people asked about it in more detail you said that the thread wasn't about that.
Why not post your outlook on work in moderate detail so people can make fully informed comments on your lifestyle - at the moment it seems a lot of people are jumping to conclusions with half the story.
Obviously I can understand you not wanting to divulge your private life choices and that's fine - but I do think it will help and people will have their own (possibly misinformed) opinions unless you come out with your point of view.
Be yourself and fcuk what other people think
@joepie91 It might have just been the way I read the post, but to me it was far from implicit. Others can tell you if their impression was the same or not.
I'd also not expect anyone to read a signature, they're like wallpaper, you notice them once, then rarely after that.
I have been heavily involved in open source Development of all languages for many years. I think any one who wants to make bread needs to learn all that is learn able..
That being said, I have never seen a discussion like this continue to this point with out some condemnation from other hard working individuals. Especially coders. Most successful programmers work too hard to have this kind of attitude. Comon brother. You are better than this.
I have plenty of local friends < 30 years old who have their houses and two car garages paid and stocked full from working hard. Starting to take exception. Hrmph.
@joepie91 *what can I do right now to help you that doesn't involve a monetary solution? I will if I can..