[maemo-developers] "Donate $x" button on Packages and/or Downloads

[From: Thomas Wälti]

Inspired by TouchSearch, I've started to implement a standardized way
in my widgets some weeks ago. This includes handling donations:

The option window always has four buttons arranged 2x2:
- Settings: brings you the to app-specific settings
- Help: Opens the app help page, which is a maemo wiki page. (This has
a number of advantages, like external hosting and editable by
everyone)
- About: The about dialogue
- Donate: Opens a donation page in Paypal. Very easy to setup, just
one hyperlink.

I'm persuaded that this is the single most efficient way to do it. A
developer can easily handle it himself and it is very quick to setup.
(There is a generator available inside PayPal that allows you to setup
the form and generates the necessary hyperlink)
It's kept under complete control by the developer and no community
effort is needed.
Paypal is widely accepted, also allows direct payment by CreditCard
and generally works very well (I've done many thousands of
transactions over it).

Try any of my Bluezwitch, Sleeper or Shutter widgets (or the
soon-to-be-bugfixed recaller :-) to see it in action.

Happy hacking
-Tom



2010/4/15 Andrew Flegg <andrew at bleb.org>:
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 12:55, Andrew Flegg <andrew at bleb.org> wrote:
>>
>> Similarly, as Ovi takes off, it is interesting to think about how
>> micro-payments for ones software could make one a bit of money (100
>> users at $1 each is a nice present); but whilst still having our
>> software as open source. There've been suggestions in the past of a
>> "Donate" button on each project's website, but I suggest we thrash out
>> a scheme - and then implement - a consistent micro-donation system for
>> maemo.org
>
> To kick the ball rolling on this again, since I think we can get quick wins.
>
> I've just noticed that addons.mozilla.org has exactly the kind of
> standardised donation form I was imagining. For example, see:
>
>       https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/469
>
> Clicking "Contribute" opens a little box asking you whether you want
> to make a one-time contribution of the suggested amount, a one-time
> donation of another amount or a regular monthly donation. With
> optional comment.
>
> Clicking "Donate" then takes you to a PayPal "Billing information" page.
>
> There's a Drupal module (apparently) which uses PayPal's Mass Payment
> API[1] and a blog post introducing Mozilla's pilot[2]. Does anyone
> know how it works? We must have a Mozilla developer around here, or
> someone with a PayPal connection!
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Andrew
>
>
> [1] https://cms.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_api_masspay
>
> [2] http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2009/07/15/firefox-add-ons-contributions-pilot/
>
> --
> Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/
> Maemo Community Council chair
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