<story><title>I received my first donation on my open-source side project</title><url>https://gourav.io/blog/first-donation-on-open-source-side-project</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>susam</author><text>I have been running an open source MathJax-based mathematics pastebin[1] since 2012 and I had received 2 donations for it until recently. Then a mathematician tweeted[2] about it convincing others to send some donations. After that kind gesture by him, I received 3 more donations. So pretty sure I can&amp;#x27;t make a living out of donations. :-) But I still appreciate them because they help in covering a portion of the hosting cost.&lt;p&gt;Also, I never seriously expected donations for this project because I don&amp;#x27;t work much on it these days apart from cleaning up spam from time to time, complying with legal notices and occasional maintenance. I added a donation button only to see if someone would use it. Apart from covering hosting cost, I think an important side effect of the donations is that it provides some additional motivation to continue working on the project and develop it further which I indeed plan to do as soon as I can find the time for it.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathb.in&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathb.in&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;daveinstpaul&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1345082256361193473&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;daveinstpaul&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1345082256361193473&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bigiain</author><text>So that&amp;#x27;s 2 donations in 8 years - or about 0.25 donations per year. And _three_ donations in the last year!&lt;p&gt;Or 1200% YoY growth!&lt;p&gt;(VCs please form an orderly queue...)</text></comment>
<story><title>I received my first donation on my open-source side project</title><url>https://gourav.io/blog/first-donation-on-open-source-side-project</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>susam</author><text>I have been running an open source MathJax-based mathematics pastebin[1] since 2012 and I had received 2 donations for it until recently. Then a mathematician tweeted[2] about it convincing others to send some donations. After that kind gesture by him, I received 3 more donations. So pretty sure I can&amp;#x27;t make a living out of donations. :-) But I still appreciate them because they help in covering a portion of the hosting cost.&lt;p&gt;Also, I never seriously expected donations for this project because I don&amp;#x27;t work much on it these days apart from cleaning up spam from time to time, complying with legal notices and occasional maintenance. I added a donation button only to see if someone would use it. Apart from covering hosting cost, I think an important side effect of the donations is that it provides some additional motivation to continue working on the project and develop it further which I indeed plan to do as soon as I can find the time for it.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathb.in&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mathb.in&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;daveinstpaul&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1345082256361193473&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;daveinstpaul&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1345082256361193473&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>akersten</author><text>What kind of legal notices are you routinely dealing with? That&amp;#x27;s a frightening aspect of maintaining an open source side project I hadn&amp;#x27;t really considered.</text></comment>