Contribute to the maintenance of the project

[exagonx]

Today, 2023 09 09 I delivered my first software created on commission by a company, and since I wrote it entirely in FreeBASIC, I would like to donate 10% of my earnings to the community, since I am aware of the costs of the domain, server and the time that the community dedicates to non-profit purposes.
I searched the site for some information on how to contribute financially but I didn't find anything, and I wanted to ask the community managers if there is a specific area, maybe besides me there is someone interested in contributing even with small sums to help the project.

[Imortis]

Very early on in the project it was decided that no money would be excepted for the project. There is no way to donate and that is on purpose.

[caseih]

There are all sorts of taxation and bureaucratic issues that projects have to deal with when they accept donations. Unfortunately it's a real hassle to jump through all the hoops and create a non-profit organization.

[exagonx]

There are all sorts of taxation and bureaucratic issues that projects have to deal with when they accept donations. Unfortunately it's a real hassle to jump through all the hoops and create a non-profit organization.

Each government has its own rules for non-profit associations, you just have to find out who in the community is best off establishing one by adding the rest of the community to facilitate control.

[exagonx]

There is no way to donate and that is on purpose.

Well usually who pays for the domain and various publishing services?
You can enter your IBAN and I can send some change which, together with other donations, affects the cost of maintenance.

From my point of view, expenses exist and the passion, however great, is sometimes not enough to compensate for the costs, while if we consider that there are at least a thousand active users at 1 euro each per year it is already 1000 euros less which weigh on the shoulders of those who maintain the project.

It must be considered that I had my first income so I am very much in favor of contributing to the project financially (considering that I do not have sufficient preparation to contribute in the programming field)

[speedfixer]

Excellent sentiment.
And an interesting proposition for any/all who have profited by involvement in FB.

I have read all the posts related to contributions. I WOULD give $$$ - if possible, non-profit or otherwise.

Personally, once upon a time I thought I could contribute in code/review/development, etc.
Prepped to do that. My life was too busy then. Now: too old, health issues, no attention span and such.

There are other ways to give than just core FB code. fxm is a very good example.
Sure, he does give code. My opinion: his larger value is being meticulous and exhaustive when examining code and coding possibilities.
It takes drive and dedication. What he does must take a lot of time and concentration. I admire that passion. I have never seen anyone make that level of effort in the programming world.

Others contribute by working on just tiny snippets of code. Perhaps this is in their own interest, but it still contributes to the whole.
If you had energy and clarity to produce code that was worth $$$, then certainly there is something you can work on.

All those that deep dive into FB core still find many opportunities to improve features, speed, compatibility, infrastructure improvements, more.

What are you interested in, personally? Take that as a starting point.

As deltarho[1859] worked on his rnd generators, I don't think the intent was to contribute to the core.
As dodicat wrote his amusing examples of code, and showed so many times that a person's assumption about what FB *could* do was wrong, I don't think he was trying to contribute to the core.

Yet I have no doubt each has influenced some of the code that we use in core FB today.
There are so many others that have made even smaller contributions - without trying.

I also don't think coderjeff or dkl INTENDED to be the main developer when it happened to each. Things evolve.

But if you TRY ...

The alternative:

A standing advice to all I always give: if you don't try - you lose - a u t o m a t i c a l l y

david

[Imortis]

There is no way to donate and that is on purpose.

Well usually who pays for the domain and various publishing services?

All hosting has been provided for free from the beginning by the owner of phatcode.net, Plasma.

[coderJeff]

hey exagonx. congratulations on delivering your first software on commission by a company!

I searched the site for some information on how to contribute financially but I didn't find anything

for me personally (because I can't speak for the other principal project contributors) donations have never entered in to my consciousness as needed. The nature of the project is that we do it because we want to and we give it away freely because we want to. In another lifetime I wrote software to pay all my bills. Now programming is a hobby, and for most of the time an enjoyable one, and I really have no interest in managing money.

The reality is: there are a few dedicated souls and the talent is spread so thin. Some day I'd like to hand over responsibilities to another. The biggest challenge is finding several people to work together that are willing to dedicate time to the core project.

But, aside from getting involved directly with freebasic forum or compiler - other ways to help that are worth it:
- share your story on other social media, about using freebasic to make $$$
- post reviews on sites advertising links / downloads to latest version of freebasic
- email the website owners about their out of date links to decade old releases of freebasic
- update the wikipedia page with new information
- donate to a programming competition
- donate to other users / creators that do accept donations, for example, IDE's, books, tutorials, etc