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I'd love to be able to pay some monthly subscription to support Firefox. But every time this comes up, someone tells me that there's no way to directly support

I'd love to be able to pay some monthly subscription to support Firefox. But every time this comes up, someone tells me that there's no way to directly support Firefox itself. I wish they'd do something like Wikipedia does, to ask their users to donate or contribute.

maccard 5y ago
Unless I'm mistaken, Wikipedia doesn't ringfence their donations either, so by donating to the Wikimedia foundation [0] you're not just paying for wikipedia either. [0] https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php
- labawi 5y ago
  If you donate to Mozilla, you don't pay for Firefox at all. Conversely, AFAIK, Wikimedia doesn't accept money for merchandising their users. At least not in any official, straightforward way.
ploum 5y ago
While I philosophically agree with you, I can’t help but think: - Developing Firefox looks way more expensive than running Wikipedia servers. - It looks like there’s at least 10x less Firefox users than Wikipedia users. It might still be possible (Firefox users might me more willing to pay and to pay more than Wikipedia users). It still looks really hard. I wish they didn’t try to match the startup/VC/pivot/diversify frenzy but, in the end, I’m really happy that they exist.
throw63738 5y ago
I bet some mozilla devs have their own Github Sponsors or Patreon.
SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
From what I understand doing donations and stipulating that it’s for a specific purpose can hurt a nonprofit more than help, because then vital logistics get underfunded and fuck up the competency of the organization. (Eg. Everyone wants to fund nonprofits cancer research or whatever, but what if they actually desperately need to fund remote work infrastructure because a global pandemic has forced them all to work remotely on short notice?) Of course if you don’t like what an organization broadly does with the money given to it, don’t give it money. Maybe issue some feedback that you think the organization should do x or y, and the fact it’s doing p and q makes you hesitant to donate.

maccard 5y ago

Unless I'm mistaken, Wikipedia doesn't ringfence their donations either, so by donating to the Wikimedia foundation [0] you're not just paying for wikipedia either. [0] https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php

labawi 5y ago
If you donate to Mozilla, you don't pay for Firefox at all. Conversely, AFAIK, Wikimedia doesn't accept money for merchandising their users. At least not in any official, straightforward way.

ploum 5y ago

While I philosophically agree with you, I can’t help but think: - Developing Firefox looks way more expensive than running Wikipedia servers. - It looks like there’s at least 10x less Firefox users than Wikipedia users. It might still be possible (Firefox users might me more willing to pay and to pay more than Wikipedia users). It still looks really hard. I wish they didn’t try to match the startup/VC/pivot/diversify frenzy but, in the end, I’m really happy that they exist.

throw63738 5y ago

I bet some mozilla devs have their own Github Sponsors or Patreon.

SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago

From what I understand doing donations and stipulating that it’s for a specific purpose can hurt a nonprofit more than help, because then vital logistics get underfunded and fuck up the competency of the organization. (Eg. Everyone wants to fund nonprofits cancer research or whatever, but what if they actually desperately need to fund remote work infrastructure because a global pandemic has forced them all to work remotely on short notice?) Of course if you don’t like what an organization broadly does with the money given to it, don’t give it money. Maybe issue some feedback that you think the organization should do x or y, and the fact it’s doing p and q makes you hesitant to donate.