3 ms·

For me, the best option would be to be able to donate to Firefox engineers directly, but not to Mozilla, they do too many things, I don't stand for those, just

by zb3 2y ago

For me, the best option would be to be able to donate to Firefox engineers directly, but not to Mozilla, they do too many things, I don't stand for those, just the Firefox browser...

notpushkin 2y ago
This. I’m starting to wonder if it could be possible to raise some funds and hire people to work on Firefox (and Firefox only). Maybe partner with the FF forks to help raise money? I don’t really know how that would work.
gruez 2y ago
Money is fungible. Every dollar you donate earmarked to "Firefox engineers" can theoretically be offset by the Mozilla foundation/corporation moving one dollar to something else. This eventually breaks down if the sums are large enough, but at the scales that individual donations can muster, it'll probably hold.
- anonymousiam 2y ago
  Right. Governments have used the same tricks with lotteries and bonds allocated to specific programs. People vote for these revenue generating methods to fund the programs, and the governments can then divert the money that was previously funding the programs into less popular sinkholes.
  - mrayycombi 2y ago
    Exactly, which is why buying a homeless drug addict a coffee and a sandwich means he can shift that money into drugs. And why "humanitarian aid" to countries at war allows budgets to be shifted to weapons instead of food and medical supplies. Sometimes you just can't do the seemingly obvious "right thing"
JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago
I wonder why they haven't tried that yet: Firefox Support Edition, for $10 a month you get nothing (or maybe some Sync stuff) but all the funds go to Firefox exclusively, and your copy will show a pretty star on startup or something else. Patron Edition: for $20 a month, same thing but you also get the VPN from Mullvad. 160M users. If 10% subscribe, you get $160M every month. I'm a marketing genius.
- gruez 2y ago
  >160M users. If 10% subscribe, you get $160M every month. I'm a marketing genius. Can't tell whether you're serious or being sarcastic. A 10% conversion rate for a free product would be the most successful marketing campaign in history. Typical rates are in the low single digits, and that includes goods/services that people have no choice but to pay money for (eg. drop shipped goods from china or SaaS products).
mrayycombi 2y ago
You may just end up with the "tipped cashier" effect where wages are driven down on rationale that they will be tipped. Now if you buy a self serve coffee in a paper cup the cashier whose sole job is to take your money, expects a tip because their wages are shite.

by zb3 2y ago

For me, the best option would be to be able to donate to Firefox engineers directly, but not to Mozilla, they do too many things, I don't stand for those, just the Firefox browser...

notpushkin 2y ago

This. I’m starting to wonder if it could be possible to raise some funds and hire people to work on Firefox (and Firefox only). Maybe partner with the FF forks to help raise money? I don’t really know how that would work.

gruez 2y ago

Money is fungible. Every dollar you donate earmarked to "Firefox engineers" can theoretically be offset by the Mozilla foundation/corporation moving one dollar to something else. This eventually breaks down if the sums are large enough, but at the scales that individual donations can muster, it'll probably hold.

anonymousiam 2y ago
Right. Governments have used the same tricks with lotteries and bonds allocated to specific programs. People vote for these revenue generating methods to fund the programs, and the governments can then divert the money that was previously funding the programs into less popular sinkholes.
- mrayycombi 2y ago
  Exactly, which is why buying a homeless drug addict a coffee and a sandwich means he can shift that money into drugs. And why "humanitarian aid" to countries at war allows budgets to be shifted to weapons instead of food and medical supplies. Sometimes you just can't do the seemingly obvious "right thing"

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago

I wonder why they haven't tried that yet: Firefox Support Edition, for $10 a month you get nothing (or maybe some Sync stuff) but all the funds go to Firefox exclusively, and your copy will show a pretty star on startup or something else. Patron Edition: for $20 a month, same thing but you also get the VPN from Mullvad. 160M users. If 10% subscribe, you get $160M every month. I'm a marketing genius.

gruez 2y ago
>160M users. If 10% subscribe, you get $160M every month. I'm a marketing genius. Can't tell whether you're serious or being sarcastic. A 10% conversion rate for a free product would be the most successful marketing campaign in history. Typical rates are in the low single digits, and that includes goods/services that people have no choice but to pay money for (eg. drop shipped goods from china or SaaS products).

mrayycombi 2y ago

You may just end up with the "tipped cashier" effect where wages are driven down on rationale that they will be tipped. Now if you buy a self serve coffee in a paper cup the cashier whose sole job is to take your money, expects a tip because their wages are shite.