Tiping and "Support Me" culture on the indie web

[Melooon]

I though it was a good idea to have a discussion about peoples feelings on tipping and "support me" requests on the indie web and web revival sites.

I suppose for some back story; I remember before Neocities had a tip button, and back then the idea of putting a tip button or a link to a ko-fi or patreon page on your homepage would have been an anathema; it would have been a really weird thing to do; no one ever said it, but it just felt like an unspoken rule about not selling out to the corruptions of the wider web (I remember linking to my main site from GifyPet and even feeling like a back-link was too much promo)

That's very different compared to today, and that's normal, things do change as they get more popular, and as the indie web has grown in popularity, a lot of the creator-culture of requesting support and tips has started to creep in; it's now essentially totally acceptable to not only accept tips, but to even let people pay you to link to their site.

I'm not in any position to judge, In a round about way, I add links for donations on my town map (since you can buy a plot and have a link on it), and I've accepted tips for a long time now. However I suppose I've always felt I've done it with a sense of parody, it was never meant to be taken seriously or earn actual money, and that's what has perhaps changed over the years; I think people take the idea of tips more seriously these days, and that's what has prompted me to make this thread.

In some cases, I think a request for a tip is very justified, particularly on a site or service like a forum or an info archive that needs constant work and updates, however there are limits, and there our bounds, and I'd like to know what those are. The Yesterweb for example was a big community in 2021 that refused to accept any tips or support because they felt it created an ethical issue for them. Personally, I think a modest number of tips are fine, but equally I don't like the idea people starting homepages because they think they can make a side hustle out of it; partly that harms homepages, and also it will prob leave them disappointed when it does not work

I'm interested in hearing what the mood is, what do you think about tipping and "support me" culture on the indie web? Do you accept tips? Have you received many? Where do you draw the line between what's ok and what's not. 

[sunnyp4rk]

I personally don't mind as long as it's just a button that isn't the main focus of the site. Domains and servers cost money, so I don't blame people for having a donate button... however, if its the main focus of a page, then that's where I'd have a problem with it.

[squidlifecrisis]

I'm interested in hearing what the mood is, what do you think about tipping and "support me" culture on the indie web? Do you accept tips? Have you received many? Where do you draw the line between what's ok and what's not. 

Honestly... I ignore it. not worth sending my credit card data to toss someone pocket change.

I made a kofi awhile back to sell prints and pdfs, and for some reason, I got a couple of tips with no orders. I would SO much prefer a comment about why they liked my art enough to donate. two cents is worth more than two bucks >_>

I don't think less of anyone for asking, though. everyone has a different financial situation.

[april]

I personally do not like tip or tipping culture at all it inspires others to take the next logical step to premium features,
paywalls and advertisements, as so much of the modern web has become bloated with. A majority of indie websites get by perfectly fine without tips especially sites hosted on free platforms such as neocities and nekoweb. I don't accept tips,
I've never received money.

[Trench_Man]

I'm not against the idea of support me culture so long as such a request remains unintrusive and non-guilt trippy

I am fully aware that maintaining things on the web can be expensive especially if you want to run something without ads, so I hold no ill opinions towards such behavior as long as it doesn't impact my navigation or experience using a site

[IndigoGolem]

I think if i ever set up something like this for my own site, i would try to find a way to limit the total tips to an amount equal to what my site costs me every month. Which is... like $11 USA.

I've never been bothered by it on someone's personal site. It's never been intrusive enough for that, at least that i've seen. But i can understand the concern that it could grow to be too much of what a site is about, or lead to people making blogs just for the money.

Like a lot of things a website can do, it has potential for harm and for good. Which feels like i'm just avoiding giving a real answer, but that is how i feel about it. Fine as long as people are responsible about it.

[ABlueRose]

For community driven projects I think it's great. ArchiveOfOurOwn runs purely on donations, which means there's no ads, and users don't have to worry about huge changes that no one wants happening since there's no traditional investors trying to ruin things to get more money.

For individual websites, I don't know. If it's unobtrusive, then I don't mind. If someone wants others to be able to support their indie projects, then cool. If they get aggressive about it, or it feels like they're getting "corporate" then it kind of stinks in my opinion 

I haven't come across any that were obtrusive though, so I'm going purely theoretical there and haven't thought about it until now

[clownvomitz]

I tend to lean towards indifference for the most part. I agree with the consensus that web projects that require funding to properly maintain their services makes sense, and technically no one is forcing you to push that button and send people cash. In a way I can't necessarily blame people, consider the economical climate in the US among other places, though on the other hand half of the reason why I enjoy the indie web is the free and collaborative nature of it all. But people be struggling and I get it.

Though I have seen some sites, in my opinion, use guilt tripping to try and get tips from others, which I find quite annoying. The only time I've ever considered giving money to someone was if they provided some kind of script, widget, template, or service that would actually help me in the long run with my website, not because (excuse my bluntness here) they talk about how much life sucks and whatnot. As long as the "Support Me" button isn't super intrusive, I generally just scroll on by, but the thought of "content creator culture"/"side hustles" seeping into the indie web makes me cringe.

I personally don't accept tips, and I don't think I ever will since I don't provide such services that I believe warrant being paid for. At the end of the day, I keep my site up as a passion project and labor of love, not as a source of income.