Post by PatrickW on May 23, 2010 5:01:48 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
I haven't been active here in a while, and I'm sorry for those PMs that didn't get answered.
I wanted to encourage those of you interested to consider signing up for Flattr flattr.com/
This is a micropayments system that's in beta testing, and is still very experimental. The idea is you can use it to give very small amounts of money to other people, very easily and without high fees. It's based in euros.
No one knows for sure if it'll really work!
In a few days I'll sign up Tim Peters, Tom Wagner and some others, so if nothing else, you could use it to give them a small amount of money now, but in the long term, if it works, it's potentially a way we might give small amounts of money to each other and receive it from others who are interested in supporting our work. Potentially, these small amounts may add up to larger ones. For example my blog gets about 10000 visitors a month, and if every one gave me an average of 1 cent per month, that would mean me getting €100. I plan to give all or part of that money away to other people, so might for example give €1 each to 50 or 100 others.
I think there are two reasons why you would want to sign up. First is you have something interesting to offer to other people that would make them want to give you money. The other is you have money you want to give to others.
If you don't have or do anything interesting, that doesn't help others, there won't be anyone interested in giving you money and you won't make anything from it. In the words of flattr themselves, it's intended to reward 'content'. There's no 'free' money with flattr.
In particular, when I think of public domain plant breeding, I think it's potentially a way to get something like royalties. There are also a few people around with extra money to give away, and would like to support our work. It's possible this is a way they would like to give us some money.
You don't necessarily need to be well known or have an Internet site to get money from it, but then you need to be promoted or sponsored by someone like I am doing with Tim and Tom. Right off the top of my head, others I might be interested in sponsoring in this forum are Alan, Stephen, Frank, Martin, other plant breeders I'm forgetting now and others who share a lot of plants and seeds. There are probably lots of you that if you explained what you did, and how it contributed to seed saving and plant breeding, I would agree to put your 'flattr button' on my blog, and even click on it from time to time myself.
It costs money to join and use flattr! The amount you decide to give to others is up to you, but it has to be at least €2/mo (about $2.50) or they will just deduct this from your account anyway without it going to anyone. There are also fees for depositing and withdrawing money, and they take 10% of what you give to others. What this means however, is after you have paid for depositing some money into flattr, if you have a buddy you exchange your monthly €2 minimum with, all you pay is the 10% fee for giving it to someone else. In other words, you have someone you exchange the €2 donation with, you both have to pay a 10% fee for giving it away, so you each receive €1.80 and the net cost for each of you is 20 cents a month. Presumably if you do anything with any value you will get at least 20 cents of donations and be able to keep your account active. In this case you do need to remember to login each month and give your €2 away, or it will simply be lost.
You also need to receive at least €10 in donations before you can take any money out, and that might take a while especially now because there aren't so many people using flattr.
I've contacted the people behind flattr and explained who I am and what I do. They are very politically motivated people themselves , for those of you familiar with the Pirate Bay website and the Swedish Pirate Party, these are some of the people behind it. In general, I have the feeling they are sympathetic to us and what we do, although don't know a lot about plants. Probably a lot of you don't know as much about computers as they do.
At the moment flattr is closed beta, meaning it's invitation only. I have some extra invitations to give away. If anyone here interested in either giving money away or you think you have something to offer and would like to ask money from others, and is willing to pay the costs of joining, let me know and I'll give you an invitation. I only have a limited number right now. For the most part they are first come first served. Please don't ask for one unless you are actually interested in joining right now. I'll probably have more invitations for people interested in joining later, and eventually it will be open to the public anyway.
If anyone would like to help by contacting plant breeders or others not on this forum who might be interested, and let them know about this, I would be very grateful. I only know so many of them personally. I'm happy to help out if they aren't very good with computers.
I'm not regularly on this forum right now. I'll check back on this thread and my personal messages for a few weeks, but after that it's best to contact me via the email address in my signature below.
By the way, their forum is here if anyone is interested in joining or reading it:
forum.flattr.com
I realize I haven't explained everything, so if you have any questions let me know!
I haven't been active here in a while, and I'm sorry for those PMs that didn't get answered.
I wanted to encourage those of you interested to consider signing up for Flattr flattr.com/
This is a micropayments system that's in beta testing, and is still very experimental. The idea is you can use it to give very small amounts of money to other people, very easily and without high fees. It's based in euros.
No one knows for sure if it'll really work!
In a few days I'll sign up Tim Peters, Tom Wagner and some others, so if nothing else, you could use it to give them a small amount of money now, but in the long term, if it works, it's potentially a way we might give small amounts of money to each other and receive it from others who are interested in supporting our work. Potentially, these small amounts may add up to larger ones. For example my blog gets about 10000 visitors a month, and if every one gave me an average of 1 cent per month, that would mean me getting €100. I plan to give all or part of that money away to other people, so might for example give €1 each to 50 or 100 others.
I think there are two reasons why you would want to sign up. First is you have something interesting to offer to other people that would make them want to give you money. The other is you have money you want to give to others.
If you don't have or do anything interesting, that doesn't help others, there won't be anyone interested in giving you money and you won't make anything from it. In the words of flattr themselves, it's intended to reward 'content'. There's no 'free' money with flattr.
In particular, when I think of public domain plant breeding, I think it's potentially a way to get something like royalties. There are also a few people around with extra money to give away, and would like to support our work. It's possible this is a way they would like to give us some money.
You don't necessarily need to be well known or have an Internet site to get money from it, but then you need to be promoted or sponsored by someone like I am doing with Tim and Tom. Right off the top of my head, others I might be interested in sponsoring in this forum are Alan, Stephen, Frank, Martin, other plant breeders I'm forgetting now and others who share a lot of plants and seeds. There are probably lots of you that if you explained what you did, and how it contributed to seed saving and plant breeding, I would agree to put your 'flattr button' on my blog, and even click on it from time to time myself.
It costs money to join and use flattr! The amount you decide to give to others is up to you, but it has to be at least €2/mo (about $2.50) or they will just deduct this from your account anyway without it going to anyone. There are also fees for depositing and withdrawing money, and they take 10% of what you give to others. What this means however, is after you have paid for depositing some money into flattr, if you have a buddy you exchange your monthly €2 minimum with, all you pay is the 10% fee for giving it to someone else. In other words, you have someone you exchange the €2 donation with, you both have to pay a 10% fee for giving it away, so you each receive €1.80 and the net cost for each of you is 20 cents a month. Presumably if you do anything with any value you will get at least 20 cents of donations and be able to keep your account active. In this case you do need to remember to login each month and give your €2 away, or it will simply be lost.
You also need to receive at least €10 in donations before you can take any money out, and that might take a while especially now because there aren't so many people using flattr.
I've contacted the people behind flattr and explained who I am and what I do. They are very politically motivated people themselves , for those of you familiar with the Pirate Bay website and the Swedish Pirate Party, these are some of the people behind it. In general, I have the feeling they are sympathetic to us and what we do, although don't know a lot about plants. Probably a lot of you don't know as much about computers as they do.
At the moment flattr is closed beta, meaning it's invitation only. I have some extra invitations to give away. If anyone here interested in either giving money away or you think you have something to offer and would like to ask money from others, and is willing to pay the costs of joining, let me know and I'll give you an invitation. I only have a limited number right now. For the most part they are first come first served. Please don't ask for one unless you are actually interested in joining right now. I'll probably have more invitations for people interested in joining later, and eventually it will be open to the public anyway.
If anyone would like to help by contacting plant breeders or others not on this forum who might be interested, and let them know about this, I would be very grateful. I only know so many of them personally. I'm happy to help out if they aren't very good with computers.
I'm not regularly on this forum right now. I'll check back on this thread and my personal messages for a few weeks, but after that it's best to contact me via the email address in my signature below.
By the way, their forum is here if anyone is interested in joining or reading it:
forum.flattr.com
I realize I haven't explained everything, so if you have any questions let me know!
