Comment by SailingSperm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SailingSperm | Hacker News Reader

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I think the part that's thought of as 'crazy', isn't that it's all done as charity, it's that it's the only thing supporting it. Having an idea or project that can do some social good or meet some demand is great, but it's even better when that thing can sustain itself. It might,for a time, work on charity, but akin to the 'teach a man to fish' proverb - it's better something can meet it's own requirements than expecting to feed that fire for x years or Eg. to feed / find someone to feed a person for the next x years.

Don't get me wrong - All power to you, donating your time effort and other resources to things you believe to be a worthy cause is what people should be doing. But some of that effort may be wisely spent on finding ways to monetize those actions and set it up to carry its own weight.

> "Monetize to carry its own weight"

So instead of being dependent on good will, you wish to be dependent on paying customers? (This is a strategy where customers carry the weight, not the project, as you've described)

I, personally, would rather my humanitarian efforts incentivize the cultivation of good will, as opposed to the cultivation of money.

I, personally, would rather my humanitarian efforts incentivize the cultivation of good will, as opposed to the cultivation of money.

Good relations with customers often involve the cultivation of good will. That used to be an article of faith in the SV startup community and on this site. The cultivation of good will (not fanboy/fangirl-ism) is a sign that a group is doing real good in the world, where the money is a strong validation.

Inexpensive every-person pastimes and products also used to fit this pattern. The ready availability of those used to elevate most everyone in American society to a certain level of dignity. It seems like there's fewer of those as time goes on.

we take donations for the mesh-network and organize events with the money and stuff like that - it's not totally without money - some do consulting if asked but we want to keep network non-profit because most users don't have much money.

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