Hacker News Reader

Accepting a large donation but then not having any free time to work on the project (eg. Due to family or other commitments) feels very dishonest.

So I only accept substantial donations if I'm very sure I'm going to be able to do a substantial amount of work on the project going forward.

View on HN

You can accept the donation as a thank you for what you've already done. It should be motivation, not obligation.

I actually have different experience, I spend all my time on projects but see very few donations :) But thank you to all who donate to open source and other projects.

I once got an unsolicited donation that was larger than my lifetime earnings...

The sender didn't reply to messages.

I really wasn't sure what to do. And without a document saying it was a gift from the sender, I had to give half away as taxes, and then there was no possibility of returning it (I wouldn't be able to reclaim the taxes).

Yeah no such luck here ^_^ [1] But I like doing my projects so much that this is not discouraging me to continue. But it does motivate me more when I get donations.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34084960

Reply on news.ycombinator.com