5 Euros is nothing

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

For those of us in the “developed” world, 5 euro a month is nothing - which is the minimum recurring donation to the Blender Foundation. If Blender gives you 5 euro or more entertainment or enjoyment per month (cost of 1 or 2 pints of beer a month a London!), then why wouldn’t you donate? Sky TV to watch Premiership football is like 35 euro a month to those in the UK and you don’t even get any improvements back for your money unless you like ever more badly behaved celebrity footballers.

Blender does a lot of altruistic good in the world. In a lot of countries not as lucky to be in the high GDP range, how hard would it be to get into 3D art/vfx/animation/archviz for fun or a career if there was no software affordable to you to even develop skills and practice? Why should any art medium or any career be available to privileged few?

Okay, so the core developers are paid, but bear in mind that someone like Ton could be getting 6-figure salary with share options at a commercial 3D software house (don’t tell him, he might not know!) - he’s a director-level manager with deep technical know-how and experience in a very specialised field. Where I work you should see what they pay random guys off “director street” who know nothing other than how to talk BS. I know how hard it is to get good developers just for something much more common and simple like SQL or C#, let alone in something so technically and mathematically hard as Blender - don’t doubt that the developers are making sacrifices here, and also get a lot of crap for it. I was stunned the BlenderCookie guys got trolled for releasing a paid add-on (which in itself would be fine anyway) and they even made it open-source! Let’s face it, they could be writing Maya or 3DSMax plug-ins if they cared about the $$$.

Luckily for all of us, all the really important stuff we take for granted about the Internet and free software managed to develop under-the-radar of governments and multi-national companies before they could stop it - we have to protect this now it is here from anything that threatens it whenever self-interest raises it’s ugly head (for example - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23558865). So I urge all of you that can afford it to financially support whatever “free” (as in freedom) projects that you identify with and appreciate, be it some OSS like Blender or EFF, Amnesty ,Wikipedia whatever.

Thank you all for listening, I’ll get back in my box :wink:

2

I actually wanted to subscribe to the 5€/month thing half a year ago. But you need a Credit Card for that, which are not common at all in Europe =/

3

People are donating, buying books’n’dvds, and even companies are sponsoring Blender’s development which at the end of the day is working well enough.

Okay, while many are using Blender without paying even a single donation towards it, every user of Blender adds value to the software because they increase the size of the user base. The more users Blender has, the more potential support for it’s community.

4

Okay, while many are using Blender without paying even a single donation towards it, every user of Blender adds value to the software because they increase the size of the user base. The more users Blender has, the more potential support for it’s community.

That’s a false assumption. Users only add value by funding, by participating productively in the community, by producing good art or by being involved in development. Worse yet, some users might actually be detrimental, when they disproportionately consume the limited attention (and patience) of developers or helpful users.
If a user doesn’t do any of these things, they might as well not exist - we wouldn’t know the difference because they aren’t kept track of.

5

Blender Foundation accepts Paypal - which you can connect with a Debit or Credit card. Not sure which part of Europe you live in (of course, a diverse and large place) but banks with debit or credit cards are common in the places I’ve been. If not, then peace! my comments were targeted at the “decadent” West - where culturally watching football costs so much but altruistic endeavours attract such little. I’m not telling anyone they should do anything, just trying to point out the good work done by BF and other similar organisations.

6

I’m in the poorest country in the EU and PayPal works just fine… Even bought a shirt from the e-store awhile back so i can testify that payment is not a problem.

7

Couldn’t agree more. I think at least people who use Blender professionally should donate 5€ or more per month. The ones who can’t for some reason could “donate” by collaborating, maybe sharing their knowledge through tutorials (and I mean decent ones, not just a timelapse or something that was just recorded without planning) or even by being around answering questions in the IRC #blender channel.

8

I try this as often as possible. I bought dvds and a t shirt, and even sent some money to help once, but I am not really making money to live yet, so I just help here andon facebook’s blenderartists page.

9

Or one can do donation in Bitcoin. No amount of bitcoin is too small.

Bitcoin Donations
Blender Foundation uses address: 17orEh51ab8HoU7g8Ezwcp76jCpeL7PabJ

10

Good news, I finally went in bitcoin! I look forward to the possibility of yet bitcoin payments in e-shop.

11

Just tried again:
“Sie müssen eine Kreditkarte hinzufügen, um den Einkauf abzuschließen. Für diese Zahlung ist momentan leider kein Lastschriftverfahren möglich.”
or english:
“You have to add a Credit Card to proceed. For this product there is no debit advice procedure possible at this time.”

12

You over looked where I wrote “potential support for it’s community”, but you do highlight the ways in which a person can contribute to the value of Blender. Paying it forward to another user, by helping them get set up and find their way round the interface is definitely of value.

13

I have told myself that if I ever go commercial (aka making serious bucks) with Blender then I will voluntarily pay a commercial license equal to 3DSMax each year (perhaps BI should give MVP badges as a recognition to true volunteers, it raises the status quo, doesn’t it?).

It’s very idiotic to think that “free software” is “exploitable software” that everyone takes for granted. I mean OK it’s good to see it altruistic in some point, but after that you must see it socially or humanistic, imagine that a BI developer might want to have a family and have a sustainable wage.

I think that a friendly-commercial system should be built around Blender that it will help it’s sustainability and it’s development.

The key point of Free Software must be totally free for educational purposes (for users and developers) and must accessible for any person in the world. But if there is commercial plan involved in the usage of this software then some rules must apply.

Sorry about making the wrong impression, but I got tired of looking at the greedy businessmen who happen to be chairmen of corporations making tons of bucks in the shoulders of cool persons like Bjarne Stroustrup, Linus Torvals, Ton Roosendal and many more thousands of developers I don’t remember now.

This attitude must change within this decade, because it’s not fair for people who are lazy and think that they own everything and everyone to get the fame and richness, while hard working people who devoted their lives and work hard to give something for free “for the common” good.

Thanks for reading this message:
An ex hard working employee who made his boss happy for 5 years using open source technologies.
P.S. This might not happen again in this lifetime. :smiley:

14

Agreed!

Don’t be cheap people, donate!

At least every time we download a new revision, donate whatever you can.

And you will get a thank you email from Ton, personal, I know this because he misspells my name every time…

15

Well, it isn’t money (not till I get a debit card anyway :P) But I most certainly appreciate the hard work that not only went into Blender, but everything that goes with it (rendering engines, various extensions, etc).

16

Or you could choose to buy something from BF’s store. It’s a win win situation. I’ve been looking at Chris Plush’s DVD Car Modeling and Texturing.

17

“Add a new Credit Card” is what i used to add my debit card number. I’m guessing it should be the same for the German PayPal.

It’s very idiotic to think that “free software” is “exploitable software” that everyone takes for granted. I mean OK it’s good to see it altruistic in some point, but after that you must see it socially or humanistic, imagine that a BI developer might want to have a family and have a sustainable wage.

In the Open Source software model, funding is not done by selling licenses, but through crowdfunding to keep the project alive and well. I think more people need to understand this. Selling licenses is a good model for the 90’s where the internet wasn’t as developed as it is now. When it’s easy for anyone to get involved, it makes much more sense to spend your money on software that’s being actively supported by its community, one which always has the user’s best interest in mind.

Blender can never get “sold off and ruined forever” the way it happens with a lot of proprietary software. I don’t know how many of you remember Paint Shop Pro, but back when Jasc owned it, each new version meant improvements by leaps and bounds. It was already surpassing Photoshop at the time until Corel acquired Jasc in 2004. After that it started to steadily fade into obscurity with each new version getting more spyware and useless features dreamed up by a marketing department. If anyone’s interested in reading the sad story of PSP’s decline, check out http://improvepsp.blogspot.com/2008/11/part-1-risk-of-innovation.html

18

Blender sucks. That’s why it’s hard to donate.

19

I must add that in Romania (Bulgaria and Moldova) the 5 euro is a day of work if you cut the taxes. Literally people in my country can`t afford to pay for “premium” football of 35 euro a month! The maximum of a TV is around 20 euro max and all country literally buy only 5-10 euro option and that because the TV it is only fun when your working is like 350 euro a month and food/house payment leave you with 10 euro in your hand.

People that think “Blender must be for pay!” must read again the HISTORY of BLENDER on WIKIPEDIA and to make you all easy :

“Blender 3D was a competitor for 3D Stdudio MAX in `90 and got terminated by the marketing tactics of Autodesk landing to Blender developer bankrupt ,the lead Designer of Blender 3D name Ton asked if he could buy the copyright on the Blender 3D software , cause he had no money to buy that rights , he put a link online and got 200.000 euro from the crowd and bought back the copyright and put it on GPL cause the people around the world paid for it!”

And that means Blender 3D can`t be other license than GPL , people paid for it to be GPL aka FREE SOFTWARE.

I remember in my childhood me playing with Bender 3D Shareware Software …

So the users that live in a country where minimum wage is 1000 euro -2000 euro to donate 5 euro to Blender 3D is nothing more than landing a coffee , but yet they prefer to buy a cigar or buy a used movie.

Some developers of Blender 3D are on Greece , RUSSIAN FEDERATION … and so on , and I can bet in their hood you still see some ravaged homes , people asking for money , and expensive things that you can`t afford to dream of and buying a beer can be the only happy thing you can do.

People who can , donate , people who don`t create art , people who can contribute with time and ideas… and so on.

Stupids ask money for everything and don`t see the community gives more than money can buy.

Some features in Blender 3D are in cause the COMMUNITY contribute to it!

PS: I literally see poor people everyday that work only for food and that it is 90% of the population. Yet a I see artist capable of doing fantastic things yet get no payment because nobody can afford to buy a PAINTING.

20

Sir, with all due respect, please read the first words from the OP:

“For those of us in the “developed” world…”

In a way, this is motivation for us (I was going to say “fortunate people” but that is not necessarily true), to donate.