flattr: social micropayment to support Ubuntu developers?

[Pifilatakanemu]

Hey,

most of you might not have heard of flattr.
it's a social micropayment system from sweden. it was launched by the guys behind pirate bay and it's quite popular in germany and other european countries - but of course it's a worldwide system.

Check out the video on flattr.com: it explains the service better than I could have done with 1000 words.

There is an idea in the brainstorm about integrating it into the software center.

And there are already some software developers that joined like Shutter, the Debian package manager and Debhelper.

A lot of Ubuntu-related blogs (mostly from Germany) are on board, too. Like the popular http://linuxundich.de/ . The author plany a feature that randomly displays FLOSS Software to flattr it on his blog.


I had some contact with the guys behind OMG! Ubuntu!, they'll make a post on flattr soon.


Ok, enough background information.

I'm convinced that flattr has a big potential on giving developers the posibility for easily getting financiel support for their work. This works for users, too: they can -once they are registered- make a small donation with just one click.

Of course there are disadvantages: At the moment, flattr get's 10% for the service and server infrastructure. They are aiming at cutting this down once they have a wider user base. For the moment only payments by paypal are allowed, but this will change soon.

The service is still in beta (it's open since a couple of days) but it already showed great dynamics. There are even some mayor German newspapers (like taz.de) that are participating. In the closed beta taz.de was able to get nearly 1400€ in a month. A popular German podcaster received more than 1000€ for his podcasts. (These amounts are quite considerable having in mind that there were at max. 30 000 users in the closed beta).

Wikileaks is using it, Tor is using it, JDownloader is using it... I think it could be used in Ubuntu, too.

I think flattr will be very succesful, Ubuntu could jump on the train and take advantage of it.

Thinking of an implementation in the Software Center: UBuntu could get a small share of every click done through it.


I'm sure these social micropayments are the financing mechanisms of the often mentioned "web 2.0".


What do you think?

[lovinglinux]

I think is a great idea. Would be really nice to see it integrated with Ubuntu and Ubuntu Forums.

I have registered about two days ago, after seeing that NoScript extension uses it and I'm planning to use it on my web sites. The concept behind Flattr is really interesting, specially the fact that you need to give to get.

[Pifilatakanemu]

It's an interesting idea to add it to the forums.

I proposed to add it to the German ubuntuusers.de forum, not in order to flattr posts of users but to support the forum itself but it was neglected as it is commercial. Germans can read the discussion here.

It's the first time I hear of Överallt. Interesting!

But I think the discussion about the implementation in the forums in order to enable users to integrate flattr buttons is one step ahead, or at least a slightly different issue.

In my opinion the discussion on flattr should not be located here in the Cafe, but I could not think of any other subforum where it would suit better.

edit:

A success story from a Debian developer:

http://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/08/12...h-flattr-foss/

[lovinglinux]

It's an interesting idea to add it to the forums.

I proposed to add it to the German ubuntuusers.de forum, not in order to flattr posts of users but to support the forum itself but it was neglected as it is commercial. Germans can read the discussion here.

It's the first time I hear of Överallt. Interesting!

But I think the discussion about the implementation in the forums in order to enable users to integrate flattr buttons is one step ahead, or at least a slightly different issue.

In my opinion the discussion on flattr should not be located here in the Cafe, but I could not think of any other subforum where it would suit better.

I think integrating it into the forums to allow us to support forum costs (not users) is also a great idea. If you think about it it can be used to support everything.

[Pifilatakanemu]

Too bad that the extension does not work. Will try it now.


The topic was retweeted over at twitter. Let's see whether we get a constructive discussion here.

A blog entry on the potential of flattr to promote FOSS: http://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/07/15...scover-flattr/

[lovinglinux]

Too bad that the extension does not work. Will try it now.

https://forum.flattr.com/showthread.php?tid=428

The topic was retweeted over at twitter. Let's see whether we get a constructive discussion here.

Cool. As long as people don't bring TPB again, I think it will be very constructive.

A blog entry on the potential of flattr to promote FOSS: http://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/07/15...scover-flattr/

Thanks for sharing. I have already added my extensions and included the suggested FOSS tags.

EDITs:

I was missing the fact that I needed to click the Flattr word at the bottom of the button to Flattr. In regard to the extension, the button comes like it was Flattered already.

[lovinglinux]

Lightspark: https://flattr.com/thing/43623/Light...e-flash-player

Mint: https://flattr.com/thing/40006/Linux-Mint

Alien: https://flattr.com/thing/39936/Alien

[Pifilatakanemu]

Nice.
I think there will be a lot more once the user base gets bigger.


I think the discussion does not get the needed/deserved attention here in the Cafe. Any suggestions where to move it? Any moderator willing to move it?

[lovinglinux]

I think the discussion does not get the needed/deserved attention here in the Cafe. Any suggestions where to move it? Any moderator willing to move it?

Only me and you talking about it? Weird, isn't it. Perhaps the subject is some kind of taboo here. Who knows...I just noticed some of the posts with "you know what" were removed. To be safe I removed some stuff from mine too.

BTW, I have been using the site since yesterday and I really like it. The interface is nice and clean, the integration features are excellent and the idea is genial. The only thing annoying is the captcha. I had to change it a few times for each new "thing" I added, because it wouldn't match for some reason. Could be my browser tho, since I'm using a beta version.

I also noticed that sometimes is confusing to find the right stuff to flatter, even if you select the proper category, because it mixes all kinds of stuff. For example I was looking for some FOSS software to flatter and find several blogs talking about software instead. Nevertheless, I think most contributions will be from the developers site buttons. This corroborate the idea of integrating it into the Software Center, to facilitate the connection between users and developers.

[Pifilatakanemu]

This is strange!

What's happening here? Why were some posts deleted of several users without any explanation?

Guys, come on!


This makes me sad. Is censorship part of the "amazing"(ubuntu.com) community?

about your experience:
flattr might introduce a better sorting to distinguish between different types of content. but I don't see this as elementary. on the long run, the software itself probably will get more hits than articles on it, so users will be able to know easily what they are about to flattr.