Comments on: Mozilla gives add-on developers a tip jar

Creators of add-ons for Firefox now have a way to get paid for their work--at least through Mozilla's add-ons site.

[sexydaddio]

I am not donating a damn thing.

[BigGuns149]

I think the problem is that the vast majority of add-ons I seriously don't use enough to miss them if they break in a new update of Firefox.

That being said I realize that if the developers don't get anything for their work at some point they will stop developing the add-on and given enough new versions of Firefox it will break. Honestly, for all of the talk I remember far more add-ons 4-5 years ago than I do now, but a lot of developers stopped development because it took away too much time from their real jobs or their personal lives or maybe a combination of the two. Hobbies that don't pay inevitably get put on the backburner at some point. You might get back to it and you might not.

There are a handful of add-ons I feel useful that I might give a $1 or $2 although I am interested in what the fees are for these "special" Paypal accounts since a normal paypal account can face some stiff fees for small transactions.

[kieranmullen]

Not even for the adblock extension? It's wonderful!

[MadLyb]

I think it is a great idea and will perhaps lead to better quality in the add-ons developed.

I do not like the "Suggested Donation", you might as well be putting a price on the product and would probably shy away from 'tipping' someone who put a suggested amount on their product.

Most people will probably do very small amounts because the lifetime of these 'products' is extremely limited and your 'purchase' provides no guarantee of updates or support.

[monkeyfun14]

Its a nice gesture but as soon as they start charging for add-ons it may be a problem.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

That's probably the next step. The good news is that a big chunk of add-ons are simply tie-ins to free sites.

[ssj4Gogeta1]

@Josh: I don't think Mozilla will ever charge for addons. Free addons is their biggest selling point. People will go to other browsers like Google Chrome (once it fully starts supporting addons).

[Josh.Lowensohn]

@ssj4Gogeta1: Mozilla may not, but developers should be entitled to. With each Firefox update they often have to go back and make sure everything works so that users can continue to use their creations. I think that effort should be able to be rewarded.

[Freedomstarfox]

Mozilla probably won't charge for the add-ons though some developers might try to find some way to.

[slickuser]

great idea!.

[Renegade Knight]

It is a great idea. I'd kick in a buck when I had the loose change.

[sunthedeep]

the only one I would consider paying for is zotero... makes research a lot easier

[YankeePoodle]

Good Idea of extending the Firefox eco-system with sustained developer community. I like the idea, its cool

[ssj4Gogeta1]

This will probably prevent what happened with NoScript and Google Reader Notifier addons
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2585/beware-google-reader-notifier-for-firefox-is-now-crapware/

[ssj4Gogeta1]

"How much would you be willing to pay for a Firefox add-on?"

That's a silly question. It's like asking "how much would you be willing to pay for a software program?". Maybe 2 cents, maybe $1000, maybe nothing. It depends on how useful it is. You could ask "how much would you be willing to pay for the most useful addon that you use?"

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Sure, but if we wanted to be more specific we'd have to include a laundry list of add-ons. This is intentionally general.

[hiqutipie]

Thats my position...I love certain add-ons & use them more then others so I have no problem making donations for add-ons that great but how do you charge for something that you have no idea of how good it will be & how often it will be utilized so that is kinda silly...

Then you have the problem of setting up an acct to pay or make donations...If it was easier people would donate easier to the more established add-ons...

[faceless128]

i'd definitely donate a few dollars to mouse gestures redox, xmarks, greasemonkey, autopager and adblock plus.

the other addons... not really...

[COMPPROUK]

it not a bad idea for developers like ma self to donate but its not the donateing i dont mind its were the hell is the money going .... i dont want to donate any of my programming or software that i built for mozilla as such to sell it and then get the money i dont want it ither we have our own product site .. if my products would go towards giving money to charity then id do it untill then no

[Freedomstarfox]

This seems like a great idea since many developers already have a Donate button on their homepage anyway.

[aaasolanki]

---Nice idea. Developers could also offer paid & free versions for their add-ons, the former offering a lot more customization and features than the latter. That's exactly what one of my favorite extensions named Fireshot does.
---Yes, there is certainly a conflict between the Open Source/GNU Licensing nature of Firefox, its add-ons and the thought of people making money out of it. That's left to the 'fine print' makers. [:)] But yes, I certainly agree that developers need to be rewarded/paid for the time and effort that they spend developing and maintaining their add-ons.

Thanks,
Abhishek.