Sure mate, buy me a bloody coffee - P.T.C.: software and science

Paul Cochrane

Versatile software developer, physicist and geek

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I don’t usually get involved in the internet reply-fest du jour, but<br>this time I thought I’d give it a go. It involves coffee, just in case you<br>wondered.

My sister-in-law gave me this espresso cup. It’s pretty cool.

BTW: I’ve used a bit of the antipodean vernacular in this post. You have<br>been warned.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle last week on the IndieWeb about whether or<br>not people should have a “buy me a coffee” (or equivalent) link on their<br>blog. The argument of the article that sparked the<br>debate1<br>being that this is rampant capitalism, everything is getting monetised these<br>days, it’s not going to cover your hosting costs, hosting doesn’t cost much<br>anyway, so why bother, and please just stop. Well, that was my impression.

I can understand the perspective. It seems that everything on the internet<br>is being monetised in some way or form. “Don’t forget to like and<br>subscribe!”, “Join my newsletter!”, “Read my Substack!”, “Buy from my<br>affiliate links!”, “And now a word from this video’s<br>sponsor…”,2 etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam. And I get<br>that, I really do. There’s just so much advertising everywhere that it’s<br>hard to get away from. I agree: it’d be nice if there were islands of quiet<br>in the online world where no call to monetary action existed.

And I get it that personal blogs don’t strictly need a virtual tip jar. My<br>guess is that very few people are making any real money from them. But it’s<br>not about the money. It’s more about recognition for the hard work that<br>writing entails and about being seen for that work and someone going “Hey<br>mate, love yer work, here’s a couple of bucks, good on ya!”. So I’m<br>throwing my hat into the ring on the side of the “Yep, have a ‘buy me a<br>coffee’ button” group.

If you look around my blog, you’ll see a buy me a<br>coffee button at the bottom of my articles. I<br>don’t get much money through those links. If anything, I’ve received all of<br>about 10 € over the blog’s entire lifetime. It’s definitely not enough to<br>cover my hosting costs. That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that<br>each time someone drops me a tip via the buy-me-a-coffee button, I am<br>absolutely overjoyed. Someone read an article! It was useful to them!<br>And they liked it! Wicked!

It’s brilliant. It’s feedback. Something I’ve written was valuable to<br>someone! Yay! [insert short dance in front of laptop]

I rarely get emails about my blog articles.3 Most<br>responses have come from someone giving a tip and saying, “Hey, nice<br>article”. That’s so cool! It’s not money I can live off (otherwise I’d<br>be living under a bridge4); it’s a signal, it’s feedback, and<br>it’s one of the small pieces of connection I get from the wider world after<br>having put my thoughts and experience online.

Yes, most of the stuff I write is for me (or more realistically, for my<br>future self). Yet, when I write, I often have some imaginary “reader” in<br>mind–someone who is going to benefit from the knowledge or experience I’m<br>documenting. So, if someone out there thinks “That was good, I’ll throw<br>this bloke a couple of Euros his way and say hello”, then that’s bloody<br>awesome.

To be honest, if someone just dropped me a line via email and said “Hey,<br>cool post, gudday mate” I’d also be over the moon. For instance, the other<br>night I was at the Hannover TeX user group<br>meeting and someone mentioned that they’d<br>stumbled across an article of mine (one that I’ve referred to myself many<br>times) and found it useful. I was totally stoked!

Imagine a busker playing their guitar on a street corner, a hat sitting in<br>front of them to collect what cash bystanders might throw their way. Are<br>they monetising what they’re doing? Strictly speaking, sure. Are they<br>paying rent from it? Most likely not. Is this the evil tendrils of<br>capitalism threading their way into every facet of our lives? Ah, that<br>would be a no. Are you obliged to put money into their hat? Not if you<br>don’t want to. If you enjoy their music, you can give them a nod and a<br>smile and a bit of applause. That’s great feedback for the musician. And<br>if you really like what they’re playing, you can throw a few coins into<br>their hat. That’s how busking works.

For small creators on the IndieWeb it’s exactly the same: people putting<br>their stuff out there and maybe–just maybe–someone will connect with them<br>and say “Hey mate, I liked what you wrote. Nice stuff!” And, on the off<br>chance that someone liked something enough, they might buy you a virtual<br>coffee. It’s the same act as someone moving forward from the crowd gathered<br>around the busker, dropping coins into their hat, nodding and giving them a<br>smile. I can tell you, getting that recognition and some nice words via my<br>buy-me-a-coffee link not only makes my day, it makes my frikken week. The<br>money doesn’t go far,5 but shit, it’s a nice<br>feeling to...