Really – you don’t. People who say they are flush out of cash are typically fooling themselves. It’s usually the guy with the expensive cable subscription, or someone who eats takeaway twice a week.
You might be wondering where I’m going with this, so please let me explain.
I have been a user of Alan Trewartha’s excellent Widget Logic plugin for many months. It allows you to control on what pages widgets are displayed. Since I’ve got that big old feature box on the homepage, I don’t need another signup form in the sidebar, do I? Hence Widget Logic. It has been downloaded over 300,000 times and has a four star rating on the WordPress plugins directory. It’s simple, and it works.
A few minutes ago I happened to be scrolling through my (unfortunately rather extensive) list of plugins, and an unusual link stood out:
Occasionally I have moments in life when I think that maybe the human race isn’t completely doomed. This was one such moment.
So I clicked the link, and I donated what we call (in the UK) a “tenner” – that’s £10 (about $16). It may not be much (I’m not millionaire), but it’s another £10 towards Alan’s measly target.
When I say measly, I do not intend to offend – I intend to point out the fact that a plugin with three hundred thousand downloads should be able to attract £750 worth of charitable donations. If every person who had downloaded the plugin donated £0.0025, Alan would hit his target.
I am sure that there are other plugin developers out there who request charity donations, but I scroll through the 20 I use on this blog and I see no others. So whilst Alan’s efforts may not be unique, they’re enough to provoke me to write this post in the hope that we can all do our bit to raise some cash.
So please – just drink a few less beers this weekend. Don’t buy that DVD. Whatever it is – please take this opportunity to help Alan reach his target, and more importantly help Cancer Research UK.
You’ll have forgotten about the ten bucks a week from now, but collectively, perhaps we can make just a little difference.
Creative Commons image courtesy of c_ambler
William Kennedy says
I see you added a resource section to your blog Tom. I very happy that you are now able to call yourself a professional blogger. You really are a great help to those of us who are starting out.
tomewer says
Thanks William 🙂
Jason Fonceca says
So awesome, Tom!
I’ve donated to many plugins, and often during situations where people would’ve considered me ‘crazy’ or ‘broke’ or ‘foolish with my money’ for doing so, but I trusted my gut, and gave when it felt right.
I used Widget Logic a long time ago, and agree with it’s awesomeness but have since not needed it.
In fact, just this week I donated to Spam Free WordPress, another fantastic plugin 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this man.
tomewer says
@Jason Fonceca No problem Jason – it is fair to say that free plugin developers are hugely undervalued, which makes it all the more poignant that Alan has chosen to funnel what little money people will give to a good cause.
StatComm says
We’re thinking in the same way
http://wordpressready.com/2012/04/donation-plugin-project-initiative-picks-first-project-user-agent-string-info
Best Regards
Fernando
tomewer says
@StatComm I’m afraid I don’t follow Fernando.
StatComm says
@tomewer The Donation Plugin Project is humble attempt to donate to those projects I think they deserve it. Every two weeks we pick we select a project, comment about it and make a contribution.
Best regards, good blog I’m following you!
Devesh says
This is so awesome, Tom. I’ve donated to many plugins and I think everyone should do that because most of the free plugin developers are hugely undervalued.
And whenever I feel that I’m doing wrong with my money, I just ask myself – what if there’s been no free plugin, I would be ended up hiring a developer.
Thanks for sharing your insights, Tom. Keep up the good work.
-Dev
tomewer says
@Devesh Cheers Dev 🙂
hishaman says
Hey Tom, we all need these moments in our lives. so.. Sure thing, I’ve just paced my donation.
tomewer says
@hishaman Thank you so much Hesham 🙂
Jeffrey Trull says
Just donated, Tom. Thanks for pointing this out!
tomewer says
@Jeffrey Trull Thanks to you Jeff! 🙂
TimothyKBowers says
Hey guys, excellent cause here and something close to my heart as well! 🙂
Tom brought this to my attention and we have since shared this article and plugin within the WPMU Dev forums:
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/widget-logic-plugin-do-you-use-it-help-a-friend-out-then
And just to echo Tom “it is fair to say that free plugin developers are hugely undervalued, which makes it all the more poignant that Alan has chosen to funnel what little money people will give to a good cause”
Thanks.
tomewer says
@TimothyKBowers Hey Timothy, nice to see you here! Thank you for increasing awareness via the WPMU Dev forums – it’s hugely appreciated 🙂
tomewer says
@RobCubbon Thanks for the RT Rob!