MaGog has recently celebrated her sixth birthday, which got me thinking...

I have been unemployed for some months now, and while I'm working on a couple of self-funded projects (e.g. developing a video game) that might earn me money down the road, and while my wife is fully employed, not having a constant source of income of my own --- however modest --- does take its toll, especially since I don't have enough credits yet to be eligible for US social security.

So I've been looking at different ways to slightly increase my income.

First things first, I do not plan to make MaGog a paid service, neither directly, nor through ads. MaGog will remain adless and free for all.

However, I do have this idea. What if...
1) I move MaGog from Legacy Mode back to her original Full Mode** (Yes, I know I said I wouldn't until... but I guess beggars can't be choosers...).
2) I open an account on a crowdfunding site specialising in ongoing (e.g. monthly) donations, such as Patreon or Liberapay, and ask those of you interested in supporting MaGog to donate a small amount on a regular basis (anywhere from $1 a month to whatever you feel is right for you).

So, I thought I'd float the idea here, and hear what you have to say. Are there people out there who might be interested in crowdfunding the future development of MaGog in the form of a small, recurring (monthly, or weekly or yearly) donation?

Feel free to post your thoughts and questions here or contact me via chat.

P.S. Just to be clear, since MaGog is and will remain fully free for all, donating will not grant donors any privileges of any kind, beyond --- perhaps --- the good feeling of helping MaGog.
P.P.S. Even if this idea doesn't come to fruition, I plan to keep MaGog alive for years to come. Don't let that worry you. We are not talking about saving MaGog here, just about getting her a nicer set of pencils when she starts primary school this fall.
P.P.P.S. If any of you have any experience with ongoing-membership-style crowdfunding sites (e.g. Patreon, Liberapay, etc.), I'd love to hear about it, regardless.

Notes:
* I am posting this here, rather than in the MaGog thread, to gain some more visibility. Hopefully this will not incur the wrath of the gods upon me.
** Currently Magog is in a limited Legacy Mode, in which she ignores games added to GOG in the last year or so. In Full Mode, she will cover all GOG games, past, present, and future.

If you ask me, regardless of what you decide on point (1), you should have long set up a way for people to donate in support of the great job you've been doing all these years. I'm sure there are those willing to support you and MaGog, either on an ongoing basis or at least through one-time donations.

I don't use MaGOG, but I generally approve the idea that the makers of useful tools, utilities, games etc. get compensated for their work, especially through voluntary systems like crowdfunding, donations and what is there. In the past I have given donations to makers of utilities I've found useful.

So what I am at least saying here is that you shouldn't feel bad for suggesting such arrangement. You have used and are using time for a useful tool that many use, and it is not wrong at all to get compensation for it.

Yes

I agree!

how many use it?

It's hard to say, as I don't track users, but there are about a hundred or two hundred searches a day. During big sales the number doubles or triples. At the height of her use, in the good old days, when she was still in Full Mode (not Legacy Mode), the number of searches could reach beyond a thousand searches a day on rare occasions.

MaGog is a very useful tool and I think you should be able to receive the money people want to give you. I don't like "e-beggars" but you really deserve it for your work and your commitment to the GOG community.

Agreed.

I'll toss $1/month to MaGog via Patreon. I do some of these (GrimTools for Grim Dawn) is one, and some pnpRPG tools, and a guy who makes tutorials.

If you want new features, add ability to have crowdsourced category tags for each product. So that we can use it to enhance GOG's data, such as adding the "couch co op" tag to games in MaGog. (AlternativeTo shows a way you can crowdsource this with allowing anyone to list an alternative, then people vote up/down on any tags added.)

Thank you. It's an interesting idea. I'll think about how it can be implemented, given MaGog's unconventional architecture.

+1 to Patreon, Paypal, whatever works best fo you.

Another +1 for crowdfunding.

See nothing wrong with this but this thread probably breaks the forum rules, strictly speaking.

I'll bite. Why?