Comments on: Paying for free – is Flattr a payment or a donation?

By: Linus Olsson

Linus Olsson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:12:48 +0000

Eric: Totally see your point here, and my argument would mean a street artist does not get a donation, it gets a payment. And yes, that is exactly what I argue. I think that is the case. Not agreeing with me is absolutely fine. Of course. I don’t see the argument about the tsunami, as the giver does not get anything back, except karma. Not only a reason is needed for me to mentally classify it as a payment. All this said, some flattrs are more in the donation area then others. But the most part do I see as payments, rather than donations.

Patronage is a good description. We have had that up for discussion but a lot of english speaking people does not know what it means, and even more non native english. So it’s not a good word to use to describe something.

Evan: We already invented the word “flattr”, doing another word does not really help. Even though it was a good one =)

By: Evan

Evan — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:54:57 +0000

Cant we just invent a new word for this, like it’s a supportment. It may be a bit awkward at first but it will grow on you.

By: Eric Kow

Eric Kow — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:08:59 +0000

It’s worthwhile to think about this because thinking about this is a way of thinking about what people are trying to accomplish.

Donation sounds like a closer match to what people want to do, which is to support artists out of their generosity. The arguments for why it is one are IMHO deeper and go more to the heart of the matter, Args presented for why it is a payment are more superficial. They could apply to anything else we already call a donation. For example, if MSF raises funds because of a particular tsunami and people give to the tsunami fund, are they paying MSF? After all, the recipient knows why they are getting the money. Likewise, if I put a tracking device on each of my donation pales to see where people push buttons, do they become payments? What happens if a street musician hands out his hat after each song?

I worry that calling this a payment confuses people and disconnects flattr from this goal. Yeah ok so we’re trying to encourage some sort of moral view of compensation by encouraging people to pay for free or pay a blogger, but I don’t think that’s an entirely healthy route, better it seems to somehow help people to reinforce the feel good factor of “I use flattr because I am a good person” (and not “I use flattr because I feel a moral obligation to pay for services rendered”)

Fnally, patronage may be a useful idea here.