Please go back and read my posts. Tell me how many time I wrote, "if one does nothing at all to help." Count the times I made references to non-momentary contributions or used the term time/effort. The only negative thing I may have said was that new users to the browser no longer contributed as much its being sustainable as much as they create more demands on Moonchild. What I did say is telling your friends about Pale Moon was not much help. I also said not to stop doing it.
But go ahead and brand me any way you like. I am sorry Charm got a big bug up his butt and I hope he likes Vivaldi. I looked at it and felt differently. Make no mistake, Vivaldi is for profit software and will treat its users as such. I saw nothing on their site about privacy and data collection. As far as I can tell Vivaldi is basically Chrome with lipstick and intended to be an ego stroker for its creator and, more importantly, a cash cow for him on the backs of users. I doubt he will ask for donations of any sort. I do know he has Bing as the default browser to generate revenue, he says so. I hope Charm calms down and comes back, not because I care at all what he does nor what names he wants to call me but because it was not my intention to cause Moonchild to lose any users.
In keeping with my love for crunching numbers, here are some interesting factoids. According to Moonchild there are somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 users of Pale Moon. According to the the main Forum Index page this site has 6,204 members. I would love to reach out to majority of users for donations or to turn of their ad blockers here. I would do it a bit differently but using the same facts. I had expected the relatively few P M users who post or only read here to be a bit more open minded. But everybody reacts differently. The goals would remain the same, to "guilt" them into donating. Forget about the term freeload for a minute and think about this. Pale Moon is not the same as any other browser out there. It is not because of how it works or that it is fairly customizable etc. What makes it unique is it is not collecting our data, it is not trying to convert us into cash cows and it tries to help us prevent other sites from doing so. This alone makes it one of the most valuable pieces of software I use. But there is a downside to making this sort of browser, very few people want to partner with this philosophy and it means Moonchild will never sell we the users out to Google and all the rest of them who want us to be their cash cows. I do not know how anybody else who uses Pale Moon feels about all of this, but it is one of the primary reasons why I support the project. It is also why I want to see Pale Moon persist over time.
So forgive me if I cannot fathom why those who are not able to donate a few dollars, lack the skills to be helpers on these forums or cannot code should refuse to do the absolute least thing possible to help which is to allow the ads on this site. I think its clear there is almost no chance of this causing one problems with malware. I do not understand why users cannot see the reasons why they should chip in somehow to help keep Pale Moon going. If we take Moonchild at his word, $2 is enough to help in terms of a cash donation. I may be financially OK because I am now old and retired, but I can remember days of living on brown rice and peanut butter sold in 1 gallon cans. Even then I would have found a way to scrounge up $2 for a worthy cause. But if you cannot afford even that I get it, but then why can't you allow the ads here? I don't get that one at all. Doing nothing in this case is the text book definition of freeloading. I am sorry if that disturbs anybody.
My dad used to tell me all the time when I acted out of spite (like some here seem to be doing) that I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. Charm, if you stop using Pale Moon, it won't hurt me, it wont have a material affect on the Pale moon user base, it wont deprive the project of material revenue (unless you secretly are a big donor). While the forum may lose somebody who can help others, that only hurts those other folks who won't get your help. What you lose is whatever benefits this browser offered you. If these were so little that my words were sufficient to make you cease using it, or that the fact that Moonchild said he could at least understand my point of view even though he did not wish to go down that road did it, then this your choice.
What most amazed me about my journey through this thread is how few people acknowledge what makes this browser worthwhile for those who use it. They did not acknowledge the work it takes, the effort made by Moonchild etc. I am not worried about 1,000s or 10,000s of Pale Moon user walking away because of my words. I would almost bet there are more folks who are now motivated to help in whatever way they can than there are folks kicking this browser to the curb. I hope most of them can do so with cash contribution, but I am happy with whatever they can do as long as it is not nothing at all. And you know what doing nothing at all means to me
In the end, users are either helping to carry the weight of Pale Moon or they are just coming along for the free ride because Moonchild is way to nice about things. The danger is that the second group overwhelms the first. Just looking at those people who have contributed by donated whatever cash they can afford over the years and the project collapses from lack of money, how do you think these folks will feel about those who offered nothing at all, not even viewing ads here? Please understand that even though Moonchild provides us Pale Moon free of charge and free of revenue generating crap, that does mean it is our right to have it.
@Giraffe who wrote;
I used the term freeloader, Moonchild did not. But I am confused by what you wrote above. You stated you likely would not have donated had you seen me use the word freeloader. But then having seen it you also say you might make another donation in the future. Why would you do this unless my points, however offensively you may have reacted to the my terminology, must have struck a chord? Go ahead and hate me all you want, but please follow up on making that the donation some time. And thank you for having donated in the past, please keep up the good work.On a different point, CharmCityCrab does have one good point: make people feel wanted/respected/loved even and they will feel almost a need to donate to PM.
I donated a couple of weeks ago but, had I seen the term "freeloader" anywhere /before/ that I probably wouldn't have done.
Having read through all of this and the other thread and so having more understanding of what's going ob, I might well make another donation at some time.
Moonchild tries to make people feel wanted/respected/loved to solicit donations and ad views as well as donated time and effort from users. If this approach alone was sufficient, this thread would not exist. I looked at it an saw a request for help. I am a selfish person and an asshole because I want to be able to use Pale Moon for years to come. I wish every single user of Pale Moon were as much of a selfish asshole as I am.
In keeping with my last few posts I will end with a song. R.I.P Lowell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWEUPB5XHjE
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