Hello Mark, 

I just learned about your site, especially the design games. You have an excellent “design eye”. The games are fun and somewhat challenging (well, would be mostly for a newbie — like some of my students).

Upon reading your last blog post, I felt compelled to give you a little support (if you noticed a PayPal donation today). I have no requests other than to not let the site go down. Give me a chance to introduce it to others (I do in person, not Facebook…).

Thank you for beautifying the Web.

  • Walter

Hi Walter, thank you so much for reaching out. Please note that I am typing this from my phone and I will not be too careful about it. I am sitting in the patio of a hostel and about to leave for the jazz festival, and I remembered that I formulated an answer which I never wrote, so here it is:

“Giving up” on donations  would never mean going offline, it costs me $10 a month to keep things going, though it is fortunate you bring up this because Digital Ocean sent me a notice that my Mexican cc was rejected. Must fix these issues tomorrow.

What is “giving up on donations”? Let me be clear: I will make it more difficult for you to donate me money, but when you do I will be thoughtful and thankful because that’s the way gifts are appreciated. I like to think about it as a patron-craftsman relationship, and in this context a donation is more of a stipend.

Rest assured all is safe and protected from the horrible cheap monetization of which most of the web has fallen into, this is my garden and no weeds will come into it, rest assured I am in peace with this decision, no amount of need will make me change it.

I need to excuse myself, my knees are begging to leave, I must go dance.

Kind regards thank you so much for your words both in the practical as the professional and spiritual.