Patreon

I've just launched a Patreon page, where you can help support my work on Espruino (if you want to!)

https://www.patreon.com/espruino

It's a bit like an ongoing KickStarter, where you contribute monthly and if I reach certain funding targets I'll commit to doing certain things.

Espruino is getting more and more popular, but only quite a small proportion of Espruino's users are using official Espruino boards.

From the start my intention was always to support as many boards as possible, but the realities of trying to pay myself a salary have meant that I've ended up having to focus on just the boards that I sell. I don't want to do that - I want to help make Espruino better on all boards, and if you contribute on Patreon you'll help me do that!

(You'll also get a little badge thing on the forum, and I'll start a Patreon-only area where I'll try super-hard to solve any problems you might have :)

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I think this is a great idea @Gordon. Good luck with it.

Thanks for all you do, @Gordon. Subscribed and tweeted!
https://twitter.com/erico/status/840333951109545984

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Thanks! This is great! It's really nice to wave up this morning and think that already there'll be some money coming in each month to help with Espruino on other devices :)

wow: those stats just went high.
Not sure how to interpret puck.js perceived decrease in stat: this could be worrying but could be the event of something new (peek) and then into normal usage (january).

I only buy original boards :) and micro:bit just hasn't the memory
Edit: Ok Ok, I give a $1 for micro:bit users and post on the micro:bit slack community forum
Edit edit: can the stats appear on the patreon? I was going to reference the stats in other forums but then thought it could be a "good" place for the stat
Edit edit eDIT: espruino is not on LinkedIn: business exposure and I wasn't able to add with reference to a LinkedIn Company for patronage (I didn't get kudo points for my cv: there is no self-less act)

As usual, no comment needed for above: but think about the LinkedIn Company Precense

Warning Will Robertson:
The link in the automatic tweet leads to blank blog and not to the why of the campaign.
https://twitter.com/OwenBrotherwood/status/840627269114691585

https://www.patreon.com/espruino
contra
https://www.patreon.com/espruino/posts

Edit:
Further info. There is a difference, if not logged in (typical reader) then one lands correctly in the why of the campaign. There could be some who are logged in (cos they sponsor another cause) and land on posts and not the why (edge case, they probably know where to look for why as they are either sponsor or sponsered)

What's a wifi controlled Espruino logo kit?

Yes, I need to post some updates :) And yeah, I'll try and post that graph up too.

The WiFi controlled Espruino logo kit is going to be a PCB with Espruino on it, an ESP8266, and bunch of LEDs - so not very useful, but maybe fun. Assuming anyone actually backs at that level I'll have to design one - hence the 3 months :)

OK: I am probably needing some esp8266 "because it is there": do you hold a little competition or something with "what I would like to have (within reasonable reason)"?
Best suggestion gets a patron pamper badge?

It would need it's own thread though...could get out of hand, if it ever gets off the drawing board.

Edit
How would other patrons vote? of course, Gordon can put restraints but it could be "interesting" as long as it did not take up too much "Gordon time" (which is relative anyway, but usually too little time I guess)

$66 of $500

Edit:
Simple, less is more, is the best :)

Yeah, other Patreon folks do votes on what to work on next. To a certain extent I already do that with GitHub and what gets requested on the forum - I think it's going to be hard to get right - I don't want to suddenly start ignoring everyone that's made Espruino what it is in favour of Patreon :)

We'll see how it goes - I may well do something later, but I think for the moment it's more simple.

It is a challenging call to stay true to a creators long term goal, take into account 'the market', and the present imperfectnesses... The balance between driving a cause into new, expanded and next territories on an overall scale vs. just mending current 'pains' - 'needs' of users for a particular case - is a lot of 'thought works'. @Gordon, we all appreciate that you are living up to these task... and be so accessible in the forum - often very, very basic questions...

One question regarding patreon: I will be charged every month an additional dollar VAT. But I wonder why I have to pay VAT on a donation? What is the difference compared to transfer money directly to Gordon? Does he have to pay the taxes in the second case?

And how much of the money goes to patreon?

why I have to pay VAT on a donation?

Because it sucks running a business in the UK. I have to pay VAT on almost everything.

Are you based in Europe? If not then you shouldn't have to.

Does he have to pay the taxes in the second case?

Unfortunately I do, yes.

how much of the money goes to patreon?

Patreon takes 5%, and there are some other transfer fees too. However even if you pay directly by PayPal, they take a percentage too. Unfortunately everyone takes their cut!

@Gordon Thanks for clarification. Only to make it clear for me:
If I donate 5$ via patreon to you, I have to pay 5.95$ because of VAT (19% in Germany). You get the 5$ (minus 5% for patreon), and you don't have to pay VAT a second time, or?

On the other hand, if I pay you 5$ directly, you have to subtract UK VAT (20%) afterwards?

Please understand me correctly, I want to make sure you get the most out of my money :-)

Find his address and mail him paper money

I would dearly like to visit this great guy, shake him by the Espruino hand and possibly leave something in his hand: in the meantime, I just send a very small token amount and save up for the next Espruino gadget (wife effect is present: but she sees a happy daughter with Things We Make)
One day in Denmark maybe: if I am ever so lucky.

@avanc, yes, that's correct. Most places don't know what country you're in so I can't change the price to include VAT if needed, I have to charge the same amount regardless. For instance with Tindie I actually make 20% less on all purchases in the EU, because I have to pay 20% as VAT!

@OwenBrotherwood thanks! Maybe I will end up in Denmark at some point - I guess it depends if I get invited anywhere to give a talk or not :)