Mozilla has added a tip-jar option to the add-on’s site that allows developers to collect donations from the users. The option is not yet available widely but this may change in future as developers opt-in to accept donations for their work. The tip-jar option is a not a bad idea which gives a small amount of revenue for the developers. Firefox add-on developers won’t build add-on’s for a living but getting something for their work is a good idea.
While there are hundreds of extensions available for Firefox, all the extensions out there are not really worth donating an amount, not that they are not good enough but you could get workaround with out them. But there are several extensions that are really useful and deserve some form of reward like Firebug, Fireftp, Greasemonkey etc.
The contributions are currently optional, users can download extensions with out donating, I hope it will stay that way, otherwise users may flock for the other browsers like Chrome which is getting extensions slowly. Developers can choose the amount for the donation but users can donate the suggested amount or what ever they wish. Add-on developers will get the entire amount of the contribution users made to them, in future this may change and Mozilla may take a small cut according to cNet. Via [Webware]
I can’t see any extension with the contribution button enabled, but Webware has a screenshot showing the same.
Contributing to add-ons that are really worth is a good way to encourage developers to develop good stuff which eventually benefit everyone. If this becomes standard practice we may see more developers opting for the same. What do you think? will you contribute to a Firefox add-on.
