When I first put up this donation page, I thought I'd attempt to be amusing, and make light of what I have come to see as an unqualified success. At the time, it seemed like a very good idea. However, as time has moved on, there are times I've looked at this page and wondered what I was thinking.
It's not because I think the original page wasn't funny. I had fun writing the page and finding animated gifs to give motion to the ideas I was trying to get across. I was amazed at the response to the huge dust bunny. It was the most commented on image on that page, and with good reason.
All that said, the old page may have scored points for humor, originality, and a big dust bunny, but distressingly, it wasn't very good in garnering donations for the site.
So, I was left in a bit of a mystery. What should I do with this page? Should I make it more serious, or should I just leave it as is, and keep hoping that people would chuckle, and in doing so, decide that the page was worthy of at least a five-dollar donation?
At this point, I think a real change is in order. After all, while this particular page may have been engineered to amuse and coax a chuckle, neither of those states of being were very useful in getting donations.
This is a serious project. Therefore, it probably requires a more serious page from which to ask for donations.
And, as far as I can tell, it's a fairly popular page. As you can see when you compare the above graph to the one below, I have generated some bit of traffic to the site.
While the traffic to the site varies by day, time of day, and how recently there was a new release of kernel source, the simple truth is the traffic to this site has increased in a way that makes me quite happy. It has increased fairly steadily as time has moved forward, and as more people read about the site, and what it has to offer.
I get traffic from everywhere in the world, and a decent amount. I'm not trying to be Yahoo, or Google, or even kernel.org. I'm just trying to bring Linux to more computers by demystifying the most important part of any Linux installation: the kernel.
I do wish that the words of praise and thanks for the site were enough to pay for it. That's not the case. It's quite ironic that the most successful, and longest-lived business venture I have is one that deals with open source software. That's the way it is, though.
I could load up with ad pages, and other annoyances. However, that would be a step backwards, as I recently removed Google Ads from the site. It's a racket, and not a very well paying one.
So, I am left with this page, asking for donations, and hoping that those who have benefitted from the use of the kernel seeds will remember me when they have a few extra dollars in their pockets.
If you have found my site and what I offer here useful, please remember that, not only with a system that is running Linux well as a reminder of what I offer, but with a donation to the site that helped get your Linux machine to that place.
After all, would you rather pay over one hundred and fifty dollars for Microsoft software that locks you into their paradigm, or would you rather donate five dollars or so to a site that allows you to run any Linux distribution that uses standard kernel.org sources? Given the choice, I know which one I'd pick. How about you?
As always, barter is acceptable as donation. Hard drives, old mobos, CPU's, laptops, etc will definitely get your name in the Above And Beyond page. And just because it was the most popular pic from the old page, I give you the nuclear dust bunny!
You can contact me via email at pappy_mcfae@yahoo.com if you would like. Please, help kernel-seeds.org continue to provide Linux users with stable kernel .configs, one of a kind kernel information, and so much more.
Thank you very much for your time, attention, and consideration.
Cheers!
Pappy