[upmostly]

Can I offer a more pessimistic view?

This is Darwinism.

If the author has a seemingly popular and monetisable (sic) product with real users, yet has failed to achieve the state of ramen profitable, then perhaps this is fate.

Perhaps he's not able to be at the helm of a product that people would rely on in their production apps.

What if the author of this app is unable to run the product successfully and is forced to close it down. What happens to the thousands of users who have integrated his product in their stack? An expensive migration. Loss of profit for them.

Perhaps it's better to choose another product that is able to be profitable.

[mrtksn]

>What if the author of this app is unable to run the product successfully and is forced to close it down.

That’s why many businesses would not consider a free service or a product. The developer of SQLite sells licenses for his public domain code for this very reason.

[upmostly]

True.

I knew my comment would be downvoted.

Interestingly, one comment above said the author did not release an update in over a year...

[mrtksn]

Maybe your comment comes as a too harsh of a portrayal of the person who provides valuable product or service for free but IMHO from business standpoint its true.

If you want money ask for it and I don't mean donations. The strange dynamic where you collect street cred in exchange for your work and expect to be taken care for doesn't work. Even if he finds a job and doesn't need donations, he will be working for people who wanted money and asked for it. It's the same thing with directly asking money for your services but with extra steps where you pay other people for doing the asking.

[developer93]

Is about the knowing the value you're providing

[eviks]

The thousands of users have the power to avoid costly migration via a less costly payment just like Darwin prescribed

[mrtksn]

I disagree, there's no contract or expectation of performance with a donation. People who depend on products like paying for that product because this sets expectations.