I am writing unsolicited reviews of sites that interact with the HIVE blockchain on Internet Rivers.
For today's review, I will take an outsider look at BuyMeBerries.com. This project generates a simple graphic that solicits HBD donations. One can use the code on HIVE posts or external projects.
The instructions say that it will use posts with the tag #bmbhome for the text in the solicitation page.
If this is true; then the text of this post should show up on BuyMeBerries.com/@irivers . We will see what happens.
Using a HIVE post for the soliction page creates a conflict with the targeted audience. People should write their HIVE posts for the HIVE audience. The solicitation page should be designed for the world at large.
I hope that people on HIVE vote on this post in the seven day voting window.
I want the people who see the solicitation page to know that Internet Rivers is a member of the Community Color family of web sites.
Community Color is a collection of local portals that I began developing in 2000. The portals target the US Mountain West. I developed the portals as I feared that the Big Tech was creating an economy that would undermine small businesses and local communities.
The Community Color project has never received any government funds. It has operated at a loss for every year of its 21 years existence. Quite frankly, I don't expect any support.
Any funds I receive would be used to pay hosting fees and pay down the debt of the project. My hosting and related fees for community color run about $50 a month.
I will use the funds received for this post for the same reason.
To resolve the audience conflict, designers of BuyMyBerries might consider allowing users to log into BuyMeBerries and directly editing the post.
The BuyMeBerries Button
The homepage for BuyMeBerries generates HTML code for a BMB button for any HIVE account. I am using PeakD.com to publish this post. I generated the code and pasted it below. It seems to work in the preview.
Asking for HBD
BuyMeBerries asks for donations in HBD (Hive Based Dollars). People outside HIVE don't know what HBD is.
Since the project was designed to solicit funds outside HIVE, the project might benefit by the creation of a page that introduces the public at large to HIVE with a link to HIVE Onboard so that we can pull the patrons of the Internet into the Hive-O-Sphere .
Using HBD is still problematic in HIVE. Although I use HIVE, I rarely have free HBD. I like to keep my HIVE funds powered up. I have some funds in HBD savings to get the 10% interest rate HIVE gives on HBD.
I suspect that very few HIVE users have HBD at the ready to use for donations.
NOTE: Hive and Hive Engine allow users to transfer funds between accounts. Were I to donate money to an account, I think I would use the transfer feature.
BuyMeBerries takes a 3% cut of the donations which is reasonable. Transferring funds on HIVE is free. If I wanted to give someone money, I would use HIVE or HIVE Engine.
People who are serious about soliciting donations might want to write their own solicitation code. BuyMeBerries stands out as a good example of a way to accomplish this task.
Seeking Crypto Donations
People who seek donations often include long links of Bitcoin and other addresses in their posts. I haven't done this. If I had a list, I would include it in my #bmbhome post.
HIVE gives every wallet a human readable name. A person who wants to give the Community Project money can just transfer funds to @irivers . I haven't tried to solicit funds. The process is easier than asking for BTC.
Adding PayPal Me
A long time ago I created a Pay Pal Me Link. PayPal.me lets people solicit funds using paypal accounts or credit cards. BuyMeBerries might add a feature that allowed user to link their paypal.me link.
It is possible that a person who does not have a HIVE account will still want to support a project with paypal or any of the other programs that allow people to solicit funds.
Notice how skillfully I slipped my Pay Pal Me Link into the conversation. Yes the link uses the account @yintercept not @irivers.
I did get some money through PayPal once. PayPal confiscated the funds because my account was inactive. I got a donation. I thought I would leave it in my account in case I needed to buy something on ebay. Then one day PayPal simply took my money ... the bums.
It was only $20. But I was upset that they took the money.
Unlike HIVE, PayPal is not a trustworthy financial partner.
Conclusion
BuyMeBerries is a wonderful contribution to the HIVE community. It provides an easy to use mechanism for soliciting HIVE funds on external projects. Since the links will go on pages outside the Hive-O-Sphere; I think the project should include pages or links to pages that educate the public about the blockchain.
That said, a group truly serious about soliciting donations might want to create their own solicitation page.
I wrote this page as a review of the site. I really don't expect donations.
That said, I think it would be good form for people on HIVE to write a post with the tag #bmbhome to populate their BuyMeBerries page. The page might include links to the HIVE projects you support.
Design Credits
The account @buymeberries indicates the project was designed by @martibis who has published code for HIVE projects on github . IT looks like the launch date for the project was Nov 22, 2020.
Image Credits
I created the image for this post with GIMP. It uses the BMB graphic drawn from BuyMyBerries.com. BMB has implicitly licensed the image for this purpose. I drew an arrow with SVG. I used the image of a punk named Abner that I purchased to be the Avatar of this account. Everything should be good.