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# Donations for Reticulum?

_General · started by grlx on Mon, Sep 7, 2026 7:45 AM_

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## Original post

**grlx** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 7:45 AM

Just wanted to stop by and raise the situation with [donations](https://unsigned.io/donate.html) to Mark.

Is it possible that we could organize something and make it more than [$800](https://rns.recipes/forum/help/most-ethical-way-of-support#post-1589) for him?

It's very cool tech, you all know it, and it's also very cool that it continues to evolve, thanks to Mark and other people.

It amazing to see nomadnet pages grow, there are many more now than there were 1-2 years ago, folks set up local town pages with local news and weather, regular forums, useful info (though not always), and just hi-there-say-hello pages, and ecosystem has evolved a lot.

I run a mundane saas project seeing people pay for just regular automation of their businesses, and curious why it goes so slow for Reticulum? It definitely must be more than $800.

As a way forward, we could start by putting a link to Mark's donation page at the top of resources we operate, setting up monthly donations via ko-fi and so on.

What do you think?

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## Reply 1

**Anonymous** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 8:30 AM

Gosh, why some of you people are so hyper fixated on Mark's authority? His code is open by the way.

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## Reply 2

**burger** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 8:40 AM

**Anonymous** wrote:

> Gosh, why some of you people are so hyper fixated on Mark's authority? His code is open by the way.

Man just wants to make Mark a millionaire

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## Reply 3

**grlx** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 9:24 AM

**Anonymous** wrote:

> Gosh, why some of you people are so hyper fixated on Mark's authority? His code is open by the way.

Basically, you are saying "why pay if it's possible not to", which doesn't bring anything new. I believe builders deserve more reward, especially than anonymous guys out there :)

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## Reply 4

**grlx** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 9:28 AM

**burger** wrote:

> **Anonymous** wrote:

> > Gosh, why some of you people are so hyper fixated on Mark's authority? His code is open by the way.

>

> Man just wants to make Mark a millionaire

It's far from that if you read other posts here, but even if so, I wouldn't be jealous

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## Reply 5

**Anonymous** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 10:11 AM

**grlx** wrote:

> Basically, you are saying "why pay if it's possible not to", which doesn't bring anything new. I believe builders deserve more reward, especially than anonymous guys out there :)

>

I didn't say that. I just think it's a bit awkward to ask other people to run an advertisement for someone. Especially in places where he is already known.

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## Reply 6

**Mark** · Mon, Sep 7, 2026 10:47 AM

Thanks for bringing this up @grlx! It's very considerate of you.

Some good news is that the amount of donations *have* gone up since last time I talked about this. Right now, I'm at around $1400 per month, which is really a noticable difference for me, and very close to what I can actually get by with. That being said, I definitely wouldn't mind a little more headroom ;)

And no, being a millionaire is definitely not something I'd ever wish for. I try to live in a way that is as cost-effective as possible, without being spartan or masochistic. If I have enough for basic living costs, putting away a bit of savings for emergencies, can afford a pizza and a beer every now and then, and can take my van to the beach or mountains for a couple of weeks every year, I am more than satisfied. That's about the height of my financial ambitions.

The only real currencies I value are time and freedom to do constructive things. You do need *a bit* of money for that, but not a lot.

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## Reply 7

**MOI** · Tue, Sep 8, 2026 1:33 AM

**burger** wrote:

> **Anonymous** wrote:

> > Gosh, why some of you people are so hyper fixated on Mark's authority? His code is open by the way.

>

> Man just wants to make Mark a millionaire

Nobody was mentioning Marks 'authority', before you did, so that's not 'im Frage'. And yes, his code is open... That's more reason to help a man that has no ambition whatsoever to become a millionaire, because if he really wanted to be a millionaire he would have already been one. He would even be a multi-miljonaire, if he would have made one or more deals with 'the usual suspects'. He's had more than one offer already, but he did not sell his soul, like most of us humans would do in even much less dificult situations. Maybe I'm defending him because I read everything I could find on the internet about Mark and all the software code he's written, and thus know rather well what he's done the last 14 to 15 years of his life to do SOMETHING GOOD FOR HUMANITY. So let's not try to make Mark look like a beggar, because it's not impossible theat he has done more for humanity than all of us on this forum together. And if, for whatever reason Mark would become a millionaire in the future, he will probably be one of the less stinchy millionaires in this world. If he dedicates most of his most precious assets, time and freedom, to the freedom of humanity, imagine what he would do with a huge amount of currency 'VALUTA', that he does not need himself.

I hope critical people get really critical and assess Mark's work and intentions after a thorough study...

I rest my case.

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## Reply 8

**grlx** · Tue, Sep 8, 2026 12:43 PM

It's cool that things improved!

Though I'm surprised by relatively weak feedback to the original idea.

It's either folks are not really interested in the tech and its impact (though, somehow still happen on this forum and this thread) or they think it's not cool to advertise donations or something.

Or I don't understand something other, interesting..

It's just crazy how people in some places of the world can't stand against bad government or can't unite to make something better like in this case, though their payments are not blocked and there is no persecution.

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## Reply 9

**welo** · Tue, Sep 8, 2026 6:42 PM

It reminded me to go send an extra 10 bucks.

Support is a lot quieter than conflict, there's quite a lot of us who like enjoy the idea of reticulum and are slowly building infrastructure for it without much fanfare, infact that's the probable majority of us. The loud minority you hear may affect your judgement but for the most part we are all on the same team.

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## Reply 10

**Anonono** · Thu, Sep 10, 2026 12:09 AM

I welcome your initiative and think it’s a good idea. I’ve actually had a recurring donation set up on Liberapay for about half a year now because I want to support both the project and Mark.

There are two main reasons why I’m doing this. First, Mark is still actively working on the project, and my thinking is simply: the more funding the project — and therefore Mark — receives, the more time and resources he can put into continued development.

Second, I see it as a way of rewarding him for the sacrifices and work he has already put in, often taking things on at his own expense and investing his time and resources upfront to bring us what we’re able to enjoy today.

That said, you could also structure it more generally as a Project Development Fund, where Mark and the other five top contributors each receive a proportional share of the funding.

Either way, this isn’t about some kind of personal fixation on Mark, which would be completely ridiculous.

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## Reply 11

**Anonono** · Thu, Sep 10, 2026 12:10 AM

However, I have to admit that I don’t really know off the top of my head what the best way to approach something like this would be, especially since I personally haven’t been very actively involved in the project so far.

But perhaps some of you here have an idea of how something like this could best be organized.?

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