I don't want to do anything intrusive, but one of my scripts seems to be getting a lot of attention. I was thinking about putting a link to a paypal account so that people could donate if they felt so inclined. Is this permitted? Does it make me a horrible person? Please let me know, I don't want to do anything against TOS

Edit: The link would go in the description of the script, it would not be listed as the website

Suppose Jesse/Brett have the final say, but I'm almost 100 % sure they're fine with it. Jesse was talking about how to best integrate PayPal donations with US.O at one point, so I doubt he's against. :) So go right ahead.

Yeah, putting it as the description rather than homepage sounds like a good plan.

I would be really happy if people were able to get some monetary compensation for their scripts! So go ahead!

My (future) worry is people might abuse this (creating invalid or duplicate scripts)... We need to implement a process for thumbs up/down of scripts (favoriting/anti-favoriting) so perhaps we can avoid this abuse.

Well I only have two scripts, so no worries. I did have some trouble putting the paypal button on the script page though, I had to host it externally. Can it be done?

I seem to recall the PayPal button code uses tables and stuff that is perhaps not permitted in script descriptions.

Try a plain link, like this - adding spaces to avoid broken auto-linking:

https:// www. paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=someone@ example.com&item_name=Some%20donation

Hm. Suppose that broken auto-linking would cause problems in script descriptions, too :/ Adding a ticket…

I think a better solution would be that a donate link would show up in the right panel, besides the author's every script, if the author wants it. The script link could be managed in the settings.

I second Arvid's suggestion. Meta-data elements that are common to many scripts should be standardized.

Way ahead of you ;) http://userscripts.devjavu.com/projects/userscr...

So should it just be a link, any link? Or should we only support PayPal, which would simplify the UI/validation? Do people use donation services other than PayPal? Which ones?

Not too sure about this: making it simply a link will be the easiest, but isn't there a danger of phishing (user inputs a link to a site that appears to be PayPal but isn't so as to reap the password)? Maybe the link should be validated against a list of approved domains. The list would be updated upon request. The actual link which will appear on the UI will say "donate via [domain]". I also think it should look distinct from the other links on the right column. Giving it its own DIV with own ID will allow future CSS to format it as desired.

henrik, it would be nice to support google checkout too http://checkout.google.com as i believe at present they dont charge any transaction processing fees

I recently found a cool new online payment gateway system called TrialPay, it works like any other payment system, such as credit card, debit card or PayPal etc.

They dont currently allow people to take donations via their gateway, so I decided to try out selling one of my scripts via their system, the link is here:
http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=46deb0a&tid... and the script is "Flickr Group Pool Admin : Warn and Delete" it takes a lot of the drudgery out of administrating busy groups on flickr.

The way the trialpay system works, is the user wanting to purchase the item, can sign up for a free trial with one of TrialPays partners, TrialPay get a fee for bringing their partner a new customer, and they then pass on a slice of that fee to the seller of the product. Its cool because the user then gets 2 things for free, and the product seller, gets money too. The great thing about it is they have a secure server where you can upload your digital products (scripts etc) and the user only gets the download link, once hes signed up for the offer. I think it might be a cool way for script authors to get compensated for their works.

You can sign up for the system via my referral link here if you want to try it out.

They have been getting a lot of positive press lately, heres a coupe of articles on them.
1) New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/technology/18...
2) Wall Street Journal: http://images.trialpay.com/ma/new_york_times_fe...

Ive noticed a lot of antivirus/security vendors and other software companys have started using them as an alternative payment method. In particular, Lavasoft (of adaware fame), which is how I found out about them in the first place, and theres a case study of Lavasofts usage of them on the TrialPay website.

Ive also written a blog post on the topic, in case anyone is interested.