Since more and more patchers in the community have donation links and virtual “tip jars” these days, we felt it would be a good idea to amend the Forum rules to regulate the situation. Our hope is that we can avoid things getting out of hand.
In a nutshell, we are allowing the donation links and tip jars, however patchers may not bully or harass people into making a contribution; withholding releases until donations are received will also not be tolerated as it is not in the spirit of our patching community. Similarly, directly charging for updates remains prohibited, as legal issues can arise from this approach. We have also set a few conditions for the placement of donation links in Forum posts and our Downloads section.
For more information, please see the Forum Rules here. We reserve the right to make further amendments to the rules as the situation dictates, but hopefully there will be no issues moving forward. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact myself or one of the other administrators.