The Internet can be free.
记得不太清楚了, 但是下面这三个留给我的印象最深刻.
叶佳桐. (2019). 快速带你了解MMD (MikumikuDance) 的发展史. [文字版]
在这个大家都绞尽脑汁想要从别人那里赚钱的年代，居然发生了对方想送钱居然还得要自己想尽办法找门路来送钱，还真一件相当罕见的事情。
对于MMD爱好者们这么热情的回应，樋口优是这样回绝他们的：“寄付してもいいと言ってもらえるのはたいへん光栄だが、それほど気に入っていただけたら、ぜひこのソフトを使ってすばらしい動画を作って公開してもらい、私をニコニコさせてほしい。（当听到大家说‘就算付费赞助也可以’的时候，我真的是觉得非常荣幸，不过要是大家真的有这么喜欢的话，那就希望各位使用这套软件来制作出很棒的动画并公开出来，也让我开怀大笑吧）”如果说想要为那些创造卓越的人寻找一个共同点，那么也许就在于他们都拥有的这份对爱好以及梦想的追逐之心上面吧。
raics. One Vision | Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together mod.
作者在几年的业余时间一直在做老游戏的 mod, 而且做得很好. 当被问及能否打赏时, 他如下问答.
Can I donate a wee amount of cash to the cause? I like your work and wish to support it.
- This has been asked a few times and the answer is – not really. Even if we make an extremely tall assumption that I’m able to gather a monthly amount that would allow me to leave my job and comfortably do this full time it would still be a poor decision longterm, so, if you’re looking to donate in hopes of speeding up the project, I won’t be able to accept that. On the other hand, if there are those that really insist on buying me a beer™ simply as a token of appreciation for the work done so far or because I’m handsome as a possum you can do so below.
RemZi. (2014). The Case for Free Online Books (FOBs): Experiences with “Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces”.
A new problem arose due to this course of action, unfortunately, and, perhaps, predictably. Some students, particularly those who were (a) not great at taking notes or (b) not great at waking up, complained (usually in a nice and polite way) that there was no reference material. As a student, you had to come to class and take notes - there was no other material to fall back upon. 不擅长记笔记的学生抱怨没有参考材料.
I took this student commentary to heart. It probably helped that I personally was a “book learner”, as mentioned above - I didn’t particularly like listening when I was in class, and rather would read the book later than pay close attention in lecture (in fact, Andrea is always surprised - and sometimes horrified - to hear about how often I used to sleep in classes; where else can a tired student catch up on some Z’s?). I knew that some of the classes I had done worst in as an undergraduate were those with bad books, or worse, no books at all; so why was I creating such a situation on my own students? 作者本人也喜欢读书而不是听课, 所以开写教材.
Why Online Free Books (FOBs) are Better
- Linkability. Classic textbooks trap their material inside of expensive volumes, making it difficult to link to or learn from unless you are dedicated enough to buy the entire (expensive) thing. FOBs make their content available to all, enabling linking to chapters from other sites; Google searches will find your materials.
- Broader Readership. As related to the previous point, classic textbooks are (usually) bought for class. FOBs can be perused by anybody interested in a topic that the book covers, and thus more likely to be read by more people. This type of casual usage broadens the audience. If your goal is to deliver information to as many people as possible, free and online works better.
- Partial Usage. Classic textbooks almost mandate usage of the entire book; it would be cost prohibitive to require students to buy three different books, much less one. FOBs enable usage of subsets of many books, perhaps pulling together a whole that is better than the sum of the parts. While there are reasons to use just one book (style and tone, for example), there could also be reasons to pull together materials from various different sources.
- Frequent Micro-Revisions. Classic textbooks are revised with great effort, and often for the wrong reasons (e.g., to force students to buy new books instead of used ones). FOBs evolve as they need to, and when they need to. Indeed, we update chapters regularly thanks to feedback and comments from random people on the Internet.
- Just Feeling Good. Making a free book simply makes you feel good, like you are doing the world a (small) service. Every email you get saying “good job!” or “thanks!” makes you smile. We’ve received hundreds of said emails, and appreciate each and every one.
Now you might be asking: but can they make money? I would argue that (a) FOBs can make you some money (by selling printed copies, more fully-featured electronic copies, etc.), but more importantly (b) most authors of textbooks don’t write books for the money anyhow. My advisor David Patterson (a hugely successful textbook author) long ago told me that “no one should write for the money” and instead recounted how proud he was to tell his mom what people were saying about his books.