Requesting Funding for 90s.dev
62 comments
·July 28, 2025gausswho
90s_dev
Thanks, that's actually my screensaver project Bubbles[1] which I created to mimic as much as possible the Windows 95 bubbles screensaver. It's a one-line include for any website, which is why I put it in this one. Maybe it'll catch on!
yardshop
I get the bubbles page too after a minute or so, but the main page is just white with two black lines on it.
When I move my mouse around it, I get a click pointer and can see the links show up in the status area, but nothing is displayed. on latest version of Vivaldi
yardshop
actually the content is there, it's just showing as white on white - when I select with the mouse I can see things - but my guess is that its still not displaying correctly
bix6
You could also look into some sort of crowdfunding or kickstarter? Then you can reward backers with special perks or something. Good luck with the raising!
chistev
Great, you made it to the front page this time. Lol.
Edit: this isn't a negative comment. I made the comment because I noticed he complained about being down voted a lot previously.
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90s_dev
And it's falling back off. Expected. Thanks anyway everyone for trying. Thanks mods for letting it try.
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90s_dev
Short version: I want to work on 90s.dev, but have no time to. I could do it for $25/hour, using GitHub Sponsors as a way for everyone to chip in a little towards its development. Just an idea.
The vision of 90s.dev is to be a retro os environment entirely in the web, that's suitable for making all the apps you'd need to make a game, from code editors to sprite editors to animation tools to debuggers. And it's decentralized too, so the apps don't have to be built in, you can import them from anywhere on the web, as long as the app speaks the 90s.dev API. This would recreate a retro development environment similar to what many of us grew up with in the 90s.
dlachausse
Please take this as some unsolicited friendly advice, but I don't think you'll be able to live off this project with that funding model. GitHub sponsors is more like a tip jar than a paycheck.
This project is rather niche and your description of it is somewhat confusing. Maybe you could use the open source framework you've created to produce a paid game or app that would be easier to monetize.
90s_dev
Oh sorry, I kind of skipped over introducing what the project is, mainly because when I wrote this, the intended audience was the people who showed support on the previous Show HN thread. But here's a better explanation of the project's purpose, the one I posted via Show HN two months ago: https://90s.dev/blog/finally-releasing-90s-dev.html
I do agree that this is a new way of using GitHub Sponsors. And I do agree that it might entirely not work out the way I'm thinking. But to my knowledge, this way of using GH Sponsors hasn't been tried before, so it's worth at least trying it once I think. Besides, there was significant interest in this project, which is what made me think of trying this at all, otherwise I would not have. Thanks for the feedback.
ac29
> the intended audience was the people who showed support on the previous Show HN thread
Your previous Show HN had 113 comments. That's a nice accomplishment but even if 100% of those commenters paid $25/month you aren't going to get to the equivalent of $25/hour.
> there was significant interest in this project
Are you referring to the Show HN? Was there significant interest in paying?
johnisgood
You could also try BuyMeACoffee and LiberaPay, or even Patreon, or all of them.
jarebear6expepj
[flagged]
dfedbeef
Not sure why that thread below got flagged. It's pretty relevant to the topic
dang
You may have seen it already but here's an explanation of the moderation thinking on the topic (or rather, not on the topic but on this particular post): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44713731. Like everything else, it's a tradeoff. Other people would prioritize it the other way around and I respect that. In terms of the principles of this site I think it's the best move on this occasion, though not on every occasion.
johnisgood
I do not know the personal life of most people whose work I use or like though. I do not think I would stop using them just because they did something I find morally repulsive. If ReiserFS was any good than the alternatives, I would use it. I understand the people who wouldn't. Granted, it is related to funding him, but eh.
A quick question: How well do you know the people behind your favorite projects?
dfedbeef
These projects are not important though. So why worry about the debate?
dfedbeef
I think this counts as more of a 'public life' situation.
johnisgood
If it turns out Linus did something terrible in the past, I wonder how many people would stop using Linux based on that alone. We are not the same. To some people it matters a great deal, to others it does not matter at all, and there are some people somewhere in the middle I suppose. To me it is more about pragmatism. I may have an opinion on the developer as a person, but that would not stop me from using the project. For example I do not like the author of Odin much, but I do like the programming language. When it comes to contributing to the project, however, that he (author of Odin) reviews, I am not so eager because I have seen him being somewhat condescending before, which I think is more relevant than his personal life.
That said, when it comes to funding, it is not so clear cut to me. I actually do not have an answer. Transparency?
90s_dev
[flagged]
dang
Mods didn't see it. Users flagged it, because fundraisers and requests for funding are not on topic for Hacker News.
I'm going to make an exception in this case and turn off the flags. We can't (and don't) do this often, so please don't anyone interpret this as a precedent.
jarebear6expepj
>I'm going to make an exception in this case and turn off the flags. We can't (and don't) do this often, so please don't anyone interpret this as a precedent.
Yikes.
What a lame non-precedent.
dang
I totally get that there's a spectrum of responses and that everyone has good reasons for feeling the way they do. I don't think one is right and another wrong. They're all right.
From a moderation point of view the questions are: where is the cost/benefit optimum for the community, and what is most in keeping with the intended spirit of the site?
I don't think punishing people for past crimes should be a primary function for HN. IMO the cost of that outweighs the benefit, and it isn't optimal for what we want here (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...).
That's why I'm willing to make a rare out-of-band exception for a post like this. But not so often that it becomes a Thing.
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mepas
[flagged]
90s_dev
Have I not paid my price by going to jail? By being homeless and sleeping in my car in the cold of winter? By having people show up at my door in January trying to cause physical violence to me? Are you the same person you were 9 years ago? Would you rather my children not have food and shelter because of mistakes I made 9 years ago and paid for in abundance? Should I put up a gofundme so that they can have their needs met? I'd rather work to earn that money. But nobody will employ me. So this is all I can do. Do you have a better idea? If your best answer is "oh well, you committed an atrocity, therefore your children should suffer," then fine, that's on you. But I won't settle for that. I will do everything I can to provide for them.
Spoom
To be fair:
> Duration of Registration: Lifetime Registrant
Arguably the law says that you will never have paid your price.
90s_dev
With regards to the law, yes. I have to pay $100 every year and tell the government all my information.
Society is not the government. Society has the opportunity to let me back in.
dfedbeef
What about this one
> A jury has convicted a Woodstock man for putting a child in a headlock, pulling him to the ground and striking him repeatedly, leaving him injured in Woodstock.
https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2023/05/25/jury-convicts-...
90s_dev
That is not a black and white situation, and I received only 10 days in jail because of the circumstances, despite the prosecutor asking for the full 365 days. The statues of Illinois do not permit any evidence prior to the day of the incidents to be presented. I could not provide the jury any evidence that my son was becoming a very real danger who I had to protect myself and my other children from for at least a month beforehand. I am not and have never been a violent person, so he didn't get that from me. I could not present to the jury that I had called 911 on him several times, that he threw sharp objects at me, that I did everything I could do disarm him with as least physical force. I did not know about crisis hotline and the police never told me about it or suggested it, they simply said I'd have to figure something out. All I could present to the jury was his own testimony, under oath, that he had in fact harmed me and caused me physical harm. I used as little force as necessary to restrain him from another episode of dangerous behavior. I'm not sure what I could or should have done differently. And anyone commenting this or that solution, I would just say, I agree violence is rarely the answer, but I'm not sure what you would have done differently either. He has since been arrested at least once for similar violent behavior, so I am vindicated at least somewhat, because he didn't learn that from me, and I tried everything I could to prevent and stop it for the month before my arrest, and I haven't seen him since the arrest 4 years ago. And I was never violent. He didn't learn it from me. In order to protect another person's reputation, I will not say where I think he learned it.
arp242
I'll just comment here and say that I support your right to participate in society. I don't think this entire thread is especially relevant here.
I don't have a clear comprehensive theory on what justice is (and if I did, it would be too large to fit in this margin), but forever being haunted by a criminal record for the rest of your life is not it.
There are no details on that page. No one here is in any position to judge anything because you need the full details of the case. But it's pretty obvious this is not Jeffery Epstein or Marc Dutroux we're talking about here.
I find many comments here unpleasant, hysterical, and even cruel.
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posterguy
weird to parlay someone making publicly available information known to those who you are asking money from into an accusation of wanting harm to come to your kids. least of all given that you harmed a kid. "nobody will employ me", well, probably because they have the benefit of the knowledge being shared here.
> paid for in abundance
its my opinion, shared by many in our society, that you did not pay for it "in abundance". in fact, harming a child incurs a debt that can never be truly "paid for". your reward for time served was to no longer be in jail, not to have your history erased.
jarebear6expepj
[flagged]
90s_dev
I don't know how long it takes each person to heal. But I know healing is possible.
Walked away from the computer with this page on the screen, came back to find a bunch of colorful bubbles slowly floating over the page. Pressing the touchpad cleared them. It's like an old school screensaver - very nice touch!