No, it's criticizing him for not being forthright about it. I think it's important for people to know whether or not their activity is helping financially support someone. I may specifically want to support the project maintainer, so I will try to remember to use their referral link later if I don't have the time to do it now. Or I may specifically not want to support the maintainer, so I will circumvent their referral link. Either way, my job is made a lot easier if the maintainer discloses that the link is a referral link.
I removed it, I thought it was obvious once you clicked on the link. again, I'm a PhD student, I live at the poverty line and host this project myself.
Honestly, you should have left it up there and told the first few to go <strike>fuck themselves</strike> find something better to do than criticize someone who gave them a FOSS program.
Yeah, things that are free need to make money somehow, hence ads and ref links. It's asinine to think that a person should just give up their own cash to provide a free service. It's the epitome of using someone as a means to an end; and you're the one getting used.
I do a lot of research, advocacy, and editorial work which is very critical of many powerful companies; I have to be sure there is no accidental impression I am "for" or "against" anybody or benefitting financially in any way from my research. that is actually why I changed it.
any sane person can see that releasing my intellectual property for free wasn't an evil scheme to make $.25 from digital ocean. ;-)
