Donating

I apologize if I'm posting somewhere other than the appropriate category. I've noticed that forum users/mods are typically pretty particular when it comes to that issue. I'd say at least 99% of the time, what I'm looking for/trying to find out/etc. has already been discussed; therefore, I've never had to actually post on any forum in my entire life. In fact, I registered to this forum today even though I've visited it countless times.

Now that that's covered, what my question is...

I modified my wii quite a while back. And as a result of that, I've spent many many hours, many many days, enjoying all the capabilities that homebrew provides. I've taken advantage of most of the capabilities that I never even knew my wii had.

But as I continue to discover all those hidden, fun things,, it starts to dawn on me that even when you consider how amazing this modification it is, maybe it isn't worth it... I start to think about all the money I spent in order to have all these wonderful capabilities and what else I could of done with it. Once, I even added up every single dollar I spent. I took the time to think of everything, didn't forget even the smallest of fee's. And in all, I spent... are you ready for this? Zipola cola. Not a single penny. And that's what's most amazing. All of this is available for free, nada. You're not even overwhelmed with ads, or excessive plea's for donations. In fact, donations are so seldomly mentioned, it's the entire reason I'm posting this. The only drawback I've encountered to having modified my wii is feeling guilty once in a while for having not given back to the creators at all. It just doesn't sit right with me that I haven't shown my support in any way whatsoever.

So my question is how do I do that? I don't have a lot of money, probably even less than what's average for a 26 yr old. I did grow up wealthy though, my parents still being pretty well off. Surely if I went through all my old storage places, I would find tons of old games/controllers/systems/etc. I have an exorbitant amount of video game related accessories ranging anywhere from Atari-old to playstation-2-old. But I'm not sure if any of it is useful at all anymore to anyone.

In addition to help with how to show my support besides just cash (not that I don't plan on donating a few bucks from time to time so info on how to do that would be helpful as well) I was also hoping someone could provide the correct information with regards to getting in touch with the right people. I don't know if its just a site, or if its an email to someone that's necessary in order to start the donating process. I certainly don't want to email someone I wish to thank if all it will do is irritate them.

I'm interested in showing support to whoever it was that made the modification possible. Clearly, a whole lot of effort was put in. I haven't had a problem that wasn't fixed with a single google search. And that kind of programming isn't possible without tons of hours put into it. And I honestly don't care what that person or people, or company, does with the money (or whatever it is I can give them that would help) so finding someone or a website where the donations will be used for future programming isn't necessary. Obviously, I would be happy if that's what was done with it- but if they used the money to buy themselves a 6 pack, doesn't make any difference to me.

...pretty sure that covers all I was hoping to get as far as information is concerned. Thank you much. And again, I'm sorry if I have broken any rules. I did try to read all that was offered in order to adhere to all the guidelines, but considering my intelligence level, that still leaves me a favorite to have done something wrong.

Team Twiizers (group behind very first Wii exploit [Twilight Hack], the Homebrew Channel, BootMii and a bunch of later exploits [as well as dozens of "behind the scenes" exploits used in stuff like the HackMii Installer], as well as running the HackMii blog detailing some of the more technical details of Wii hacks over the years) certainly had a donation link at one point, but it seems to be broken now. [bootmii.org] - the "donate" button leads to a PayPal error page.

Other developers of various apps and utilities have donation links (generally you can find these on wiki pages or forum posts for the respective apps), if you find some particular app or two especially useful/noteworthy.

I share the same feeling what Matt has put in and perhaps a lot lot of Wii owners who had not paid a penny and got this modified themselves.

Unfortunately, there are many others who are paying to some sites and those site owners are just making money on somebody elses' hard work (Is there any harder word than hard work?) The one who is paying them would feel that its that site's work or sometime after realize that they have been cheated but then the real heroes are never ever got anything back in return :o( [Crying Mii]

To add to the appreciation, this sort of cumulative collaboration behind the scene and eyes of official world is seldom seen even in commercial/professional organizations, maybe even including Nintendo, who knows!

Hats off to all you guys! Thanks to this forum as well for being in existance since a long time and helping people.