Many server owners take plugins for granted and never seem to appreciate all the work that developers put into making them great. I have ran multiple servers over the past 3 years now and I myself am ashamed to say I have not donated a single dime back to them. We use their plugins and in return we get donations to fund our servers and a little bit more (lets be honest now), I know that hundreds of servers are bringing in about 5k-75k+ monthly and yet they still do not give back to the people who truly have helped their servers.

Not only do I not see any donations going to plugin developers but I also question why projects like Bukkit do not recieve more donations (they barely get any as it is). Most multiplayer servers would not be possible without Bukkit, server owners demand updates as soon as a new Minecraft version is released and expect it to be perfect. It’s understandable that they won’t get what it takes to update Bukkit to a new version of Minecraft (I don’t even myself), but how do they think the developers of the project deserve to be harassed for pouring their hearts and souls in to a public project that gets them absolutely nothing but grief? If you make a profit off of your server that can only run because of the Bukkit project then you should be throwing a little money their way.

People don’t realize how far even a small donation like $5 goes with developers. That’s a pizza right there to eat while they code! Getting the donation gives them the drive to continue to improve their plugins and let’s them know that people do appreciate the work. 

So take sometime to think about this and maybe next time give back, I know I will.