I have been wanting to write this for a while, and today I finally got to it. In a previous post on this blog, which was written a little under a year ago, I wrote about my ambitious plans to develop new features for MolView. I also wanted to develop it from scratch, because in the meantime my programming style had radically changed, and I had much better ideas about how to write software. But since there also were (and still are) other projects I wanted to spend my free time on, I promised myself I would only invest more time in MolView if it turned out popular enough to collect a decent amount of donations. This would not only make up for the invested time, but also cover service costs and allow investment in additional services (such as web-servers to perform calculations).
I decided to setup an account on Bountysource where users could contribute a monthly or one-time amount, and also vote for new features or issues that have to be resolved: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/molview. I linked to this page from the loading popup on molview.org. So far five people have donated a total of 100$ (if you donated and are reading this, thank you very much, I appreciate your support!). This is enough to keep MolView online for roughly two years, but not enough for other endeavors.
I think it is time to face the fact that MolView is good enough as it is. Based on recent estimates there are about .6 million users a year, which is something that definitely makes me proud! But right now there is simply not enough traction to support further development. I do not have time to push this more, and despite the fact that some features are repeatedly requested, I think the vast majority of MolView users is already covered by the current feature set.
New features I personally found very interesting include a more sophisticated integration of MolView into other websites, and providing MolView in other languages such as Spanish, French and Chinese.
The bottom line
I more or less officially announce that MolView will stay as it is right now, and that at this time no plans exist to change it. I will keep doing my best to answer support emails, and keep MolView online and accessible for free. I have no plans to ever add advertising to MolView.org.
Patreon page
I also moved the main page for financial support to Patreon. I made this decision primarily because Patreon is much more well known than Bountysource. You can find the new page here: https://www.patreon.com/molview. If you believe MolView is useful, and are in the position to donate a small monthly amount, please consider doing so!