Send a tip for no reason at all

TipMe is a minimalist social experiment about generosity without a reason. Most payment pages on the internet ask you for money in exchange for something: a subscription, a download, a course, a coffee that someone else drinks. Here there is no product, no reward, no hidden upsell and no membership tier waiting behind the button. You give a small amount of money simply because you felt like being generous for ten seconds, and the whole internet gets to watch it happen on a public wall of messages.

The idea started as a question. If you remove every incentive from an online donation, does anyone still give? Does a person send a euro to a stranger when there is absolutely nothing in it for them, not even a thank-you email or a discount code? Every tip that lands on this page is a small answer to that question, and the live counter at the top of the tip jar is the running score of the experiment.

Everything is deliberately simple. There is no account to create, no password to remember and no newsletter that follows you around afterwards. You pick an amount, you pay with your card through Stripe, you optionally write your name and a short message, and you are done. The page updates in real time, so your message appears on the wall the second the payment is confirmed.

People tip for reasons that make very little economic sense and perfect emotional sense. Some people send a euro because the idea made them laugh in the middle of a bad day. Some do it to test whether the counter really moves in real time. Some want to see their name sitting on a public wall next to strangers from another continent. Some simply like the feeling of giving something away with no strings attached, which is rarer online than it should be.

That is the interesting part of the experiment. Generosity usually comes wrapped in a transaction: you support a creator, you buy a coffee, you unlock a reward. When you strip all of that away, what is left is a very small, very human gesture. A euro is not going to change anyone's life, but a wall full of euros from a hundred different people says something about how the internet behaves when nobody is selling anything.

There is also no pressure to take part. Reading the wall, watching the counter and leaving without spending a cent is a completely valid way to use this site. The experiment works either way.

Every confirmed tip can carry a name and a short public message, and all of them are collected on the supporters wall. Messages appear in real time, so if you keep the page open you will see new tips arrive as they happen, along with the total amount raised and the number of supporters.

You can like the messages you enjoy and report anything that does not belong there. Reported messages are reviewed automatically, an automatic word filter blocks offensive language before publication, and any message that collects several reports is hidden from the wall. Larger tips earn a small badge next to the name, from Supporter to Generous to Patron, which is the only reward this site will ever hand out.

If you prefer not to appear at all, leave the name field empty and your tip will be listed as anonymous while still counting towards the total.

All payments run through Stripe over an encrypted HTTPS connection. TipMe never receives or stores your card number, expiry date or security code; the only payment data kept is the amount, the currency and a reference identifier used to confirm the tip and mark it as paid.

Tips are voluntary contributions in euros, not purchases, so there is no product to deliver and no invoice for goods. Because a tip is a gift rather than a sale, contributions are generally non-refundable, although genuine mistakes such as a duplicate charge or an amount typed by accident can be reviewed by contacting us through the details in the legal notice.

The public wall only ever shows what you choose to publish: a display name and a message. Your email address, if Stripe collects one for the receipt, is never displayed on the site. Full details about data processing, retention periods and your rights are set out in the privacy policy and the cookie policy.