I’m sorry to add to the discussion that you just closed, but one simple option has not been proposed, and I’d like to chime in to add a payment link to the plugin manifest, e.g.:
In plugin.rb:
# frozen_string_literal: true
# name: discourse-example-plugin
# about: A sample plugin to illustrate the simple payment option
# meta_topic_id: 1234567
# version: 1.0.0
# authors: Jane Doe
# url: https://github.com/discourse/discourse-example-plugin
# donate: taler://pay-pull/exchange.demo.taler.net/Z2KC4WB4KYKMYPFY3Q87FQ7MZPPMNV4TXGPQ0DCBT4NXGRY3GEB0
The payment link could be anything that a web browser can understand (e.g., a Stripe link, etc.)
Yes in away. As the topic closed proposed adding signatures so that DeVs if they would like can have a donate link of sorts.
Now the Op in this case I believe is proposing DeVs add a bit of code to have a direct donate link in the plugin itself maybe to provide a donate link as part of the plugin.
Which would be cool as well.
Now maybe not signatures(as in your case yes can create too much noise unless it is restricted to the appropriate related categories ).
But maybe have it so DeVs can add an optional Donate Link to the Op of plugintheme & theme-component