However, as the graph shows we ended up deciding against continued use of tipjoy as a revenue stream. This wasn't because we were worried that we'd only ever be able to get an Amazon gift card (although I did spend a few minutes one day thinking what we could buy). I truly believe that the tipjoy team will get the legal taken care of and allow users to withdraw cash.
So why did we take it down? Ultimately there was some confusion around tipjoy's functionality and benefit ... and no, I'm not referring to the man that told us he would be passing our site on to his attorney that keeps a list of abusive web practices. Rather, I'm referring to actual emails from users that were concerned about our financial well-being and wanted to make sure we were compensated in some more tangible, verifiable way.
While we don't let our users decide things outright, this turned out to be a move we don't regret, given the number of direct donations we have received (we managed to trigger a flag inside PayPal and got a phone call). However, I will use this opportunity to add that if the tipjoy team made a few changes (being able to change the default payment amount, not asking users to ante up $5), I think the service would be a no-brainer for many a website.