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The notion of charging people to be part of the community seems like a terrific way to immediately kill any semblance of community. Realistically, the only peo
by morgante 9y ago
The notion of charging people to be part of the community seems like a terrific way to immediately kill any semblance of community.
Realistically, the only people who will pay a membership fee are those who can charge it to a company. That means you'll lose all the people hacking on the project in their free time.
Personally, I contributed a lot more to open source when I was in college and had more free time than money. There's no way I would have paid to be able to contribute.
The solution is really just to have lower expectations on maintainers, both around timely responses/support (want fast support, pay for it) and improvements. They can and should also be more liberal with adding maintainers.
- erikpukinskis 9y agoAre you sure? If what you're saying is true, wouldn't that mean it would be impossible for any business to have a "sense of community" around it?
- gkya 9y agoNo. The community around a business is their customers who dont contribute directly to the product itself, but to the general economy, knowledge and hype around it. You pay to buy the product and probably wouldnt work on it in behalf of the producer for free on your free time.
- peterwwillis 9y agoTo be part of a community you need to have the same stake as everyone else. Businesses don't have communities, they have customers.
- icebraining 9y agoA community can still be formed amongst your customers, and make your product better. Game mods are a good example.