4 ms·

So in your mind, hacktoberfest's marketing strategy isn't "let's sponsor a big public pro open source event so we get lots of good rep especially among open sou

So in your mind, hacktoberfest's marketing strategy isn't "let's sponsor a big public pro open source event so we get lots of good rep especially among open source enthusiasts and potential hires"... But instead it's some weird ass 5 year long-play betting that random indian students will, in the future, have purchasing power to choose Digital Ocean because they got a free shirt half a decade prior. "Generalising" isn't the word I would use.

alanbernstein 6y ago
The people who are already making helpful contributions to open source don't need any additional incentives...?
- majewsky 6y ago
  But it's still nice to get some recognition. And it would be a better play for DO. If they sent out 100000 t-shirts to those people who made the most accepted PRs over the last year, they'd hit a lot more longterm contributors and also get a better bang for their marketing buck.
- halfdan 6y ago
  No, but people new to programming might enjoy a month of supported learning and get a gentle introduction to open source along the way. Let's not generalise in either direction. There are plenty of people who try to make meaningful contributions as part of Hacktoberfest.
- scrollaway 6y ago
  People are constantly (and rightfully) on companies' asses talking about how they need to "give back to open source". Now you're telling me things are fine as-is. They're not.
  - domenicd 6y ago
    If they want to give back to open source, they could use the money they're spending on seventy thousand t-shirts to sponsor projects or pay maintainers.
    - scrollaway 6y ago
      They do. https://www.digitalocean.com/open-source/ https://www.digitalocean.com/open-source/ Please stop telling people how to spend their money.
dmurray 6y ago
Maybe their original plan was to build good will in the Open Source community. But it's a story of bad incentives: the bycatch turned out to be valuable and now they find it difficult to change their methods (as evidenced by their extremely anaemic response to tackling the problem).

alanbernstein 6y ago

The people who are already making helpful contributions to open source don't need any additional incentives...?

majewsky 6y ago
But it's still nice to get some recognition. And it would be a better play for DO. If they sent out 100000 t-shirts to those people who made the most accepted PRs over the last year, they'd hit a lot more longterm contributors and also get a better bang for their marketing buck.
halfdan 6y ago
No, but people new to programming might enjoy a month of supported learning and get a gentle introduction to open source along the way. Let's not generalise in either direction. There are plenty of people who try to make meaningful contributions as part of Hacktoberfest.
scrollaway 6y ago
People are constantly (and rightfully) on companies' asses talking about how they need to "give back to open source". Now you're telling me things are fine as-is. They're not.
- domenicd 6y ago
  If they want to give back to open source, they could use the money they're spending on seventy thousand t-shirts to sponsor projects or pay maintainers.
  - scrollaway 6y ago
    They do. https://www.digitalocean.com/open-source/ https://www.digitalocean.com/open-source/ Please stop telling people how to spend their money.

dmurray 6y ago

Maybe their original plan was to build good will in the Open Source community. But it's a story of bad incentives: the bycatch turned out to be valuable and now they find it difficult to change their methods (as evidenced by their extremely anaemic response to tackling the problem).