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Dear HNers, would you back a crowdfunding campaign for maintenance of a particular open source software you rely on, which would have goals like "for the next y

Dear HNers, would you back a crowdfunding campaign for maintenance of a particular open source software you rely on, which would have goals like "for the next year, 50% of newly reported defects are solved in under a month, 90% in under 3 months"? (Surely there's a lot more details to specify to make this a reliable bargain.)

SahAssar 5y ago
Yes, if it was one of those projects that can be "finished" and that can set a clear goal for that.
bern4444 5y ago
Yes. There's open source software I love and use daily. Currently for me its neovim. What the maintainers and contributors have done is exceptional. They've breathed new life into vim (through neovim) and pushed forward broader (neo)vim development. They did (and do) a great job of setting up their goals and achieving them. Most notably with their recent .5 release which adds support for first class Lua, native LSP, native Treesitter support, and more. > 50% of newly reported defects are solved in under a month, 90% in under 3 months I don't need a commitment like this. It would add unnecessary pressure to complete something that may need more time. I feel like this would follow Goodhart's law[0] and end up leading to overall worse development progress. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law
616c 5y ago
What did you have in mind to achieve that? It sounds wonderful!
- andrey_utkin 5y ago
  "Work, listen, negotiate". Prerequisites: 1. Maintainer has expertise about the project. 2. Connection with users and knowledge of their needs and of their willingness to pay. 3. Ability to estimate project's demands in terms of effort and expenditure, given a set of objectives. (This is just a part of an expertise really; often overlooked, but crucial here.) Step 1: Based on the user needs, the estimates, and maintainer's other realistic earning options, calculate financial goals. Step 2: Run the funding campaign. Step 3: Refine the prerequisites, repeat the steps. All abstract and hypothetical here of course.

SahAssar 5y ago

Yes, if it was one of those projects that can be "finished" and that can set a clear goal for that.

bern4444 5y ago

Yes. There's open source software I love and use daily. Currently for me its neovim. What the maintainers and contributors have done is exceptional. They've breathed new life into vim (through neovim) and pushed forward broader (neo)vim development. They did (and do) a great job of setting up their goals and achieving them. Most notably with their recent .5 release which adds support for first class Lua, native LSP, native Treesitter support, and more. > 50% of newly reported defects are solved in under a month, 90% in under 3 months I don't need a commitment like this. It would add unnecessary pressure to complete something that may need more time. I feel like this would follow Goodhart's law[0] and end up leading to overall worse development progress. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

616c 5y ago

What did you have in mind to achieve that? It sounds wonderful!

andrey_utkin 5y ago
"Work, listen, negotiate". Prerequisites: 1. Maintainer has expertise about the project. 2. Connection with users and knowledge of their needs and of their willingness to pay. 3. Ability to estimate project's demands in terms of effort and expenditure, given a set of objectives. (This is just a part of an expertise really; often overlooked, but crucial here.) Step 1: Based on the user needs, the estimates, and maintainer's other realistic earning options, calculate financial goals. Step 2: Run the funding campaign. Step 3: Refine the prerequisites, repeat the steps. All abstract and hypothetical here of course.