4 ms·

>Oddly, I've found some other FOSS projects that I wanted to get some help with -- and led with "I'll pay you to pair-program with me for like four hours and an

>Oddly, I've found some other FOSS projects that I wanted to get some help with -- and led with "I'll pay you to pair-program with me for like four hours and answer my dumb questions" -- I was surprised to be turned down: "we don't want to make this commercial, just file a bug" -- do you want a new bug or do you want $800? I've had multiple experience trying to pay FOSS developers where they wouldn't even accept a donation. The rationale seems to be that they don't want the increased responsibility that comes with offering a paid service.

dwohnitmok 5y ago
> The rationale seems to be that they don't want the increased responsibility that comes with offering a paid service. This is a really big deal. There's a step change in responsibility that happens from "offering free project you do whatever" to "you're paying me for a service." Even if that service is just consulting, it's still a big difference in responsibility. When it's free you can always walk away whenever you want, even if you were just in the middle of fixing something up.
- acemarke 5y ago
  Yep, I can vouch for this. I work on the Redux JS libraries, entirely volunteer. I spend a _lot_ of time maintaining them, but I'm mostly able to do that because I can _choose_ to do that work when I feel like it, with no outside pressure. Adding financial obligations would likely cause a lot of additional mental overhead I don't want to deal with. Besides, in my case at least, I spend so much time working on Redux stuff as it is that money really couldn't even make me do more than I already do anyway :) The only thing I can think of that would qualify would be getting paid a full salary to do maintenance full-time, and I don't want that either. I like building other stuff for the day job, and Redux stuff in my free time.

4 ms·

>Oddly, I've found some other FOSS projects that I wanted to get some help with -- and led with "I'll pay you to pair-program with me for like four hours and an

by JacobThreeThree 5y ago

dwohnitmok 5y ago
> The rationale seems to be that they don't want the increased responsibility that comes with offering a paid service. This is a really big deal. There's a step change in responsibility that happens from "offering free project you do whatever" to "you're paying me for a service." Even if that service is just consulting, it's still a big difference in responsibility. When it's free you can always walk away whenever you want, even if you were just in the middle of fixing something up.
- acemarke 5y ago
  Yep, I can vouch for this. I work on the Redux JS libraries, entirely volunteer. I spend a _lot_ of time maintaining them, but I'm mostly able to do that because I can _choose_ to do that work when I feel like it, with no outside pressure. Adding financial obligations would likely cause a lot of additional mental overhead I don't want to deal with. Besides, in my case at least, I spend so much time working on Redux stuff as it is that money really couldn't even make me do more than I already do anyway :) The only thing I can think of that would qualify would be getting paid a full salary to do maintenance full-time, and I don't want that either. I like building other stuff for the day job, and Redux stuff in my free time.