I remember the volunteerism as being a way for non-developers, who couldn't otherwise support a project, as being able to contribute to a project: write docs, t

I remember the volunteerism as being a way for non-developers, who couldn't otherwise support a project, as being able to contribute to a project: write docs, triage bug reports, answer user questions etc. so that the developers could focus on the code, which usually was to scratch their own itch that others found useful. It wasn't ever really a hard sell, just an alternative way for less- or non-technical people to participate and also shut up whiners. As open source foundations started popping up all over the place hoovering up sponsorship dollars, that's when I recall the 'hard sell' of volunteerism starting (i.e. making people feel better about scratching someone else's itch for no money... what most of us call jobs and demand payment for)