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But the time I might spend working on consulting inquiries is not time spent on the daily job, on the oss project itself (especially if the request is about som

by j1elo 3y ago

But the time I might spend working on consulting inquiries is not time spent on the daily job, on the oss project itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project), or on relaxing during free time. As an oss maintainer, the way I see it is that unless the purpose itself behind the oss code is to make money via consulting, offering consulting is usually not in the interest of the people behind the code. It is oss, after all. Other companies can form around the project and provide consulting support.

brigadier132 3y ago
There are a million reasons why people write open source software. From what I read, there is a sizable group of creators that make no money from their creations and actually struggle to survive despite having such in-demand skills and I was simply suggesting one way they could get by. > on the oss projeft itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project) I disagree that it wouldn't be valuable. You can discover that things you believed were simple to understand were actually complicated or you can discover new use cases you had never thought of. But most importantly if you have no money now you can get money.
- j1elo 3y ago
  Well for that subset, I would agree with you. I mean come on, you are making oss stuff that provides some value for some people, and you are struggling to get a decent income from other channels? It would make sense to try and maximize the surface area of all potential income generation activities. But that's just a small subset of all cases, as you mention. I've lived the opposite case: consultancy was the idea, but not enough people came in, with not enough frequency. Talking generally, it feels ironic that if difficult to understand things get polished and ironed out, that source of revenue might and probably will dry out. So an incentive would exist to keep consultancy needs existing. (Edit: I am just digressing on this last thought, not talking about my particular personal experience)
carlosjobim 3y ago
Wait, if you are getting paid for adding features or fixing stuff on the OSS code, that's time spent on the project. And chances are that if somebody is willing to pay something, many other people will find use for it.
- j1elo 3y ago
  Sounds good in isolation, but as others have mentioned, in some (most?) places, accepting money like that would be considered a professional activity, and you suddenly must worry about a host of other distracting things that take time, effort, and preoccupations: incorporating, tax filings, invoicing. Or you could pay someone to manage it for you, but you're still suddenly involving yourself in stuff that you hadn't even had the interest or intention to do anyways. In my European country, for example, having a regular source of revenue [1] requires registering with the government as an independent contractor, which costs a bit less than 400€/month. Then you will need to extend invoices, with the consequence of having to worry about VAT (consulting is a service? I guess so it incurs in VAT), make VAT tax filings each trimester, store invoices for several years in case they are requested. One day you look back and think "but, but, I just wanted to spend a couple hours per week on small consulting requests!". As a consequence, people are greatly discouraged if it's not going to be a serious path to make serious money. [1]: Yes, revenue, i.e. regardless of profit, and in theory also regardless of amount, albeit in practice they won't enforce it for measly revenues if they are roughly below 1000€/month.
  - carlosjobim 3y ago
    > In my European country, for example, having a regular source of revenue [1] requires registering with the government as an independent contractor, which costs a bit less than 400€/month. I apologize, but I actually can't believe that. Maybe you have misinterpreted some regulation or base it on hearsay? If that is truly the case, then your main goal right now should be to escape to a free country as soon as you can. Either way, some paid OSS work can't count as regular income. But if the place where you live is like what you told, the taxman is probably gonna come and get you, to milk some money no matter if you followed the rules or not.

by j1elo 3y ago

brigadier132 3y ago

There are a million reasons why people write open source software. From what I read, there is a sizable group of creators that make no money from their creations and actually struggle to survive despite having such in-demand skills and I was simply suggesting one way they could get by. > on the oss projeft itself (especially if the request is about something not aligned with the roadmap of the project) I disagree that it wouldn't be valuable. You can discover that things you believed were simple to understand were actually complicated or you can discover new use cases you had never thought of. But most importantly if you have no money now you can get money.

j1elo 3y ago
Well for that subset, I would agree with you. I mean come on, you are making oss stuff that provides some value for some people, and you are struggling to get a decent income from other channels? It would make sense to try and maximize the surface area of all potential income generation activities. But that's just a small subset of all cases, as you mention. I've lived the opposite case: consultancy was the idea, but not enough people came in, with not enough frequency. Talking generally, it feels ironic that if difficult to understand things get polished and ironed out, that source of revenue might and probably will dry out. So an incentive would exist to keep consultancy needs existing. (Edit: I am just digressing on this last thought, not talking about my particular personal experience)

carlosjobim 3y ago

Wait, if you are getting paid for adding features or fixing stuff on the OSS code, that's time spent on the project. And chances are that if somebody is willing to pay something, many other people will find use for it.

j1elo 3y ago
Sounds good in isolation, but as others have mentioned, in some (most?) places, accepting money like that would be considered a professional activity, and you suddenly must worry about a host of other distracting things that take time, effort, and preoccupations: incorporating, tax filings, invoicing. Or you could pay someone to manage it for you, but you're still suddenly involving yourself in stuff that you hadn't even had the interest or intention to do anyways. In my European country, for example, having a regular source of revenue [1] requires registering with the government as an independent contractor, which costs a bit less than 400€/month. Then you will need to extend invoices, with the consequence of having to worry about VAT (consulting is a service? I guess so it incurs in VAT), make VAT tax filings each trimester, store invoices for several years in case they are requested. One day you look back and think "but, but, I just wanted to spend a couple hours per week on small consulting requests!". As a consequence, people are greatly discouraged if it's not going to be a serious path to make serious money. [1]: Yes, revenue, i.e. regardless of profit, and in theory also regardless of amount, albeit in practice they won't enforce it for measly revenues if they are roughly below 1000€/month.
- carlosjobim 3y ago
  > In my European country, for example, having a regular source of revenue [1] requires registering with the government as an independent contractor, which costs a bit less than 400€/month. I apologize, but I actually can't believe that. Maybe you have misinterpreted some regulation or base it on hearsay? If that is truly the case, then your main goal right now should be to escape to a free country as soon as you can. Either way, some paid OSS work can't count as regular income. But if the place where you live is like what you told, the taxman is probably gonna come and get you, to milk some money no matter if you followed the rules or not.