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Ask HN: Why are there no open source projects that focus on making you money?

Like ghost once added payment gateways after I had request it (and a dozen others). I feel like for open source projects to really get my attention they need to offer a way for me to generate income from it. I'm starting to see some paid boilerplates for popular web stacks that include stripe integrations, crypto currency, etc. and things like that, but they charge upwards of $200 for access to their private repos. If apps focused on making both hosting providers and users money would we really need bigtech subsidies? I like how nostr is doing it and stacker.news gives 50% of revenue for a terrority to the territory's owner.

keikobadthebad 3y ago
> I feel like for open source projects to really get my attention they need to offer a way for me to generate income from it. "they" don't "need" to do anything for whomever you are. It sounds like you might benefit from blocking out some time and producing a public open source project. Then when you deal with people like yourself explaining that you "need" to eat ramen noodles and live in your car so they can make money for free, you will be able to understand what is wrong.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  Well put. It's a hard pill to swallow in the VC/startup area, but Open Source software owes you nothing. If Open Source software makes you money, it's your job to ensure that it stays a stable part of your supply chain. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Open Source maintainers aren't going to let down some hidden drawbridge and invite you onboard the gravy train. It's just code, managing to create a successful project sans-monetization is a challenge in itself. I'll even go a step further; if your attention is only piqued by projects with revenue-sharing schemes, you'll be ignoring the most interesting projects on the market today.
wmlive 3y ago
When worlds collide... Money is just an intangible facility to acquire real goods of tangible value and, being only of intermediary validity, has no intrinsic value in itself. Free Software (or Open Source) is real tangible value provided by and to its users without any intermediary detours such as money. Free Software is priceless intrinsic value by and in itself. No need for steenkin' mohnay.
GianFabien 3y ago
I don't understand your question. What is the incentive for an open source software creator to make money for you and not for themselves?
- bubersson 3y ago
  In some situations the incentives align. Same as it's desirable for Youtube, Patreon, etc to pay & attract their creators. If the users of open source project bring value to the project they should be rewarded proportionally.
al2o3cr 3y ago
I feel like for open source projects to really get my attention they need to offer a way for me to generate income from it. So you're offering... "my attention" in exchange for people doing free work to make YOU money. Shucks, I can't imagine why there's not a line to take you up on that offer /s
wmlive 3y ago
Another thing most people appear to involuntary ignore: Free Software (or Open Source) allows anyone to benefit from excellent computational functionality without the implicit need having to invest any money into the basic goodness of superior free software we grew acustomed to over the decades. Free Software is about the money you don't need and don't have to spend. Money that doesn't need to be spent also doesn't need to be made, at the same time saving you the one thing that is much more valuable and scarce than anything else: Your very own life's time. The best money that can be made is the one that doesn't need to be spent and therefore doesn't require giving away one's most precious limited life time to someone else's benefit.

keikobadthebad 3y ago

> I feel like for open source projects to really get my attention they need to offer a way for me to generate income from it. "they" don't "need" to do anything for whomever you are. It sounds like you might benefit from blocking out some time and producing a public open source project. Then when you deal with people like yourself explaining that you "need" to eat ramen noodles and live in your car so they can make money for free, you will be able to understand what is wrong.

smoldesu 3y ago
Well put. It's a hard pill to swallow in the VC/startup area, but Open Source software owes you nothing. If Open Source software makes you money, it's your job to ensure that it stays a stable part of your supply chain. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Open Source maintainers aren't going to let down some hidden drawbridge and invite you onboard the gravy train. It's just code, managing to create a successful project sans-monetization is a challenge in itself. I'll even go a step further; if your attention is only piqued by projects with revenue-sharing schemes, you'll be ignoring the most interesting projects on the market today.

wmlive 3y ago

When worlds collide... Money is just an intangible facility to acquire real goods of tangible value and, being only of intermediary validity, has no intrinsic value in itself. Free Software (or Open Source) is real tangible value provided by and to its users without any intermediary detours such as money. Free Software is priceless intrinsic value by and in itself. No need for steenkin' mohnay.

GianFabien 3y ago

I don't understand your question. What is the incentive for an open source software creator to make money for you and not for themselves?

bubersson 3y ago
In some situations the incentives align. Same as it's desirable for Youtube, Patreon, etc to pay & attract their creators. If the users of open source project bring value to the project they should be rewarded proportionally.

al2o3cr 3y ago

I feel like for open source projects to really get my attention they need to offer a way for me to generate income from it. So you're offering... "my attention" in exchange for people doing free work to make YOU money. Shucks, I can't imagine why there's not a line to take you up on that offer /s

wmlive 3y ago

Another thing most people appear to involuntary ignore: Free Software (or Open Source) allows anyone to benefit from excellent computational functionality without the implicit need having to invest any money into the basic goodness of superior free software we grew acustomed to over the decades. Free Software is about the money you don't need and don't have to spend. Money that doesn't need to be spent also doesn't need to be made, at the same time saving you the one thing that is much more valuable and scarce than anything else: Your very own life's time. The best money that can be made is the one that doesn't need to be spent and therefore doesn't require giving away one's most precious limited life time to someone else's benefit.