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Others have some great suggestions here, but my advice is - don't. I don't mean this negatively, but your focus seems to be wanting to share cool shit you've d

Others have some great suggestions here, but my advice is - don't. I don't mean this negatively, but your focus seems to be wanting to share cool shit you've done. a successful business sells a solution to a problem, and sometimes to solve the problem you actually sacrifice the cool shit ans just build boring code you've built 100 times before. If you're super keen, pick a problen to solve and build a conpany. Open source all the above code on github and use it as a funnel with links back to your new company site. Then you can share the cool shit, no matter subgenre it is.

keepamovin 1y ago
Don’t do this. When you open source stuff you want to monetize, people will take it and not pay you. This is not ideal, but real. If you released the code do it under a non permissive, commercial license and add license key activation and telemetry. Don’t let anyone use it for free. If you want to be generous give people a temp SaaS free tier. Don’t trade your time and IP for Stars, trade it for dollars. People will not reciprocate if you just give them avenues to free use. they will take, then act entitled if you ever charge. Keep it locked solid from the start. That other thing to avoid is companies that try to use contracts or employment to rip off your IP because they assume that as you are a developer building stuff you’re an easy mark. Protect yourself from such abusers. Many “legitimate” companies use highly shady practices to try to exploit the individual selling good IP. Just use one of the good ideas and productize the shit out of it. You got this.
- jongjong 1y ago
  Yeah, never open source your code. There are no benefits to it. I speak from experience. 1. Unless you have business connections and raised funding from people who do, open source wil not help gain any additional adoption or raise awareness of your project. This only worked in the past. 2. Hardly anybody who does happen to use your open source project will pay you. You need massive global exposure just to make a developers' standard salary... I remember for years Evan You who built VueJS was getting like $120k max in sponsorships annually (I think it was Patreon), at the peak... And VueJS was extremely popular at the time and being updated frequently... And companies got something (e.g. exposure) in exchange for the sponsorship. 3. It doesn't matter how good it is. Implementation details don't really matter. If your product is useful, some big tech company will build an inferior alternative but promote it like crazy. Nobody will even know your project exists. It doesn't matter if your product is better for many use cases; people won't know it exists so that fact is irrelevant. 4. At best, some big tech monopoly will use your open source code to train their AI to replace you in the marketplace or drive down your wages. People like Linus, DHH, Matt Mullenweg, Solomon Hykes... Who made millions; are from a different epoch and different place too. Not happening anymore. Don't be fooled. They all had to move to Silicon Valley at some point. It's a big club and you ain't in it. My advice is; if you can't sell it, keep your code and use for yourself and your friends/family.
  - margalabargala 1y ago
    If all that one is concerned with is maximizing one's finances, then yes, you're entirely correct. A developer who takes the attitude of "fuck you, pay me" for the 80 line function they wrote that wraps some API to make it easier should never open source their code. For anyone not taking these attitudes, the above comment author is either unfamiliar with, or familiar with and choosing to ignore, the point of the FOSS movement.
    - jongjong 1y ago
      Yes but your project won't be sustainable without funding. Unless you're already financially independent, won't be able to find the time to maintain it after some time. Don't be fooled, somebody else will benefit from your work. Open source is for privileged fools who don't understand reality or human nature. If you get into it with the mindset that it's for fun, you won't see it the same way in 10 years... Good chance you will be disgusted by the whole scheme. I have seen horrors which destroyed all illusions I had about the subject. Almost nobody in open source nowadays really cares about code quality or engineering excellence. So it fails on that front too. It's a pointless status game. Only big corporate projects get any exposure nowadays. The others can't form communities.
      - klntsky 1y ago
        > Open source is for privileged fools who don't understand reality or human nature. I get what type of people you are refering to, but it's possible to be fully aware of the reality of human nature and nonetheless to choose open source. There are other business models, like selling consultancy services, educational materials and such, that work well alongside open source codebases.
        andrei_says_ 1y ago
        In addition to this I’d say that the incredible abundance of amazing open source software and tools is a wonderful proof of a generous and collaborative human nature. This is a reality not less valid than the capitalistic transactional worldviews.
moralestapia 1y ago
"Just be rich, bro".

keepamovin 1y ago

Don’t do this. When you open source stuff you want to monetize, people will take it and not pay you. This is not ideal, but real. If you released the code do it under a non permissive, commercial license and add license key activation and telemetry. Don’t let anyone use it for free. If you want to be generous give people a temp SaaS free tier. Don’t trade your time and IP for Stars, trade it for dollars. People will not reciprocate if you just give them avenues to free use. they will take, then act entitled if you ever charge. Keep it locked solid from the start. That other thing to avoid is companies that try to use contracts or employment to rip off your IP because they assume that as you are a developer building stuff you’re an easy mark. Protect yourself from such abusers. Many “legitimate” companies use highly shady practices to try to exploit the individual selling good IP. Just use one of the good ideas and productize the shit out of it. You got this.

jongjong 1y ago
Yeah, never open source your code. There are no benefits to it. I speak from experience. 1. Unless you have business connections and raised funding from people who do, open source wil not help gain any additional adoption or raise awareness of your project. This only worked in the past. 2. Hardly anybody who does happen to use your open source project will pay you. You need massive global exposure just to make a developers' standard salary... I remember for years Evan You who built VueJS was getting like $120k max in sponsorships annually (I think it was Patreon), at the peak... And VueJS was extremely popular at the time and being updated frequently... And companies got something (e.g. exposure) in exchange for the sponsorship. 3. It doesn't matter how good it is. Implementation details don't really matter. If your product is useful, some big tech company will build an inferior alternative but promote it like crazy. Nobody will even know your project exists. It doesn't matter if your product is better for many use cases; people won't know it exists so that fact is irrelevant. 4. At best, some big tech monopoly will use your open source code to train their AI to replace you in the marketplace or drive down your wages. People like Linus, DHH, Matt Mullenweg, Solomon Hykes... Who made millions; are from a different epoch and different place too. Not happening anymore. Don't be fooled. They all had to move to Silicon Valley at some point. It's a big club and you ain't in it. My advice is; if you can't sell it, keep your code and use for yourself and your friends/family.
- margalabargala 1y ago
  If all that one is concerned with is maximizing one's finances, then yes, you're entirely correct. A developer who takes the attitude of "fuck you, pay me" for the 80 line function they wrote that wraps some API to make it easier should never open source their code. For anyone not taking these attitudes, the above comment author is either unfamiliar with, or familiar with and choosing to ignore, the point of the FOSS movement.
  - jongjong 1y ago
    Yes but your project won't be sustainable without funding. Unless you're already financially independent, won't be able to find the time to maintain it after some time. Don't be fooled, somebody else will benefit from your work. Open source is for privileged fools who don't understand reality or human nature. If you get into it with the mindset that it's for fun, you won't see it the same way in 10 years... Good chance you will be disgusted by the whole scheme. I have seen horrors which destroyed all illusions I had about the subject. Almost nobody in open source nowadays really cares about code quality or engineering excellence. So it fails on that front too. It's a pointless status game. Only big corporate projects get any exposure nowadays. The others can't form communities.
    - klntsky 1y ago
      > Open source is for privileged fools who don't understand reality or human nature. I get what type of people you are refering to, but it's possible to be fully aware of the reality of human nature and nonetheless to choose open source. There are other business models, like selling consultancy services, educational materials and such, that work well alongside open source codebases.
      - andrei_says_ 1y ago
        In addition to this I’d say that the incredible abundance of amazing open source software and tools is a wonderful proof of a generous and collaborative human nature. This is a reality not less valid than the capitalistic transactional worldviews.

moralestapia 1y ago

"Just be rich, bro".