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The article talks about the focus issue as well, with the "What do they want from me?" question. I think that's partly missing the point of Gittip, as is your f

The article talks about the focus issue as well, with the "What do they want from me?" question. I think that's partly missing the point of Gittip, as is your first point. All of these people have been contributing to open source long before Gittip came along, and would continue contributing even without it. Now they potentially get something a little extra for that, no obligations, no nothing. As I perceive it, it's not outright meant to be a platform that makes you quit your job and go open source full time (though Chad's goal is exactly that). It's just showing open source contributors that their work is noticed and appreciated. Full time salaries might happen for a certain percentage if/when the service grows, but I don't see that being a necessary element of the service. I see other issues with it, but they're all part of a new developing platform. Biggest one is the payments/receiving payments issue for anyone outside of the US, but I think Chad is aware of this as much as anyone. Another one is psychology of the thing. Seems like a lot of people receiving money from it experience this awkward response, as if it's somehow wrong to get money for their open source contributions. I don't know if they undervalue their work so much, but I hope they realise these rewards are to be proud of, and that they in no way signify any obligations, but just appreciation of their work. Last, an issue that's becoming more evident as the service grows, is a need for a more structured list of people on the platform and their received donations. I'd love if there was a possibility of browsing through a subset of developers, for example Ruby or Android developers, maybe by letting users fill out an additional field in the sign-up process. The effect of this could be positive from multiple perspectives. The person donating can focus on donating in the field they're interested in, and as a bonus, it would be a great discovery platform for open source projects inside that specific field. As far as people have commented, it's mostly the Python community now, but maybe grouping specific communities would also have the effect of it being more interesting to other communities aside from Python (edited from Django), and some people would just visit gittip.com/Ruby every day. In general, I love the idea and I hope it continues to grow. Good luck Chad!

whit537 14y ago
Okay, your second-to-last paragraph sent me down a rabbit hole, from which I've emerged with this: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8792611 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom... The idea of associating individuals with groups (aka communities, projects, etc.) is one of the trickiest aspects of Gittip. I feel one step closer to finding a solution that handles the complexity appropriately. Thank you! :^) (A side note: the givers leaderboard is basically ad real estate available to companies. We've already got one company, workforpie, using the global givers leaderboard as such. IMO this is totally within the spirit of Gittip because their gifts still have no strings attached and are anonymous to the individuals receiving them. Having different giving leaderboards for separate communities would create more and better-targeted ad space for companies, increasing cash into the system.)
- napoleoncomplex 14y ago
  Just my two cents here, maybe it's worth thinking of offering a more loose relation to specific fields for gittip users instead of projects/corporations, which isn't related to being compensated for being in that field. Something like the tag system on Stack Overflow, for example. Considering the broad scope you mention the platform could have in the future, it could look like this: upon sign-up, a musician adds tags to his profile, #music and #acoustic, a programmer adds #programming, #python and #opensource. That way you let your users build your categories, and your users get a nice filter for their interests, and as you mention in the side note, companies can get ad space by donating in the fields they care about. (I decided to give feedback here, since the issue is more about projects than communities, and I don't want to mess up the issue content.) Edit: I forgot to address the issue of people tagging themselves with a specific project. Maybe it's me, but gittip seems to be oriented around people, which is why I find the projects aspect confusing. I think a much simpler solution is currently in place (and maybe should be encouraged for this case in the future), where companies/teams/projects can sign up with a single account, and people can decide to donate to that account, and the companies/teams/projects solve the money split internally. I know you've done a lot of thinking on the projects aspect, and there's been a lively debate on the issue, but personally, it seems as it adds a lot of complexity to the system, with relatively little benefit.
  - whit537 14y ago
    Great thinking. Let's use the following ticket for tags / communities: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecomment-8794419 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecom... I posted your edit to the projects / corporations ticket: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8794461 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom...

whit537 14y ago

Okay, your second-to-last paragraph sent me down a rabbit hole, from which I've emerged with this: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8792611 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom... The idea of associating individuals with groups (aka communities, projects, etc.) is one of the trickiest aspects of Gittip. I feel one step closer to finding a solution that handles the complexity appropriately. Thank you! :^) (A side note: the givers leaderboard is basically ad real estate available to companies. We've already got one company, workforpie, using the global givers leaderboard as such. IMO this is totally within the spirit of Gittip because their gifts still have no strings attached and are anonymous to the individuals receiving them. Having different giving leaderboards for separate communities would create more and better-targeted ad space for companies, increasing cash into the system.)

napoleoncomplex 14y ago
Just my two cents here, maybe it's worth thinking of offering a more loose relation to specific fields for gittip users instead of projects/corporations, which isn't related to being compensated for being in that field. Something like the tag system on Stack Overflow, for example. Considering the broad scope you mention the platform could have in the future, it could look like this: upon sign-up, a musician adds tags to his profile, #music and #acoustic, a programmer adds #programming, #python and #opensource. That way you let your users build your categories, and your users get a nice filter for their interests, and as you mention in the side note, companies can get ad space by donating in the fields they care about. (I decided to give feedback here, since the issue is more about projects than communities, and I don't want to mess up the issue content.) Edit: I forgot to address the issue of people tagging themselves with a specific project. Maybe it's me, but gittip seems to be oriented around people, which is why I find the projects aspect confusing. I think a much simpler solution is currently in place (and maybe should be encouraged for this case in the future), where companies/teams/projects can sign up with a single account, and people can decide to donate to that account, and the companies/teams/projects solve the money split internally. I know you've done a lot of thinking on the projects aspect, and there's been a lively debate on the issue, but personally, it seems as it adds a lot of complexity to the system, with relatively little benefit.
- whit537 14y ago
  Great thinking. Let's use the following ticket for tags / communities: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecomment-8794419 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecom... I posted your edit to the projects / corporations ticket: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8794461 https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom...