6 ms·

I think gittip is great, and I understand this is the opposite of their philosophy, but I want a well-used bounty program for these things. I mentioned some Dj

I think gittip is great, and I understand this is the opposite of their philosophy, but I want a well-used bounty program for these things. I mentioned some Django bugs that are huge for us that were finally fixed in 1.6 in another thread [1]. I'd have personally pledged a couple hundred dollars to have them fixed, and probably could have gotten considerably more pledged from my company. Does this tool/platform exist and I just don't know about it? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958281 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5958281 [Edit] Thanks for the replies. Pledgie and bountysource look interesting and I suppose really close to what I was imagining, in spirit. Fundamentally, I'd like to see something well-executed help formalize the process behind what motivated Andrew's awesome Django migrations kickstarter [2]. I really like the way that came together because it had the buy-in of the team, and there-by inspired confidence in potential backers. [2] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewgodwin/schema-migrations-for-django http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewgodwin/schema-migr...

GuiA 13y ago
Have you tried (politely) emailing a core dev? That could work.
- famousactress 13y ago
  You mean sending a polite email offering a couple hundred dollars to fix a bug? I haven't. In addition to seeming tacky, I think the idea behind a bounty system is that it provides a way to crowd-source the effort and I wonder if having more demonstrated skin in the game around key issues might help reduce bike-shedding, or better convey the tangible value an issue has to users.
  - GuiA 13y ago
    Yes, that's what I meant. Why is it tacky? Sure, if there were a public "official" way to do so, it'd be preferable, but if you really need a Django bug fixed ASAP, there's nothing wrong with sending a nice email to a django core dev saying "Would you be open to fixing it soon, and we'll pay you $X?". Open source developers don't bite, and they never say no to a bit of extra cash :)
    - famousactress 13y ago
      Still feels icky to me. I'd rather this stuff be public and done in a way that the community and the rest of the core team know what's going on. I'd worry that backdoor payments done this way would negatively affect the spirit of how these projects are run.
    - hrabago 13y ago
      Actually there are some OS devs who bark quite rudely that can be as bad as getting bitten.
    - embwbam 13y ago
      Wait! Read "Drive" first. Open Source is a textbook example of people working for intrinsic motivation. While offering money might make that bug get fixed sooner, it very often reduces their drive to work on the open source project in the long run.
      - hackiavelli 13y ago
        I can definitely see it having a negative effect. I don't do bounties anymore. It was too easy to get ripped off. They're basically a freelance gig with no guarantee of getting paid and no deposit to protect you when the person disappears after the work is done. Thing is I likely would have done the work anyway. Bugs are community issues that effect everyone and contributing fixes for them keeps an open source project vibrant and active. But instead of feeling good about fixing some obscure bug I felt like I'd been used by someone who didn't want to pay for a developer.
  - bhauer 13y ago
    It's interesting that you mention a feeling of "tackiness" with respect to directly funding something via a bounty system. Although my personal project [1] isn't necessarily about providing incentives to open source software development, I did recently launch a new subsection focused on motivating businesses to act out of a motive other than the profit motive alone. The motivational approach I took was slightly different than crowdfunding. Instead of directly funding the tasks you want to see completed, the bounties are donations to charity made on behalf of the tasks. They can be either made immediately to establish your level of seriousness or made when the task completes, to provide ongoing motivation. Since I am focused primarily on motivating city governments and businesses, I felt the same way as you: direct funding is not the right thing to do. These governments and businesses already have funds. If I want to sway their decision-making processes in some unusual way, my experiment is using public charitable donations. Just as a demonstration, I just created a task for this (admittedly, not really what I have in mind for my site, but I'll take whatever eyeballs I can get) [2]. [1] https://www.brianstaskforce.com/ https://www.brianstaskforce.com/ [2] https://business.brianstaskforce.com/task/385/oracle-address-mysql-bug-20786 https://business.brianstaskforce.com/task/385/oracle-address...
    - famousactress 13y ago
      That's really cool! To be clear though, I felt it tacky to pick a core dev and email them directly as opposed to making a more public and transparent commitment in some other forum. Still, I like your project quite a bit. Looks very nicely executed.
      - bhauer 13y ago
        That makes sense. Thank you for the kind words, they are really appreciated!
rpicard 13y ago
Is this what you're thinking of? https://www.bountysource.com/ https://www.bountysource.com/
- JulianWasTaken 13y ago
  Nice. I signed up, but it doesn't look like there's much listed. Also, there doesn't seem to be a way to search for bounties to work on?!
  - rpicard 13y ago
    Open bounties are listed on the project pages: https://www.bountysource.com/#trackers/48759-jshint https://www.bountysource.com/#trackers/48759-jshint
- buovjaga 13y ago
  Some others: https://www.catincan.com/ https://www.catincan.com/ http://bountyoss.com/ http://bountyoss.com/ http://funding.openinitiative.com/ http://funding.openinitiative.com/ In development: https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/
deleted 13y ago
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mindprince 13y ago
You can try FreedomSponsors - http://www.freedomsponsors.org/ http://www.freedomsponsors.org/
foobarbazqux 13y ago
I'm not convinced Oracle (ORCL), listed on both the S&P-500 and the NASDAQ-100, needs or will accept bug fixing donations, especially since MySQL is a competitor to their flagship Oracle DB and there was quite a lot of disgruntlement around the acquisition. Maybe if you gave money to MariaDB it would work.
- famousactress 13y ago
  Agreed, fuck 'em (not that you were saying that, but I am). My point was I want something like this for projects and bugs I care about in general. I don't care about this bug, but can relate to the cake-maker. To anyone not yet familiar, Maria is a really exciting fork of MySQL - https://mariadb.org/ https://mariadb.org/
  - amenod 13y ago
    Do you have some info about MariaDB adoption rates?
    - JonnieCache 13y ago
      It's recently replaced mysql in redhat builds, so it's definitely on the up.
      - ldng 13y ago
        And in OpenSuse, Arch and Slakware. Looks like to me the trend is set.
      - lvillani 13y ago
        > It's recently replaced mysql in redhat builds, so it's definitely on the up. "Red Hat's Director of Product Marketing, Mark Coggin, told various media outlets that the company has not made any decision or made an announcement about which database technology will be in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7." -- "Red Hat Says No MariaDB/MySQL Decision Made." The H Online, 18 June 2013 (http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Red-Hat-says-no-MariaDB-MySQL-decision-made-1891543.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Red-Hat-says-no-Maria...)
falcolas 13y ago
There are companies which you can pay to produce mysql fixes you specify. One of which is Percona. Won't be as cheap as gittip or something similar, but you'll get the results without relying on a bug hitting the top of someone elses' priority list.
- tonylampada 13y ago
  So Percona is able to create a customized fork of MySQL for you? won't that create a maintenance problem in the future? I mean, you won't be able to get official update releases anymore.
  - gaadd33 13y ago
    Percona already runs their own MySQL fork. (http://www.percona.com/software/percona-server http://www.percona.com/software/percona-server) They include various patches that their customers have asked for and also update it every time Oracle releases a new MySQL version.
deleted 13y ago
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tonylampada 13y ago
http://freedomsponsors.org http://freedomsponsors.org is a crowdfunding platform for Open Source projects. This is how it works: 1) Someone places a bounty for a problem (tipically an issue registered on an issue tracker) 2) More people might want to sponsor the same issue 3) A developer solves the issue 4) The sponsors verify the solution and pay the developer The FreedomSponsors website itself is an open source web application, written in Django. Funny fact - some of its own issues have been sponsored in the website. The source code - along with instructions on how to run it - can be found on Github. https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org
- famousactress 13y ago
  Hi Tony! Sorry, getting to this late. freedomsponsers.org looks totally in line with what I was imagining. I presume you built it, so thanks! I hope it gets traction. [Totally unsolicited... I'd vote to change it's name. I know it seems silly/shallow but I thought of a million and a half things that it might be before I clicked he link, and none of them were even close to what it is. (Mostly I would have assumed it to be a Koch Brothers fundraising organization)]
olalonde 13y ago
Would be cool if you could submit an automated test and your bounty was automatically awarded as soon as the test passes.
- jdotjdot 13y ago
  A little risky though, if your test is imperfect. People may work to outsmart the tests rather than actually solve the bugs.
  - olalonde 13y ago
    Yes, I was going to add a note on that but then I realized this problem (people cheating) would exist anyways as long as there isn't a trusted third party to handle conflicts. I don't think this would be a common issue though as most open source developers are not driven by the money and I don't think there would be enough money to attract scammers (would someone really get into the trouble of writing an open source software hoping to one day cheat people out of their money when they submit bug bounties?).

GuiA 13y ago

Have you tried (politely) emailing a core dev? That could work.

famousactress 13y ago
You mean sending a polite email offering a couple hundred dollars to fix a bug? I haven't. In addition to seeming tacky, I think the idea behind a bounty system is that it provides a way to crowd-source the effort and I wonder if having more demonstrated skin in the game around key issues might help reduce bike-shedding, or better convey the tangible value an issue has to users.
- GuiA 13y ago
  Yes, that's what I meant. Why is it tacky? Sure, if there were a public "official" way to do so, it'd be preferable, but if you really need a Django bug fixed ASAP, there's nothing wrong with sending a nice email to a django core dev saying "Would you be open to fixing it soon, and we'll pay you $X?". Open source developers don't bite, and they never say no to a bit of extra cash :)
  - famousactress 13y ago
    Still feels icky to me. I'd rather this stuff be public and done in a way that the community and the rest of the core team know what's going on. I'd worry that backdoor payments done this way would negatively affect the spirit of how these projects are run.
  - hrabago 13y ago
    Actually there are some OS devs who bark quite rudely that can be as bad as getting bitten.
  - embwbam 13y ago
    Wait! Read "Drive" first. Open Source is a textbook example of people working for intrinsic motivation. While offering money might make that bug get fixed sooner, it very often reduces their drive to work on the open source project in the long run.
    - hackiavelli 13y ago
      I can definitely see it having a negative effect. I don't do bounties anymore. It was too easy to get ripped off. They're basically a freelance gig with no guarantee of getting paid and no deposit to protect you when the person disappears after the work is done. Thing is I likely would have done the work anyway. Bugs are community issues that effect everyone and contributing fixes for them keeps an open source project vibrant and active. But instead of feeling good about fixing some obscure bug I felt like I'd been used by someone who didn't want to pay for a developer.
- bhauer 13y ago
  It's interesting that you mention a feeling of "tackiness" with respect to directly funding something via a bounty system. Although my personal project [1] isn't necessarily about providing incentives to open source software development, I did recently launch a new subsection focused on motivating businesses to act out of a motive other than the profit motive alone. The motivational approach I took was slightly different than crowdfunding. Instead of directly funding the tasks you want to see completed, the bounties are donations to charity made on behalf of the tasks. They can be either made immediately to establish your level of seriousness or made when the task completes, to provide ongoing motivation. Since I am focused primarily on motivating city governments and businesses, I felt the same way as you: direct funding is not the right thing to do. These governments and businesses already have funds. If I want to sway their decision-making processes in some unusual way, my experiment is using public charitable donations. Just as a demonstration, I just created a task for this (admittedly, not really what I have in mind for my site, but I'll take whatever eyeballs I can get) [2]. [1] https://www.brianstaskforce.com/ https://www.brianstaskforce.com/ [2] https://business.brianstaskforce.com/task/385/oracle-address-mysql-bug-20786 https://business.brianstaskforce.com/task/385/oracle-address...
  - famousactress 13y ago
    That's really cool! To be clear though, I felt it tacky to pick a core dev and email them directly as opposed to making a more public and transparent commitment in some other forum. Still, I like your project quite a bit. Looks very nicely executed.
    - bhauer 13y ago
      That makes sense. Thank you for the kind words, they are really appreciated!

rpicard 13y ago

Is this what you're thinking of? https://www.bountysource.com/ https://www.bountysource.com/

JulianWasTaken 13y ago
Nice. I signed up, but it doesn't look like there's much listed. Also, there doesn't seem to be a way to search for bounties to work on?!
- rpicard 13y ago
  Open bounties are listed on the project pages: https://www.bountysource.com/#trackers/48759-jshint https://www.bountysource.com/#trackers/48759-jshint
buovjaga 13y ago
Some others: https://www.catincan.com/ https://www.catincan.com/ http://bountyoss.com/ http://bountyoss.com/ http://funding.openinitiative.com/ http://funding.openinitiative.com/ In development: https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

mindprince 13y ago

You can try FreedomSponsors - http://www.freedomsponsors.org/ http://www.freedomsponsors.org/

foobarbazqux 13y ago

I'm not convinced Oracle (ORCL), listed on both the S&P-500 and the NASDAQ-100, needs or will accept bug fixing donations, especially since MySQL is a competitor to their flagship Oracle DB and there was quite a lot of disgruntlement around the acquisition. Maybe if you gave money to MariaDB it would work.

famousactress 13y ago
Agreed, fuck 'em (not that you were saying that, but I am). My point was I want something like this for projects and bugs I care about in general. I don't care about this bug, but can relate to the cake-maker. To anyone not yet familiar, Maria is a really exciting fork of MySQL - https://mariadb.org/ https://mariadb.org/
- amenod 13y ago
  Do you have some info about MariaDB adoption rates?
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    It's recently replaced mysql in redhat builds, so it's definitely on the up.
    - ldng 13y ago
      And in OpenSuse, Arch and Slakware. Looks like to me the trend is set.
    - lvillani 13y ago
      > It's recently replaced mysql in redhat builds, so it's definitely on the up. "Red Hat's Director of Product Marketing, Mark Coggin, told various media outlets that the company has not made any decision or made an announcement about which database technology will be in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7." -- "Red Hat Says No MariaDB/MySQL Decision Made." The H Online, 18 June 2013 (http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Red-Hat-says-no-MariaDB-MySQL-decision-made-1891543.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Red-Hat-says-no-Maria...)

falcolas 13y ago

There are companies which you can pay to produce mysql fixes you specify. One of which is Percona. Won't be as cheap as gittip or something similar, but you'll get the results without relying on a bug hitting the top of someone elses' priority list.

tonylampada 13y ago
So Percona is able to create a customized fork of MySQL for you? won't that create a maintenance problem in the future? I mean, you won't be able to get official update releases anymore.
- gaadd33 13y ago
  Percona already runs their own MySQL fork. (http://www.percona.com/software/percona-server http://www.percona.com/software/percona-server) They include various patches that their customers have asked for and also update it every time Oracle releases a new MySQL version.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

tonylampada 13y ago

http://freedomsponsors.org http://freedomsponsors.org is a crowdfunding platform for Open Source projects. This is how it works: 1) Someone places a bounty for a problem (tipically an issue registered on an issue tracker) 2) More people might want to sponsor the same issue 3) A developer solves the issue 4) The sponsors verify the solution and pay the developer The FreedomSponsors website itself is an open source web application, written in Django. Funny fact - some of its own issues have been sponsored in the website. The source code - along with instructions on how to run it - can be found on Github. https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org

famousactress 13y ago
Hi Tony! Sorry, getting to this late. freedomsponsers.org looks totally in line with what I was imagining. I presume you built it, so thanks! I hope it gets traction. [Totally unsolicited... I'd vote to change it's name. I know it seems silly/shallow but I thought of a million and a half things that it might be before I clicked he link, and none of them were even close to what it is. (Mostly I would have assumed it to be a Koch Brothers fundraising organization)]

olalonde 13y ago

Would be cool if you could submit an automated test and your bounty was automatically awarded as soon as the test passes.

jdotjdot 13y ago
A little risky though, if your test is imperfect. People may work to outsmart the tests rather than actually solve the bugs.
- olalonde 13y ago
  Yes, I was going to add a note on that but then I realized this problem (people cheating) would exist anyways as long as there isn't a trusted third party to handle conflicts. I don't think this would be a common issue though as most open source developers are not driven by the money and I don't think there would be enough money to attract scammers (would someone really get into the trouble of writing an open source software hoping to one day cheat people out of their money when they submit bug bounties?).