On 30/08/12 14:21, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
Um what? If someone wants to solicit donations in order to work on D, there is
*nothing* that we can do to stop that.
I'm not saying that you can or should stop independent individuals soliciting
donations. It's just something where everyone concerned needs to think a bit
about how it can affect the dynamic of the project.
In this case, someone was suggesting that a donation drive be organized by the
project, to pay developers to work on something. That's something a bit
different, because it's _the project_ saying who gets paid, and for what. It
can work, but it can mean people are less motivated to volunteer, because gosh,
the project can afford to _hire_ people to do this now.
What do we do, reject that contributor? I think that's a much worse plan of
action. D needs all the help it can get, and if someone can only contribute
full time if he gets paid, and people are willing to pay him, GREAT!
That's why I said it makes a difference whether payment is organized by 3rd
parties, or the project itself. (In the case of the project I referred to, it
was technically one developer soliciting for donations, but he was so core to
the project that it felt a bit different to some people.)
I fail to see how this story has any moral except, "some people hate money".
Which really isn't most of us here. Myself in particular, I have very little
time to work on D because I have a full time job so I can support my family, and
a paying side gig.
Yes. Now consider how you might react if the parts of D you were contributing
to were also being worked on by people who the D project was paying for. You
might well feel, "Well, that stuff already has sufficient resources dedicated to
it, so I'm going to use my limited free time for something else." That's not
hating money, just a rational reaction to the fact that your limited volunteer
time should be put where it's needed most.
But if enough volunteer contributors react like that, the project suffers.
Simon Phipps (former Sun Open Source chief, now on the OSI board) has written an
interesting article about the dynamics of money in open source projects, worth
reading:
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/09/should-you-donate-to-open-source-projects/index.htm
