On Thursday, 30 August 2012 at 17:52:27 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer
wrote:
An interesting point of view, and I can see how paying someone
could be misconstrued. If Walter was given money to hire
people, and he hired certain already-active members of the
community, it might leave some thinking "why them and not me?"
One thing I think would pose a large dilemma is who do you pay?
Someone who is very active in contributing to D may not be able
to contribute more, simply because there are just so many hours
in a day. I'm amazed sometimes as to how some people do so
much work on D! This means we're just handing out bonuses
without getting much back.
In my view this has very little to do with money, it has to do
with time. Most likely most of us are freelancers or doing
something that isn't getting us some 60k a year (or more) jobs,
and although some of us likely are more skilled and able to take
those jobs, the economy prevents to a degree.
I would see the donations being used to hire someone NOT as a
bonus or as incentive, but to allow them to tell their work place
"hey I'll be taking a month off". If they love programming they
may very well give more than their $15-$20/hr (or whatever is
decided) wage they are accepting for the work; I know I certainly
would.
