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The End of Gratipay

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Re: The End of Gratipay

#61

Post by chubot »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #18

I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time. The popularity of my open source projects has changed over this time, but this might give you an idea of the effectiveness of each approach if you need an alternative. I used Gittip for a while, and it was a really nice platform, and netted me $5-15/month if I recall correctly. I left after some regulatory issues added an annoying amoun…

Hm interesting, what do you think makes Patreon different than other services in this area?

It does seem like they have figured out something that others haven't.

Re: The End of Gratipay

#62

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

chubot wrote: post #61
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #18

I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time. The popularity of my open source projects has changed over this time, but this might give you an idea of the effectiveness of each approach if you need an alternative. I used Gittip for a while, and it was a really nice platform, and netted me $5-15/month if I recall correctly. I left after some regulatory issues added an annoying amoun…

Hm interesting, what do you think makes Patreon different than other services in this area? It does seem like they have figured out something that others haven't.

Probably the UX and that it's a one-stop-shop for supporting lots of creators in many fields.

Re: The End of Gratipay

#63

Post by hinkley »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #48
hinkley wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time. Don't. Having supplemental income makes your life better in ways that quitting your day job won't. It reduces the size of your N months of living expenses and makes it easier to fill up that fund. When you can walk away from a job it makes a big difference in your experience of it. Feeling trapped in a job you're not enjoying makes you…

I think everything you said is valid, but largely tangental to the subject of getting paid to do open source. I should clarify that I want to get paid to work on my open source projects, not just any arbitrary project. I probably wouldn't take a pay cut to work on someone else's FOSS project.

No I get that. But when it’s your day job then you are obligated. All those nice qualities as a pressure valve are gone and now it is your source of stress.

I’ve seen too many people start a Patreon and then their output drops like a rock. It used to be something they did for fun or love of craft and with a nice bonus of some extra money. Now it’s a job. One they can’t get out of.

Whoever said do what you love and you’ll never work a day was a mean sonovabitch who destroys dreams. For a lot of people familiarity breeds contempt. Do your second most favorite thing and protect the precious one.

Re: The End of Gratipay

#64

Post by whit537 »

whit537 wrote: post #41
whit537 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the kind words! I won't pretend I didn't put a lot of work into Gratipay over the years, but the reality is that so did a lot of other people. The most meaningful part about Gratipay for me is and has been the community building it. Gosh, I want to start naming names but then I'll forget someone. Aww, heck ... Thank you clone1018, co-owner of Gratipay, LLC! Thank you mattbk, jessa, rohitpaulk! Thank you ed…

Okay, now tell me who I forgot (I"M SORRY!!!!)! :D

And thanks to timothyfcook jeffspies calvinhp & kapilt for subsidizing my Gratipay habit these past few years w/ contract work! ;)

Re: The End of Gratipay

#65

Post by quadrangle »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

Patreon has cornered the market on funding projects which otherwise have not much revenue potential. I’ve been seeing more and more open source projects switching to that model. (The only bad thing about Patreon is no option for one-time contributions)

It's also bad that they don't encourage (or better, require) projects to release under free/libre/open terms. If the funding comes from patronage, then there's no justification to still be restrictive.

Also, Patreon themsleves are proprietary, have standard proprietary terms, and have VC-funders that expect a return which affects the potential future (unlikely to ever become a co-op or anything etc). And they strongly emphasize exclusive rewards which doesn't work well for fully free/libre/open projects (but at least they don't require such rewards).

It's unfortunate but understandable why Patreon became dominant. That said, they could easily be worse.

Key thing is that they aren't actually that good a solution to the inherent freerider problems in FLO works… it's still just unilateral donations after all, same as all membership support has been forever.

Re: The End of Gratipay

#66

Post by whit537 »

whit537 wrote: post #41
whit537 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the kind words! I won't pretend I didn't put a lot of work into Gratipay over the years, but the reality is that so did a lot of other people. The most meaningful part about Gratipay for me is and has been the community building it. Gosh, I want to start naming names but then I'll forget someone. Aww, heck ... Thank you clone1018, co-owner of Gratipay, LLC! Thank you mattbk, jessa, rohitpaulk! Thank you ed…

Okay, now tell me who I forgot (I"M SORRY!!!!)! :D

And THANK YOU to all of you who believed in Gratipay enough to freely give and receive $1.1 million over the past five years—all of the companies (MaxCDN, andyet, Stripe, Balanced, Digital Ocean, COS, Khan Academy, Klarna, Heroku, Crate.io, etc., etc.), the individuals (chrisdev, ncoghlan, adambrault, bruceadams, campadrenalin, jedgar, rdegges, therabidbanana, etc., etc. etc.), the open source projects and programmers (alexpott, DrupalCoreTeam, jmervine, bundler, jeresig, substack, zzzeek, bbatsov, mitsuhiko, kennethreitz, ericholscher/RtD, etc., etc.), and, yes, even the provocateurs (it's not your fault we didn't manage our community well).

Thanks for giving us a shot. Sorry it didn't work out. Best of luck!

Re: The End of Gratipay

#67

Post by whit537 »

kawsper wrote: post #60

I used Gratipay for a while, and I even contributed with one or two commits, I was also hanging around the IRC chatroom. I am so incredibly envious of the passion, work-morale and ambitions that I saw in Chad Whitacre, what a great guy. I am sad that Gratipay shut down, and I am sad for all the roadblocks the project have had, I used it to donate to a few projects and it was great for that. I hope Chad will find some…

Thanks for contributing and hanging around, and for the kind words and for using Gratipay to donate!

Re: The End of Gratipay

#68

Post by praneshp »

whit537 wrote: post #10

Thanks for the send-off, everyone. Feels right somehow to hit the HN homepage one more time before putting Gratipay to bed. So many lessons learned, already scheming about Next Time™. See you down the line! :D

This is a startup shutting post on HN, and everyone here is focussing on how you are an awesome person. That's a first in the few years I've been here. Good luck with the next thing!

Re: The End of Gratipay

#69

Post by Flimm »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #18

I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time. The popularity of my open source projects has changed over this time, but this might give you an idea of the effectiveness of each approach if you need an alternative. I used Gittip for a while, and it was a really nice platform, and netted me $5-15/month if I recall correctly. I left after some regulatory issues added an annoying amoun…

I just had a look at your projects, and pass-rotate looks really interesting!

Re: The End of Gratipay

#70

Post by typeformer »

schmichael wrote: post #37

> provocateurs continued to take advantage of Gratipay’s overly welcoming nature, until we had to admit that yes, online communities really do require moderation. I really appreciate Chad's honesty, humility, and transparency in all of this. I'm really glad to have these words in writing from someone who put so much effort into trying to do the right thing. I hope these words are heeded not just by the startups of to…

I met Chad and I knew right away he was gentleman and a scholar.
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