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On Being a Free Software Maintainer

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Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#21

Post by molteanu »

vinceguidry wrote: post #12

One of the things I've started to wrap my head around lately is the essential inhumanity of technology. It's a near-daily occurrence of mine to having to deal with something that's just plain dumb, and just have no way at all to fix it. I can't make the system better, I can't make any kind of suggestion to anyone so that my situation won't come up again. There's nothing to do but to just accept it, put whatever worka…

Now I'm curious about what you have read lately. The Technological Society by Ellul was a good start for me.

Yes, there's a lot of wishful thinking and religious zeal out there, helped by the modern "we can f* up your brain and you won't even notice it" techniques. It seems to me you can spend your whole life developing some free software which gets used, among other things, to create tons of money for other people. Makes you wonder (at least it makes me wonder), if this whole thing is not meant or at least supported by the good guys and girls who know how to make a buck and can convince even your granny to learn html because knowing how-to-web it's the new literacy while the purpose might be no other than "not even third-world countries want to work at boring websites, so we have no one to do the dirty work now. How can we convince some poor souls to do it, and freely too."

I'm really interested if you have something in the department. A nice article, a good book, something that can be used to wake one from it's slumber.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#22

Post by robertAngst »

>You may not feel the joy of working on what you work anymore. You may want to move on. You may also not do that due to the sense of responsibility that you have to your code, your community, and the people who use your software.

I run a popular website, and I switched from selling books, to free content.

I make 6 figs at the day job, but put in 2-3 hours a night on figuring out new ways to save time or save money. The occasional email is nice, but its a very temporary feeling. I consider it my responsibility to society, so things will be free, but it also means only 1-2 people study this.

Capitalism and growth might cause me to change.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#23

Post by robertAngst »

kartan wrote: post #7
dingallero wrote: post #4

This has been discussed before and it has been true for me as well. I don't have a large, super-popular package I maintain, but several lesser known ones, some of which I wrote, and several of which I just adopted and passively became a maintainer over time. At some point the pressure from the community made me pass the magical threshold between fun/useful/rewarding and downright chore. It has permanently changed my…

> You'll be criticized irregardless. For me this is one of our flaws as society. When we like something we just continue with our lives. When there is something that we do not like we stop to say so. One of the best learnings I got as a manager is to give positive feedback. So, employees know how much we appreciate their job, and that we see their value. And just that one time that it does not work out, I will give t…

The download/view/session is decently valued.

Or at least I value it.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#26

Post by mikekchar »

iamgopal wrote: post #19

What is the latest, state of the art way to earn money this way ?

Completely not proven yet, but I'm convinced: ask for it. Make it easy for people to pay you. Find a way (and reason) for people to invoice you for payment. Tell people that you expect payment even if they don't legally have to pay. Make it part of the "community ethos" that payment is a natural and good part of working with the community.

Free as in freedom, not beer. Ask for beer and give freedom in return.

I have this idea in the back of my head. Where I live in Japan, in the countryside they just put up these vegetable stalls. Nobody is there. There is a box and on it is say "100 yen" (about 1 dollar US). There are bags of fruit and vegetables. You take a bag and you put a 100 yen coin in the box. Not rocket science and nobody who isn't starving won't put the coin in (and if you are starving, take the damn fruit!)

You don't need leverage, you need it to be the norm that people pay for the software. That requires a cultural shift. Luckily, community cultures can be crafted (I think... maybe I'm wrong). People need to feel that if they pay for the software, you will make more (which they want). If they don't pay for the software, you will not make more (which they do not want). I think that's all it probably takes to earn money at this. I think... One day I'll test that theory.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#27

Post by [deleted] »

mikekchar wrote: post #26
iamgopal wrote: post #19

What is the latest, state of the art way to earn money this way ?

Completely not proven yet, but I'm convinced: ask for it. Make it easy for people to pay you. Find a way (and reason) for people to invoice you for payment. Tell people that you expect payment even if they don't legally have to pay. Make it part of the "community ethos" that payment is a natural and good part of working with the community. Free as in freedom, not beer. Ask for beer and give freedom in return. I have…

[deleted]

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#28

Post by vinceguidry »

molteanu wrote: post #21
vinceguidry wrote: post #12

One of the things I've started to wrap my head around lately is the essential inhumanity of technology. It's a near-daily occurrence of mine to having to deal with something that's just plain dumb, and just have no way at all to fix it. I can't make the system better, I can't make any kind of suggestion to anyone so that my situation won't come up again. There's nothing to do but to just accept it, put whatever worka…

Now I'm curious about what you have read lately. The Technological Society by Ellul was a good start for me. Yes, there's a lot of wishful thinking and religious zeal out there, helped by the modern "we can f * up your brain and you won't even notice it" techniques. It seems to me you can spend your whole life developing some free software which gets used, among other things, to create tons of money for other people.…

The Bible. Wish I could offer something more accessible. But a better read on the nature of hells, belief, faith, false gods, and how to find a true path to salvation can't be found. Haven't picked mine up in awhile. Should probably fix that.

I spend my time these days writing rather than reading. Chasing my own muse. Quora is my usual outlet, though I'll occasionally feel compelled to comment on HN.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#29

Post by mikekchar »

dingallero wrote: post #4

This has been discussed before and it has been true for me as well. I don't have a large, super-popular package I maintain, but several lesser known ones, some of which I wrote, and several of which I just adopted and passively became a maintainer over time. At some point the pressure from the community made me pass the magical threshold between fun/useful/rewarding and downright chore. It has permanently changed my…

> useless code of conduct

#Code of Conduct

This is not a community project. This is my project. I know that will disappoint some people, but I do this for fun in my own spare time. If it stops being fun, I will stop working on it, which will pretty much kill the project. There are millions of projects in the world and the only reason they continue (if they actually do) is because the maintainers stubbornly stick at it.

With that in mind, here is the code of conduct: If it is fun for me then it is good. If it is not fun for me, then it is not good.

Things I find fun include: Bug reports that explain what you saw and what you expected to see. Suggestions for features that would make your life better. Stories of how the software so far has already made your life better. Entertaining stories of how you used the software (bonus points if it includes pictures of cats). Offers to volunteer to improve something (super bonus points if you actually improve it). Questions about how the software works. Offers to write documentation (super, executive class bonus points if you actually write some). Answering questions that other people ask (bonus points if you get the answers right).

Things I don't find fun: Drama. That is all.

To some extent, I will accept drama in exchange for money. But it has to be a lot of money. Think FANG level money. If you don't have FANG level money that you are willing to give me in exchange for drama, just don't do it -- even if you think it is the most important thing in the world.

There is no other code of conduct. I may arbitrarily declare some things fun for me and some things not fun. Please pay attention when I declare one way or the other and act accordingly.

Thank you.

Re: On Being a Free Software Maintainer

#30

Post by zimbatm »

StavrosK wrote: post #2

This has not been my experience. I maintain various popular and not-so-popular projects (although maybe not to the level of gnome calendar) and I just work as much as I want. If I don't feel like handling an issue right then, I say I won't have time soon and that PRs are appreciated. The vast majority of people are understanding, I don't remember anyone making a fuss about it.

Do you ever have a problem saying no to people?

Some times I am wrangling internally and that has an emotional cost. I find that being super crystal clear on where I stand is absolutely necessary to be able to say no.

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