Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 185 posts

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#101

Post by swat535 »

Am I the only one who is confused by all the recent uproar in open source? I think open source software should be created purely based on joy with no monetization expectation from the creators.

On the other hand, people using the software should have no expectations either, they should be grateful for the gift they have received. I believe the spirit of OSS should be contribute if you want to, if not, that's also ok.

If you demand compensation for your OSS work or you demand the OSS maintainer to implement features yesterday, you're doing it wrong.

I feel like the spirit of people creating software for the sake of software is fading away.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#102

Post by jakobegger »

stanmancan wrote: post #95
kstenerud wrote: post #30

I'm closing in on 100 public, nontrivial, nonforked repos on github. Since github's inception, I've received a total of $200 in donations for my OSS stuff, 1 job from a company that uses a product of mine as the foundation of their business, and many job offers from people who are familiar with my work. I don't make money off OSS, and never have (at least not directly). But I just. can't. stop. I can't. I've tried su…

Have you tried charging for commercial licenses? They can be the exact same as whatever you license it as now, but with a price tag. Relatively speaking it’s very hard for a company to donate money, but very easy to buy things. I know you said it’s not about the money, but if you -do- want to make more from it, maybe give it a try.

I've heard this idea so many times but I've never heard from anybody who actually made money like this.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#103

Post by RomanPushkin »

It won't pay rent directly, but there is one caveat. I have 5000 stars for all of my open source projects, and I have a salary way above average. I'd easily find a job with a better pay if I want to. So on average every star makes me at least $10/year when it comes to salary only.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#104

Post by segmondy »

Code != Project Project != Business

Folks keep conflating these things. Sometimes we wanna code, no problem, code! if you feel like sharing, share! Expect nothing! If you feel your code deserves more and wish to turn it into a project, cool! Projects require much more time and effort to maintain. With a project, figure out what you want. Recognition? High usage? Job offers? Whatever it is, it can't be money. If you wish to get money, then you must turn it into a Business. Don't expect millions!

It's a business after all, not a startup. but that's another discussion.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#105

Post by novaleaf »

louthy wrote: post #70
kstenerud wrote: post #30

I'm closing in on 100 public, nontrivial, nonforked repos on github. Since github's inception, I've received a total of $200 in donations for my OSS stuff, 1 job from a company that uses a product of mine as the foundation of their business, and many job offers from people who are familiar with my work. I don't make money off OSS, and never have (at least not directly). But I just. can't. stop. I can't. I've tried su…

I feel exactly the same (with ~300 forks, ~3000 stars - not that it means anything). It's a creative urge, like writing music (which I also do, and I feel the passion for both is very similar). I've received some donations, but nothing that could pay for anything significant, but I don't really see the donations as something that might eventually pay, but instead I see them as "thank you for the work", which is alway…

My project has 2 stars, 0 forks, and I also can't stop keeping it updated :)

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#106

Post by mistrial9 »

kstenerud wrote: post #30

I'm closing in on 100 public, nontrivial, nonforked repos on github. Since github's inception, I've received a total of $200 in donations for my OSS stuff, 1 job from a company that uses a product of mine as the foundation of their business, and many job offers from people who are familiar with my work. I don't make money off OSS, and never have (at least not directly). But I just. can't. stop. I can't. I've tried su…

respectfully disagree -- too broad a statement.. curl is not the same as MyFavortiePhPTableGenerator, and in 2020 should not be treated in the same ways

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#107

Post by geddy »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #103

It won't pay rent directly, but there is one caveat. I have 5000 stars for all of my open source projects, and I have a salary way above average. I'd easily find a job with a better pay if I want to. So on average every star makes me at least $10/year when it comes to salary only.

With that logic, if I have only 1 star, then I make $my_whole_salary per star! I should aim to get 2 stars, that'd be a real life changer.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#109

Post by sidlls »

pjc50 wrote: post #63
cameronbrown wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is the long tail user retention story is incredibly bleak on mobile. It's considered an achievement to get them to last a week, never mind a month.

That sounds like the "free trial" system working. Someone looking for an app for X purpose installs 10 of them and deletes all but one - giving very low average metrics.

It's more like the "one" they keep is also free, and marginally less useful or slightly more irritating to use.

Mobile app stores are a cesspool of terrible ideas and naive people who think if only they give away their time developing free software some company will notice and bless them with a job. The few gems to be found are a stark contrast.

Re: GitHub stars won’t pay your rent

#110

Post by jkoudys »

zrth wrote: post #51
jkoudys wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% sound fair? Split it 20 ways for each lib. I'm sure they'd all enjoy their 47 cents.

10% Sounds low. I can't judge for the product in question but for my programs, they are usually tiny blips standing on the shoulder of giants (libraries). So far i have never ask for money, if i'd do so i maybe would need to pass on 80% to not feel bad about it.. Not sure if you are cynical of sincere, either way, if the library devs get 47 cent from every donation driven program that relies on them, this could add u…

You're telling someone who saw years of work amount to only $96 that they only deserve 20% of that?
Post reply on HN