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Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

ringerhq.com

21–30 of 58 posts

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#21
post #11

The FOSSjobs wiki tracks various resources for getting paid to work on open source. I added Ringer there just now, in the freelancing section, which has several other things, but nothing as general as Ringer. https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources

Thanks you!

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#22
Congrats on what you've built so far. I'm curious if you have ideas or plans on how to gauge and communicate demand for experts for an open source project you don't have listed yet. It would be cool as a project contributor to know where unmet expert needs are in the community.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#23
post #16
post #12

What about FOSS one knows well and can support but hasn't coded for? Like, I'm real good at Samba and GlusterFS and Hylafax - and/or they may not even be on GitHub? Excellent work here, going in the right direction.

If you are really good at Samba, join their commercial support providers list. Lots of big projects have similar things. https://www.samba.org/samba/support/ Edit: GlusterFS has one too: https://www.gluster.org/community/consultants/ Edit: unfortunately iFAX doesn't list other companies on the HylaFAX support page, but probably being active on their community support could get customers. https://www.hylafax.org/suppo…

I am, and do.

I'm wondering what Ringer will do for these kind of case.

Or if Ringer is only for GitHub libraries, or smaller projects or...

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#24
Looking at your ToS:

https://www.ringerhq.com/terms-of-service

Why won't you notify about changes to the terms? At minimum a notice at login would be a good idea.

Maybe add some links to Wikipedia for the (presumably USA?) laws users are prevented from using the site when affected by the laws.

Wow, it is long. Please add a summary to https://tosdr.org/ :)

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#25
post #24

Looking at your ToS: https://www.ringerhq.com/terms-of-service Why won't you notify about changes to the terms? At minimum a notice at login would be a good idea. Maybe add some links to Wikipedia for the (presumably USA?) laws users are prevented from using the site when affected by the laws. Wow, it is long. Please add a summary to https://tosdr.org/ :)

Hi pabs3, thanks for your comments! We already have an improved "clear English" version of the ToS, which you will be glad to hear includes updates on changes going through review now - getting the legals right has been a really big deal for me, especially to make sure they are fair to everyone!

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#26
post #24

Looking at your ToS: https://www.ringerhq.com/terms-of-service Why won't you notify about changes to the terms? At minimum a notice at login would be a good idea. Maybe add some links to Wikipedia for the (presumably USA?) laws users are prevented from using the site when affected by the laws. Wow, it is long. Please add a summary to https://tosdr.org/ :)

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#27
post #12

What about FOSS one knows well and can support but hasn't coded for? Like, I'm real good at Samba and GlusterFS and Hylafax - and/or they may not even be on GitHub? Excellent work here, going in the right direction.

Hey! So this is something that we are really interested in, and want to support. I've had about a dozen conversations about this, especially where someone has created packages for a larger piece of software which necessitates a deep knowledge of the core project.

I want to allow it, but I need to work out a way to do so whilst making sure that we don't end up with a free for all - that means manual review perhaps, but I agree that it would be very helpful if we can make it work.

Re GitHub - we've built on GitHub initially but would love to extend to other platforms in time!

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#28
Is this right? Experts in software like Jest and Storybook think an hour of specialized consulting in the software is worth only $116? There's definitely a market opportunity if this is true, but it seems too good.

I do think there's a challenge in that... as a developer, paying $58 for half an hour that may save me 8 hours is a no-brainer, but this feels like a difficult thing to ask "the boss" to pay for. It gives off Fiverr vibes, and usually there's much more ceremony around billing contractors/consultants.

But if you pitch this to big business needing big support (a context in which this feels like a stupidly good deal), it may also drive up the price by changing the expectation from the ringers as to what they are providing.

I'm rambling, I know... I wish you luck. I'm definitely watching this space. It seems like you've found a definite potential market, but I think it's going to be hard to capture it.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#29

Is this right? Experts in software like Jest and Storybook think an hour of specialized consulting in the software is worth only $116? There's definitely a market opportunity if this is true, but it seems too good. I do think there's a challenge in that... as a developer, paying $58 for half an hour that may save me 8 hours is a no-brainer, but this feels like a difficult thing to ask "the boss" to pay for. It gives…

OK - this is something that I am going to work on. Traditionally marketplaces have been a race to the bottom, and I think (in fact know, through conversations) that many developers don't necessarily know the market rate for their skills. Some absolutely do (Shout out to KrauseFx https://www.ringerhq.com/i/fastlane/fastlane).

I do think there is a balance, especially when the request comes from an individual vs a business and we're actively looking into ways to solve this. I have partially realised that educating developers on value driven pricing is going to be part of my job now!

Thanks for the well wishes!

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#30
Cool project. I signed up to be an expert on my repos however I think I don't show up to potential clients until I add my stripe details.

I've tried platforms like this and have secured basically zero revenue from any of them so I'm hesitant to go through the whole stripe setup process unless I get some confirmed work out of it.

So my suggestion is to allow maintainers/dev to show up to potential clients before having them go through the whole stripe process.

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