Funny thing is most top earners don't even seem to code.
Not that funny. Gittip shifted its focus solely from programmers pretty early on.
Gittip, Year Two
11–20 of 218 posts
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#12Gittip is a nice idea. But sadly, it has become a place for certain people to receive hefty monthly paychecks from anonymous patrons in exchange for incredibly aggressive and toxic trolling. Despite original intentions, this is not making an ecosystem of love and gratitude. So if its creator isn't even making money from it, it's probably better if it goes to sleep.
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#13I've never heard of Gittip nor Patreon before reading this article. Looking at both websites the website for Patreon is much more engaging and less cluttered. Gittip looks intimidating with all those small pictures and numbers going around. A good redesign for the index would propel the business more than all those commits. Love both ideas though :)
I kinda agree with you here. I have not heard of Gittip either before this post came on HN. So I visited it, and upon seeing the front page, I immediately thought that this is like a competition where the rankings of the highest givers and highers receivers were showcased.
I think that the site should show something that tipping the projects is a good idea. (Shooting from my hip here) maybe they should pick out a couple of projects and show how the tipping has benefitted the project?
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#14I feel an emotional attachment towards Gittip. Here's my story: This is my GitHub profile https://github.com/HashNuke and this is my Gittip profile https://www.gittip.com/HashNuke/ I've been writing opensource software full-time for the past few months. A few weeks ago, I checked my Gittip profile out of curiosity. I found out someone was anonymously giving me $0.5/wk, for the last 4 weeks. I had $2 as my balance. I…
In other news, HashNuke rocks! :D
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#15I've never heard of Gittip nor Patreon before reading this article. Looking at both websites the website for Patreon is much more engaging and less cluttered. Gittip looks intimidating with all those small pictures and numbers going around. A good redesign for the index would propel the business more than all those commits. Love both ideas though :)
I kinda agree with you here. I have not heard of Gittip either before this post came on HN. So I visited it, and upon seeing the front page, I immediately thought that this is like a competition where the rankings of the highest givers and highers receivers were showcased. I think that the site should show something that tipping the projects is a good idea. (Shooting from my hip here) maybe they should pick out a cou…
I agree with you about the competition bit. I immediately thought: "Oh how surprising the cute girl is in second position" (I dont have a clue who shanley is). So focusing more on how they make a difference instead of a silly selfie would be a good first step indeed.
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#16I ran a similar site a few years back (youtipit). The biggest challenge was actually getting people to give money for things they can have for free. Looking at Chads figures, I think there definitely has been a huge change in the way people respect "free" work, and are now a lot more willing to pay for it.
I hope for him (and all others in this market) that this trend continues and that more people can start making a living from free work.
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#17Let me preface this by saying: I want Gittip to succeed. I really want them to succeed. I would love to be able to spend my time getting paid by a community to develop open source software. However... those growth curves look linear, if not sigmoid. More importantly: >The Gittip team receives $20,339 per year (averaging the past ten weeks). There are 39 people splitting that money. $500 per person per year? That's no…
> $40k per year is quite close to minimum wage in California.
Exactly. In California. If you want to live off of what is basically donations for community work, you might want to relocate to a much cheaper place. Eastern Europe or South-East Asia are nice places to live on a tighter budget.
I donate a small amount every week myself, though I find it hard to make a bigger commitment to it.
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#18Gittip is a nice idea. But sadly, it has become a place for certain people to receive hefty monthly paychecks from anonymous patrons in exchange for incredibly aggressive and toxic trolling. Despite original intentions, this is not making an ecosystem of love and gratitude. So if its creator isn't even making money from it, it's probably better if it goes to sleep.
[deleted]
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#19Let me preface this by saying: I want Gittip to succeed. I really want them to succeed. I would love to be able to spend my time getting paid by a community to develop open source software. However... those growth curves look linear, if not sigmoid. More importantly: >The Gittip team receives $20,339 per year (averaging the past ten weeks). There are 39 people splitting that money. $500 per person per year? That's no…
> $40k per year is quite close to minimum wage in California. Exactly. In California. If you want to live off of what is basically donations for community work, you might want to relocate to a much cheaper place. Eastern Europe or South-East Asia are nice places to live on a tighter budget. I donate a small amount every week myself, though I find it hard to make a bigger commitment to it.
Living in cheap places is fun when you're young, but eventually you take on more responsibilities and your body fails you. Are eastern europe and southeast asia known for their health care? Are dentists cheap there? Most importantly, are they good places to raise a family?
I can totally get behind you when it comes to arbitraging cost of living, but not everyone can do that. At best, one could live in an inexpensive part of the US. Still, when it comes to children, school systems and health care are a concern.
The problem with Gittip is that anyone who wants to contribute to open source projects has to sacrifice dearly. If you're good enough to collect $40k/year off Gittip, you're probably good enough to collect 10x as much from Google[1]. If you want to provide for your family, the choice is a no-brainer.
1. After stock options, bonuses, etc.
Edit: I have no idea why this is at -2. Is there some disconnect between my line of thought and everyone else's?
Re: Gittip, Year Two
#20Kinda shocked by all the negativity here. Gittip seems pretty successful to me. Have those telling Chad to quit really challenged themselves in their own lives like this? I highly doubt it.