D-etractions A real world programmers view on D

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

On 30/08/12 14:21, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> Um what?  If someone wants to solicit donations in order to work on D, there is
> *nothing* that we can do to stop that.

I'm not saying that you can or should stop independent individuals soliciting 
donations.  It's just something where everyone concerned needs to think a bit 
about how it can affect the dynamic of the project.

In this case, someone was suggesting that a donation drive be organized by the 
project, to pay developers to work on something.  That's something a bit 
different, because it's _the project_ saying who gets paid, and for what.  It 
can work, but it can mean people are less motivated to volunteer, because gosh, 
the project can afford to _hire_ people to do this now.

> What do we do, reject that contributor?  I think that's a much worse plan of
> action.  D needs all the help it can get, and if someone can only contribute
> full time if he gets paid, and people are willing to pay him, GREAT!

That's why I said it makes a difference whether payment is organized by 3rd 
parties, or the project itself.  (In the case of the project I referred to, it 
was technically one developer soliciting for donations, but he was so core to 
the project that it felt a bit different to some people.)

> I fail to see how this story has any moral except, "some people hate money".
> Which really isn't most of us here.  Myself in particular, I have very little
> time to work on D because I have a full time job so I can support my family, and
> a paying side gig.

Yes.  Now consider how you might react if the parts of D you were contributing 
to were also being worked on by people who the D project was paying for.  You 
might well feel, "Well, that stuff already has sufficient resources dedicated to 
it, so I'm going to use my limited free time for something else."  That's not 
hating money, just a rational reaction to the fact that your limited volunteer 
time should be put where it's needed most.

But if enough volunteer contributors react like that, the project suffers.

Simon Phipps (former Sun Open Source chief, now on the OSI board) has written an 
interesting article about the dynamics of money in open source projects, worth 
reading:
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/09/should-you-donate-to-open-source-projects/index.htm