There's a problem in the D economic system

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 7/23/19 5:22 PM, Basile B. wrote:
> This is a bold, very bold post.
> 
> I think there's a problem in the economic system of the D lang foundation.
> And because of this problem I'll stop contributing to the compiler and 
> the standard library.
> 
> Basically what has opened my eyes is this situation: like often I have 
> money problems. Since six months I have fixed something like 50 dmd 
> bugs. So a natural reflex was to contact the D foundation, to ask for a 
> little "bounty".
> 
> The reply from the foundation was something like : "we cant do that 
> because now we are a legal entity and also this would make other 
> contributors jealous".
> Ok so I propose a serious project... I even reserve **three weeks** for 
> it... No replies nothing.
> 
> So you've lost me. If someone in needs cant even get 50 bucks from the 
> foundation, in retribution for 50 bug fixes, there's a serious problem.
> 
> Goodbye.
> 
> Basile B.

We replied to the initial request for an unspecified amount of money
with this:

=====
Hi Basile, thanks for reaching out! And of course thank you very much 
for your prolific and continuing contributions to the D language.

I spoke to the other Foundation officers and our accountant. Sadly we 
currently cannot issue payment for past contributions, for the following 
reasons:

* Accounting-wise we'd need to set up a contract first, and pay for 
services rendered. It's unusual and suspicious to do so retroactively.
* If we pay a sort of a prize/bonus we'd need to make that public first 
with terms, conditions, etc. Paying prizes randomly may flag us for IRS 
because that's the obvious way people pay themselves and friends out of 
donated money.
* Assuming we get over the accounting hurdles, we need to make sure 
issuing payment to you is also fair to other contributors.

Thanks again for letting us know that payment would be motivating. This 
may be a good idea for Mike to create a bounty/prize system that we can 
offer to our contributors.
====

Subsequent to that request you sent a proposal to work on 
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19124, again for an unspecified 
amount of money. After consulting with the other Foundation officers, I 
wrote this:

====
Thanks for your suggestion, we'll keep it in mind. Setting up a contract 
for a bug fix/enhancement is high overhead, but we are considering a bug 
bounty option open for all.
====

We wanted to avoid creating the precedent that contributors ask for
money for working on issues of their choosing. The fact that the amount
requested was unspecified is important, too - accounting for $50 vs.
$500 vs $5000 goes differently.

Three hours later I got an email from you entitled "What's wrong with 
you andrei?" with the following content:

====
Honestly what's wrong with you since a year or two ? You're not the same 
guy anymore, you're not far to be hated by everyone in the D world.
Atila is supposed to replace you, I've read, but he's as you in the 
latestest months, i.e absent.

What is the fucking damn problem ?
====

Indeed I chose to not reply to that.