There's a problem in the D economic system

[Chris]

On Thursday, 25 July 2019 at 00:21:49 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
>
> 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.
> ====

When did this correspondence take place? Here's what Mike wrote 
earlier:

"I talked with a company a few weeks back that wants to offer 
bounties for several Bugzilla issues. I'm currently awaiting news 
that they have approval for it and know what their budget is. 
When I get the word I'll be setting up a bounty system on 
Flipcause. The company will seed it, applying money to the issues 
they care about. Anyone will be able to donate to those issues or 
request to set up a bounty on other issues. The Foundation will 
then be able to pay out bounties to anyone who fixes those 
issues."

So whose idea was the bounty system? Was it triggered by the 
company that approached Mike or was it triggered by Basiles email 
as your reply suggests? Did Basile approach you before the "few 
weeks back" that Mike mentions in his post above? It's 
mind-boggling.

> 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.
> ====

Same questions as above and also consider this (Mike again):

"Unfortunately, I can't estimate when the bounty system will be 
ready because it depends on the company. However, if anyone is 
willing to apply a bounty to an issue right now, then they can 
let me know and I can launch it sooner. I just need a specific 
Bugzilla issue and a dollar amount to get it started."

The system is apparently in place but not (yet) public. Since 
when exactly has it been in place?

> We wanted to avoid creating the precedent that contributors ask 
> for
> money for working on issues of their choosing.

But this is basically how a bounty system works. Wouldn't this 
ensure that at least the bugs people choose get fixed? How would 
you handle this instead? A: See who's first to finish? If various 
people are working on the same issue at the same time, 
independently of each other, you're wasting resources. B: Assign 
issues to people? Won't work.

I'd say apart from having a bounty system, you might consider 
setting up a DLF specific system where you offer issues with a 
price tag (based on the degree of difficulty and / or priority). 
An easy and transparent system. You just have to avoid duplicates 
in the Flipcause and DLF system.

> The fact that the amount
> requested was unspecified is important, too - accounting for 
> $50 vs.
> $500 vs $5000 goes differently.

D'accord, you need some sort of security there.

> 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.

No comment.