It happens all the time, a maintainer quits/abandons some opensource project due to economic realities. There are comics, jokes, threads, and so on about what the realities of maintaining opensource software are and that most people are not willing to donate or contribute in any way besides opening issues.

There is a lot of resistance to stuff like the business source license, but people do have to earn a living somehow. Doing so with opensource would be amazing. In lieu of the contested licence, could a template similar to Reminna’s actually work? Basically “pay to get this fixed/implemented, make a PR, or it’s low priority/ ‘I will get to it when I get to it’”.

Relevant part of template 
### Contributions

In return, or to fix this issue, I'd be willing to:

 - [ ] Fix this myself.
 - [ ] [Donate](https://remmina.org/donations/) ___ and/or have donated ___ towards fixing it.
 - [ ] Take a donation of ___ to fix it.
 - [ ] Update the [documentation](https://remmina.gitlab.io/remminadoc.gitlab.io/md__c_o_n_t_r_i_b_u_t_i_n_g.html).
 - [ ] Update the [wiki](https://gitlab.com/Remmina/Remmina/-/wikis/home).
 - [ ] Translate Remmina in my native language(s) (___) on [Hosted Weblate](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/remmina/remmina/).

Anti Commercial-AI license

  • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
    82·
    1 day ago

    The moment that money can be used to cut the line, we’ll see the same effect as we do in every other part of society. Those with money to burn will spend and shape whatever projects interest them. Or, more importantly, startups with funding could use the bounty system to submit priority features and send competing open-source software down rabbit holes. It would be a very poor idea.

      • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
        11·
        8 hours ago

        It’s not about “agency”, exactly. It’s the fact that once you offer labor for money, it’s only logical to offer labor in the way that brings in the most money. That allows bad actors to influence what labor is performed by way of payment. It could lead to dependence on those bad actors and projects getting torpedoed that could be beneficial to the masses.

    • ericjmorey@programming.dev
      3·
      1 day ago

      This seems too black and white a prognosis. I think it’s not a popular method of funding development because the sponsorship/patronage method seems like it already does a better job of providing stability without making a transactional relationship.