deutrino
All this patreon BS has me wondering, again, how it would be possible to get some $ to people who work on open source and - incoming twist - *don't do a lot of coding* but spend a ton of time doing stuff like testing, wrangling tickets, writing docs, and so on. All of which is critical work, almost none of which is acknowledged much less compensated.
#crowdfunding #oss #floss #opensource #freesoftware #isntactuallyfree #ineedfood
deutrino
It's bad enough in the traditional (salaried or contracted) tech space. If you know how to pound code, or even if you're a software engineer for reals, people think you need to split 100% of your time between coding and meetings. I have gotten in trouble more than once at a "real job" for spending "too much time" on documentation (API and otherwise) and gardening issue trackers.
deutrino
When it comes to open source, I have the flexibility to do what I want, which is often to work on a lot of the mostly-non-coding portions of software engineering. But of course I get $0.00 for it and my contributions are near invisible.
Github's bullshit greenfield is a great example. I can spend 8 hours testing open source software and post a thousand word update with graphics to an issue, and it doesn't count.
deutrino
For me personally, a blend of tech and something else very analog (I dream of working extensively with plants in one way or another) is probably a good setup for productive work. This would work soooo much better for me if I could get even a little dependable income for gardening the docs and wiki and issue trackers on some open source projects. And if the projects keep drawing my back - often because I use them - I'm likely to contribute code too. But it doesn't come first, for me.
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