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60% of Open-Source Maintainers Are Unpaid: It's Concerning & What We Can Do About it
(programming.dev)
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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We could monetize and enshitify it like everything else. We could ask if they take donations like good little neolibs. Or, we could consider that some people don't need or want to be paid for their incremental contributions to society then leave alone the developers of the best software around.
Developers need to eat and pay rent.
What’s bad about (politely) asking for donations? After all, why not let people who really want to support the free software you’re creating do so even if they can’t code?
You're right, the profit motive isn't necessary. Instead, how about we guarantee them food, water, shelter, and healthcare? Once they aren't worrying about that, I bet they'll have plenty of time to maintain their code!
If they didn't have the basics covered they'd not be volunteers. If they wanted money they're already soliciting. I'd bet most would say as I say when I volunteer, "Donate anonymously to XYZ organization."
But, I'd be on cloud nine if all were guaranteed water, food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, and recreation. It's been the consistent US left platform for eighty years.