[gentoo-nfp] Extending Social Contract to guarantee that Gentoo will remain volunteer work

[Michał Górny]

[discussion intended at -nfp, CC-ing -project]

Hi,

I would like to add an additional clause to the Gentoo Social Contract
[1], to guarantee that Gentoo will remain a volunteer-based project
and will not turn into some kind of paid enterprise. The suggested text
would be:

| Gentoo is and will remain independent volunteer work. We will never
| pay anyone to develop Gentoo, nor will we accept any donations given
| on the condition of any particular development.

Text improvements welcome.

The main idea is to protect volunteers spending their time on Gentoo.
I don't want to learn one day that my opinion doesn't matter anymore
because a new lead (Council, Trustees, Board, BDFL or any other
possible future form) decides that they/he/she will use the donation
money to hire paid workers doing the Gentoo work that they desire.

I believe that any possible lead Gentoo might elect in the future
should still represent the whole Gentoo community, and the community
should have the right to refuse to follow the directions set by
the lead if he/she stops listening to the community. As volunteers,
we have the right to refuse to do something that in our opinion harms
Gentoo.

Sadly, this could become pointless if the leading bodies keep the power
to hire people to work on Gentoo for money. This means that effectively
they have the power to spend Gentoo money on pursuing their own goals
as long as they can legally claim that the work is done for
the benefit of Gentoo. In volunteer-based project, they effectively
have to *convince* others to work on their ideas and/or spend
a significant effort working on them themselves.

The other part is pretty much a formality, that means to make it clear
that Gentoo is not supposed to be bribed by third-party companies to
alter its course. I don't think it really changes anything but it looks
like a nice thing to state.

I should note that this doesn't mean to prevent anyone from being paid
by third parties to work on Gentoo, or receive any money on account of
what he did or is doing for Gentoo. I think that's fine as long as
the wider Gentoo community has the right to reject any work that it
sees unfit.

[1]:https://www.gentoo.org/get-started/philosophy/social-contract.html

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny
<http://dev.gentoo.org/~mgorny/>