Re: [gentoo-project] Fundraising for incremental service level

[Alec Warner]

On Sat, Jul 18, 2020 at 5:50 PM Tim Harder <radhermit@g.o> wrote:

> On 2020-07-18 Sat 01:00, Alec Warner wrote:
> > So I think we can, somewhat, get away from this framing. Just get the
> > community to pitch N projects and rank them. Offhand I can think of a
> few:
> >  - Replace portage with pkgcore.
> >  - pkgcore maintainer (replace radhermit; who has been asking for help
> for
> > months)
>

Ah sorry about that. Replace, is not what I meant.


> >  - Replace repoman with pkgcheck.
>
> Giving some perspective on the pkgcore/pkgcheck side of things, I'm not
> sure most people realize how much work, for example, replacing portage
> with pkgcore would entail. For a niche project within a niche OS, the
> interested base of users is a few orders of magnitude too small to move
> the needle much through generic crowdfunding.
>
> In the past, pkgcore did have a patreon account since an interested user
> kept poking me until I set it up. I think it peaked around a handful of
> patrons and dwindled to nothing until I closed it earlier this year.
> While I thank all those who contributed for their interest/generosity,
> to put the stats bluntly, I think it garnered less than a person around
> my level could make in a day's work across 3 years.
>
> From my experience in software development, the most feasible method of
> getting higher levels of work done in open source generally requires a
> company hiring/contracting known project contributors to work on things.
> For rewrite projects like pkgcore, it can be incredibly difficult to
> convince entrenched interests that funding some core replacement will
> turn out as anything more than an expensive, time-consuming moonshot.
>
> For myself personally wrt pkgcore/pkgcheck, I'm somewhat open to
> third-party funding for specific work. To be honest, I don't see much of
> a future for the project under the current development scheme so more
> quantified external support might help spur more interest.
>

I appreciate your transparency on your own efforts in crowdfunding.

-A


>
> Tim
>
>