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Comment by drvdevd | Hacker News Reader

The author mentioned receiving an email personally requesting a bugfix due to the requestors' deadline. Now, I don't have any projects as big as Redis I'm building, or even Python - my OSS contributions are here and there small things mostly just for fun and learning and I've been into it for a long time, and I can say I feel it's perfectly reasonable to tell such a person, "Sure. If you send me X BTC at the following address, I will prioritize this for you." In fact I think this should be a common response.

[edit] the significance of my being into OSS for such a long time is I can say I don't think the environment used to be so hostile for maintainers as it is now

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It happens to me, and there are two consequences: 1) your email becomes kinda of a Twitter timeline, you from time to time cherry-pick emails to reply to, because they are too many that require a personal direct reply, and it is impossible to cope. 2) You have to make a decision, if you want to prioritize for money, you are likely not going to do the best for the user base: it is perfectly reasonable but not my pick since I'm already sponsored to do my work. However it is very likely that you get a money offer to put into the project something you don't like, and this is going to be actively bloating the project. Not an easy one.

Now that does sound like a difficult situation to handle. I'd like to think I'd always choose the high road and say, "code quality first!" But personally I probably would not always do that when there's a strong financial incentive on the line (if I'm going to be honest with myself).

> Sure. If you send me X BTC at the following address, I will prioritize this for you

That sounds like a good recipe for getting into trouble because of tax fraud if it gets public. And even you are in the position to accept the money (e.g. by being self employed) it would not be worth the effort. If you charge a low sum the overhead will make it not pracitable and if it's a large sum no individual will want to pay you and companies will often not be able to pay you.

Also, if you are already otherwise employed, any such work is basically overtime expert consulting work. It has to pay well, otherwise it does not make any sense for you to shoulder any extra responsibility and hassle of getting things done in the agreed time frame.

It's only fraudulant if you don't report it. And you should charge the highest possible sum you can, IMO, or whatever sum you choose if you're being charitable. In such a hypothetical case - it's your project and so the upper limit is the value you place on your own time and energy. Also, since it's OSS anyway, there is no price set to compete against.

Part of the point of setting a high bar would be to either:

1) receive adequate compensation or 2) get the company that can't afford to pay you to contribute in some other manner

Yes, but reporting it may not be simple (depends on your country). Here you would need to have a registered business to be able to charge for it and to report it. And having a registered business besides your primary job requires agreement from your employer.

In the US anyone can be a sole proprietor at any time, at no cost.

As I read it, he was offered money to fix it. But he said he didn't had the time.

Ah OK, I missed that. Well I suppose even with such an offer, the onus is still on the person making such a request to remain civil if "No" is still the answer.

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