Comment by Sir_Cmpwn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sir_Cmpwn | Hacker News Reader

I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time. The popularity of my open source projects has changed over this time, but this might give you an idea of the effectiveness of each approach if you need an alternative.

I used Gittip for a while, and it was a really nice platform, and netted me $5-15/month if I recall correctly. I left after some regulatory issues added an annoying amount of mental gymnastics to actually get money out of it. Later I built my own self-hosted platform for getting tips [1][2]. This tends to net me $20/month consistently, with occasional bursts due to one-time donations. Also, I know of at least one other installation in the wild, it's being used to support some Mastodon instances.

A few months ago, I set up a Patreon [3] where I earn almost $200/month. This is by far the most successful approach I've seen yet, though it rustles my jimmies a bit to be beholden to a proprietary, centralized service. In the end I'm still not making enough to work on open source full time. Thankfully I make enough today to break even on open source (that is, my infrastructural costs are paid for). Hopefully I can figure something out for full time eventually. It's hard.

Many thanks to the folks at Gratipay. It was an uphill battle for sure but they fought the good fight.

[1] https://drewdevault.com/donate

[2] https://github.com/SirCmpwn/fosspay

[3] https://patreon.com/sircmpwn

    I've been trying to figure out how to get paid to do open source for a long time.

Don't. Having supplemental income makes your life better in ways that quitting your day job won't. It reduces the size of your N months of living expenses and makes it easier to fill up that fund.

When you can walk away from a job it makes a big difference in your experience of it. Feeling trapped in a job you're not enjoying makes you even more unhappy. Feeling like nobody values what you do is rough. Not being able to afford to take a job doing something you'd love or really believe in, because it doesn't pay enough or has a 70% chance of cratering, is an experience I would spare anyone if I could.

But get over the hump and you're your own person. You can say no if they ask you to do something unethical. Take risks. Invest in yourself.

Keep taking the extra money. Put half of it in the bank. Keep some emotional distance from your day job. Enjoy the freedom.

I think everything you said is valid, but largely tangental to the subject of getting paid to do open source. I should clarify that I want to get paid to work on my open source projects, not just any arbitrary project. I probably wouldn't take a pay cut to work on someone else's FOSS project.

No I get that. But when it’s your day job then you are obligated. All those nice qualities as a pressure valve are gone and now it is your source of stress.

I’ve seen too many people start a Patreon and then their output drops like a rock. It used to be something they did for fun or love of craft and with a nice bonus of some extra money. Now it’s a job. One they can’t get out of.

Whoever said do what you love and you’ll never work a day was a mean sonovabitch who destroys dreams. For a lot of people familiarity breeds contempt. Do your second most favorite thing and protect the precious one.

Thanks for giving us a shot, Sir_Cmpwn! Sorry it didn't work out. Glad you're finding some success ... here's to more! :^)

What I dislike about Patreon is that they don't let you make a one-off payment, you have to give monthly.

Sometime I run into something I appreciate and want to give, but want to give once, and can't because of this.

One-off payments are nice but aren't a good basis for working on something full-time. My fosspay service allows people to pay one-offs, but those aren't very helpful for sustainability.

Also, in my experience, some people will consider you beholden to their wishes in perpetuity because they once gave you $5.

Patreon helps get around that by requiring a monthly commitment. I realized that one-off donations aren't worth it.

> Thankfully I make enough today to break even on open source (that is, my infrastructural costs are paid for).

What kinds of infrastructural costs do you have to deal with when working on FOSS (that don't apply to software development in general)? Do you host services of some kind?

Yes, I host project websites, package repositories, build servers, buy domains, etc.

Hm interesting, what do you think makes Patreon different than other services in this area?

It does seem like they have figured out something that others haven't.

Probably the UX and that it's a one-stop-shop for supporting lots of creators in many fields.

I just had a look at your projects, and pass-rotate looks really interesting!

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