Ask HN: Requesting Payment for Feature Requests in Github | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Requesting Payment for Feature Requests in Github

3 pointsalangibson3 comments

Does anyone know of any good services that allow developers to request payment for feature requests in Github?

There are a few bounty-based services out there

https://gitpay.me (Poor adoption; Bad behavior in the past by enrolling developers without permission)

https://www.bountysource.com (Started keeping expired bounties; Sold to cryptocurrency company)

https://issuehunt.io (Not sure about this one. Seems to have some traction: https://issuehunt.io/r)

but I'm looking for something that puts the developer in control by allowing them to request payment on feature request issues in Github. It could be as simple as adding a "Pay Now" button to the issue.

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Here's my own research:

https://gitpay.me

Doesn't appear to be too popular: "We paid $2547 USD in bounties". And no wonder it's not popular: https://github.com/gitpay/website/pull/4

https://issuehunt.io

The docs are pretty thin, so it's not clear if it's possible for devs to attach a price to feature requests themselves.

It seems to be a side project of the people that make Boost Note. The top project has gotten $7,858.50, but it's actually their own project BoostIO/Boostnote. I get that "we made it for us, but you can use it too" vibe from their site, which may be why there doesn't seem to be much ongoing effort to promote the service.

https://www.bountysource.com

It looks like there are red flags around Bountysource:

https://blog.elementary.io/goodbye-bountysource-hello-github...

"If no Solution is accepted within two years after a Bounty is posted, then the Bounty will be withdrawn and the amount posted for the Bounty will be retained by Bountysource."

"In December, 2017, Bountysource was acquired by a cryptocurrency company called CanYa who redesigned the Bountysource site and service with a new cryptocoin focus."

A simple solution would be creating an issue template [1] that just prefills the issue with a line like "I will pay $X for this feature via Paypal"

[1] https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/build...

That's definitely an option, but there are some missing elements doing it that way.

Payment should be held in escrow so the developer knows the money is available and the requestor knows he will get is feature before the funds are released. It would also be nice if funds were released automatically when the issue is closed, and that paid issues cannot be closed without approval from the user paying for the feature.

Also, in keeping with the spirit of open source, developers could/should only request payments on feature requests that the developer doesn't benefit from.

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