They offered an entirely reasonable amount of money for anyone who didn't live in the valley (most people), then we're flexible enough to double it when it wasn't enough.
They asked the person to sign a reasonable NDA that sounds much less restrictive than anything I've ever had to sign, and they were out? 6 months of non-competition on a direct competitor in a tech job is nothing.
This “non-competition for 6 months is nothing” is also a red flag, in my view, for the whole tech scene then. It doesn’t make it right, if common as you say, just make the norm wrong.
And you left out of your comment the point that they were not fulfilling a few promises made even before the job had started. Which is a very big part of author’s reason.
The blog author is the developer of the mGBA emulator which is free and open source... There is no commercial competition for Analogue there.
This whole thing sounds more to me like one of Analogue's lawyers thought up a scheme to lock down that project for cheap under the guise of paying for some development work.
It’s a pretty straightforward conversation. I just say what I’m willing to do. If it doesn’t work out, it’s okay. But that’s harder for enthusiasts.
I think part of this is that enthusiasts also want to help out and they’re usually unfamiliar with consulting style gigs. When both parties want to play and they’re both willing to discount/pay premium but bid and ask don’t cross even with the handicap, then this sort of thing tends to happen.
That’s why the value judgment comes in. They both want to play.