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Comment by armini | Hacker News Reader

Maintainers like Denis shouldn't be asking for donations, they should be sponsored the same way Nike sponsors athletes. If you're a burnt out open source maintainer or know someone who is, I'd love to talk to you. My job is to help create awareness about the issue with companies that depend on your package. I reached out to Denis because we all know he deserves better. Appreciate any leads you could additionally share with me.

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Edit: I see you work for thanks.dev, which doesn't seem like it would cover the projects I mention below. I leave my original comment in case anyone else is interested in sponsoring the things I mention.

I'd like to find sponsors for a few non-web-related projects. In particular the Linux USB Gadgets userspace stack (libusbgx/gt/gadgetd/etc), a library for the Microsoft PST email format (libpst) and a tool for running linters/etc (check-all-the-things). Happy to chat about these over email.

https://github.com/linux-usb-gadgets https://github.com/pst-format/libpst https://github.com/collab-qa/check-all-the-things

Thanks Paul, yes I do work for thanks.dev & non-web-projects are on our roadmap. Let me know if you’d like to be a early pilot user when we’re ready for testing…

I don't use CSS/JS capable browsers, so this doesn't seem feasible unless you switch your tech stacks.

Quick idea: make a post on HN every few months so people can post projects that need maintainers/sponsors.

That's a great idea hiccuphippo! Consider it done :)

I don't know, I don't think Nike will sponsor athletes who, despite the war, returned to Russia solely due to better financial prospects.

Your lack of empathy in favor of blind group hatred is a pretty solid example of one of humanity's worst traits.

However, I'm not going to return the favor by ignoring your personal context.

Is the reason you're denouncing core-js's maintainer because you, yourself, have been subject to particularly awful circumstances owing to Russia's war? Are you projecting on him because you've been hurt? What's your situation?

I'm just shocked at the reaction from the HN crowd in this post. The guy lives in the west but returns to Russia, then blames Ukraine for being invaded, actually kills a teen girl and writes shit about her in the very same post added to HN, and blames everyone around him for his situation. Yet HN loves him because he wrote a cool Javascript library. Blows my mind.

I didn't see any part of the post where he blamed Ukraine for being invaded. There was a passage where he stated he can't publicly support either side because he has friends (family?) on both sides, but that's all I read.

The manslaughter came as a shock, yes, and I think there's more to that story than he's telling us. He probably isn't a great human being.

None of that, however, is relevant to the fact that maintaining core-js in particular and FOSS in general is a thankless and awful job.

It's possible to support FOSS, and support remuneration for FOSS, without supporting specific individuals.

What's your reasoning for saying he's probably not a great human being? Assuming what he says is true. If he had no way of seeing that coming, how is that different from blaming / judging a train driver in any way for someone's suicide or going as far to as to say they killed them.

I'll admit it's conjecture based on limited data. However, the tone he takes when discussing the event seems accusatory towards the victims, rather than repentant or horrified, which is what I would expect.

I don't think it's particularly useful to expect that someone would react the same way you believe that you would, in all honesty.

This is like saying that you're not sad about your mother dying because you didn't immediately burst into tears. It's well understood that we all process grief differently and sometimes we even struggle or fail to process it.

So is it so unreasonable that one may process any notable or traumatic event differently? I can try to put myself in the shoes of someone who is sent to a gulag for 7 months under circumstances that appear to be unfair, and I can't imagine anything except how much it would fucking suck and how actually, I might have complicated feelings that range from anger to despair.

Whether I like this guy or not, or think he is a good guy or a bad guy, has absolutely no bearing on this. It's just not useful or helpful to police someone's reaction.

I agree that his tone could be better, but if this was really none of his fault (other than being at the wrong road at the wrong time), I could understand why he writes that way given the trouble it has caused him, significant time in prison, criminal record that he will never erase and debt that translated to US standards is way way higher than those 80k and it could end up way worse, too. Like of course, it's a tragedy what happened to the girl, I think a lot of people could relate to doing stupid things intoxicated when young, especially in countries where vodka consumption is high, I do not say that the tone is appropriate, but I could understand the place where he's coming from where the girls' irresponsible behaviour severely impacted his life, he is just quite angry. I wonder how many of the people in this comment section labeling him a killer (I don't say that you did) would speak with the same tone if they were put in the exact same situation given the lack of empathy with his situation.

Is anger not a reasonable response to someone's drunken stupidity fucking up your life and ending theirs?

He's Russian. He returned home, where he was born, where he has friends, multiple generations of family, decades of memories, and could hope to find some support when shrinking his life to fit in a smaller income. Moreover, he has stated that he'll leave if he can, if that's what is required to work on open-source.

Jesus Christ.

While your argument is kinda bad, its also incorrect. They moved to russia before the current war. Also its their home country, the world isn't progressive enough that this isn't every immigrant's default choice.

Right, but it was after the invasion of Georgia, green men in Donetsk, and the annexation of Crimea? So 3 wars started in the span of 10 years and the guy returns because things are cheaper than in the west.

Well, I hope he enjoys his beloved home country now. He will have to stay there for quite a while.

Edit* looks like he does indeed enjoy it. Good for him. https://twitter.com/roman01la/status/1625254253156528147/pho...

Russia does so many bad things that by that argument all Russians should just move out. I dont know what point you are trying to make with the tweet, I have no context there.

The United States would have emptied itself out a long time ago if we followed the same rule, but somehow I don't think that's an outcome this guy feels is necessary, either.

> looks like he does indeed enjoy it

What in that twitter thread makes you think he enjoys it? The fact that he does not share a certain political opinion? Is a political belief, or lack of it, enough to enjoy life in a country?

Where do you live? I am sure we will find a moral reason to suggest that if you do not leave your country you are a bad person.

Ukraine. I can't leave, another country invaded mine unprovoked and they are killing my people so I kinda have to stay. I am looking forward to your argument why this makes me a bad person.

The point is that it DOESN’T make you a bad person. You’ve just argued the other side. A country is not its government, especially in oppressive undemocratic regimes like Russia. This is basic shit. I am utterly truly sorry for the unimaginable horrors which you are going through. I genuinely couldn’t begin to understand how this must be for you. I hope I never do. This doesn’t give you a blank cheque to jump online and foster divisiveness between two groups of people just because one of them has a fucked up government that can’t possibly be argued to be representing them.

Nike (or a more appropriate entity) wouldn't be able to sponsor him even if it wanted to, given how the ties with the Russian banks have now been severed. Another case for bitcoin, I guess?

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