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Comment by xena | Hacker News Reader

I just found out about this when it came to the front page of Hacker News. I really wish I was given advanced notice. I haven't been able to put as much energy into Anubis as I've wanted because I've been incredibly overwhelmed by life and need to be able to afford to make this my full time job. Support contracts are being roadblocked, and I just wish I had the time and energy to focus on this without having to worry about being the single income for the household.

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I don't think Xena is going to promote themselves but I looked at their GitHub sponsor's page. They have a monthly goal of $5k but haven't even hit $1.5k. Combined with their Pateron they get a whopping $2k/mo.

There's a lot of love for Anubis alone, but this doesn't translate to a third of what a junior dev makes. How do we expect to turn these highly beneficial open source products when people cannot pass off a small portion of their savings to those that make the tools.

I hope you figure it out Xena. Even though I'm only on the user side of things I've liked Anubis more than other solutions like cloudflare.

https://github.com/sponsors/Xe#sponsors

https://www.patreon.com/cadey

Median looks to be higher, though skewed, so let's say 60k? That would be $5k/mo. Not to mention that a standard job includes things your hardware and things like insurance (yeah, I know, CA not US). The donations don't just cover salary but also all operating costs.

But what's your point? That Anubis creates less value because it's made in Canada? That Xena should be paid like an entry level engineer because it's open source? That there's people who make less so be happy? (Starving kids in Africa) How would you respond if your employer made the same argument to you? Or that Xena should work two jobs because one of the above options?

I really don't understand what you're arguing.

My comparison to an entry level engineer's salary was because it is a very low bar.

https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/canada

Or look at just entry level: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/levels/entry-leve...

US for comparison: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/united-...

Fwiw currently I make the equivalent of CAD$22,150 per month at my job doing marketing for an object storage company (where ironically enough I tell people how to use generative AI). US$5,000 is my goal because it means I can reach the point of indefinite sustainability (as in the money velocity in my checking account stays flat instead of trending downwards); however that leaves no room for things going wrong, life expenses, or the ability to purchase a house like I want to. My full goal is closer to USD$15,000 per month, which is probably achievable when including subscription sales with corporate customers, contract work to implement features in Anubis, and more.

However, not gonna lie, I feel a lot less risk tolerant given that my husband is currently unemployed and as much as this is the worst possible place to do this, I really would love if he got a job somewhere. It would make things so much logistically simpler.

Thank you for your kind words though! Really, it made my day better.

I've also set up LiberaPay after getting many complaints about my choice of funding platforms: https://liberapay.com/Xe/.

Generally I don't feel comfortable doing self-promotion for financial things on Hacker News. I don't want to piss in the pool that we all swim in. I've also been considering making a Y Combinator application, if only because money would let me afford to be able to take a risk.

Sorry if this is overly ranty, it's really annoying to be one of those load-bearing dependency pegs that everyone complains about but relatively few people contribute to financially. It's making me wonder if making this liberally open source was a mistake.

I really appreciate the transparency, it says a lot. And I understand the self-promotion thing, I hate doing it myself but for some reason never have a problem promoting others haha.

I do think there is just a larger problem that we're just so bad at funding open source software despite their great utility and how much of our world is built off of these systems. My partner is studying economics and I always love to introduce her colleagues to OSS and it is definitely something they even have a hard time wrapping their heads around lol.

I know it doesn't pay the bills, but I am rooting for you and do want to say thanks for your work. Not just Anubis either. It's hard, but don't be afraid to ask for help. You're not being greedy and don't let people like rekabis bully you. People having it worse off doesn't make you or what you do any less valuable. The work speaks for itself, even if as a society we haven't figured out how to make that pay the bills.

That sucks. Keep fighting the good fight, and I wish you all the best. We need people working on this problem (unfortunately).

Thanks! I just wish I could afford to work on this full time, or at least even part time. It would help me a lot and prevent me from having to work what is effectively two full time jobs. Rent and food keep getting more expensive in Canada.

Good luck, I'm sorry for all of this speculation and people attacking your solution instead of suggesting concrete improvements to help fight the problem.

Thanks. It means a lot. Today has not been a good day for me. It will be fixed. Things will get better, but this has to rank up there in terms of the worst ways to find out about security issues. It sucks lol.

I saw you touching grass, so I hope that's at least helping you get through the day <3

You are doing a tremendous job, and we are really thankful for the great work you've done. Personal matters come first though imho. Take care <3

I'll double down on what veqq said; Thoes that can, do. Those who have no idea where to start complain on internet threads.

There will always be bots, they were here before anubis, they'll be there long after you block them again. Take care of yourself first. There's no need to make a bad day worse trying to sprint down a marathon.

Is it a security issue? I thought it was just the crawlers spending the energy in solving the challenges?

As an SRE, if there's any possible ambiguity as to if an issue is a security issue, treat it as one until proven otherwise.

Please don't feel bad. There will be always a horde of noisy people who can't do anything but complain. Some of them don't know better, some of them just want to see the world burn.

You're doing a tremendous job. On a personal note, I'm not angry or anything, it's just the nature of the process. No hard feelings here. I root for you.

Hope everything goes way better and way sooner than you ever imagined. Good luck & godspeed!

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