@dansup I like this idea; I think you’ll find that adoption correlates with free open source though. Perhaps keep the source open & free, but share your roadmap with ideal donation amounts for items on your roadmap that correspond to effort/costs.

Like “code is at this milestone” and “funded up to this milestone” (to show whether you’ve been underfunded for your efforts, or if the community has been generous)

(You should subtract any running costs too!)

@dansup that's 100% legit. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Just because its FLOSS doesn't mean you have to work for free. If the donation goal is not reached, it means people don't care.

@dansup this can be a service for enterprise. look at the penpot model and maybe ask those folks how they are doing. keeping it open source while implementing donation milestones is also nicer than keeping hostage the code you already wrote. this also enables contributions to the project.

@dansup go for it! You have every right to solicit fair compensation for your hard work.

Self-imposed poverty is in no way a part of the open source ethos. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to understand that the open source code we all love and appreciate will only keep coming as long as the people writing it are housed, fed and healthy.

@dansup Your work has (tons of) value. Service is free, you've done a lot for the community.

"Love" doesn't pay the bills, though. You deserve to be funded.

I believe the main problem is communication. How to say that in a way that doesn't hurt feelings, and make people realize you want to do better, but have a 24x7 limit + bills + social life is a constraint.

As someone who will use PubKit for personal use, count on me to my humble money contribution on that.

@dansup to play a bit of devil's advocate, that's a bit of a money extortion scheme. I'd say either open up or don't. Doesn't it qualify for nlnet grants?

I've sponsored projects in the past but money is tight enough currently. But I am a firm believer in paying for open source work.

@dansup $15,000 might be tough to reach, maybe split it up by the individual services? Like,

- $2000 to open source the library
- $x for bouncer
- $x for radar
- $x for faker

Or something like that? I imagine these components are all fairly independent?

@dansup Have a look at the #sponsorware model of MkDocs and mkdocstrings

Also the #DelayedOpenSource of Sentry, with maybe a payment option for immediate open source access

There are many schemes. What will surely burn you out is expecting people (let alone corporations) to "do the right thing" and then realizing they won't (in big enough numbers)