On 30.1.2021 11.58, julien2412 wrote:
Reading a French page
https://linuxfr.org/users/qdm/journaux/programmes-de-bug-bounty-dans-les-projets-libres-en-general-et-libreoffice-en-particulier
about bounties in FLOSS and LO specifically, I wonder if it could be
interesting to add a bounty link in bugtracker.
I mean, we all know we got a pb of human resources to fix bugs so we need to
be able to motivate people/newcomers.
Of course bounties is not a new idea but perhaps it would help to increase
its visibility by putting an explicit link (and perhaps also a field
displaying total amount so in a search it could be sorted with it?)
Now I must recognize I don't know websites/softs about bounties/crowfunding
and don't know too if Bugzilla can be easily customisable, it's just an
idea.
I've studied and written about FOSS bounty platforms for almost a
decade. Example in Finnish:
https://coss.fi/blogiartikkelit/avoimeen-lahdekoodiin-erikoistunut-joukkorahoitus/
FOSS bounty platforms never took off despite efforts started all the way
back in 1998. Instead, people moved to subscription-based platforms that
provide continuous funding for individuals and teams. The only
LibreOffice contributor on these platforms is Andreas Kainz:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=10071325
The only active "old school" FOSS bounty platform that I know is
Bountysource. It charges a 10% fee, so is not very attractive for devs
compared to the subscription-based alternatives.
Then there are a bunch of platforms revolving around cryptocurrencies.
There are also https://issuehunt.io/ and https://gitpay.me/ but they
have a self-imposed vendor lock-in with GitHub.
I think for all the cases, where a bunch of users want to fund
something, they should start by seeking out a developer willing to take
on the job. This is usually the hardest part.
Perhaps as a concrete challenge for these types of users one could
propose: make it so Andreas Kainz reaches his first goal on Patreon.
This would prove that there is actual interest in crowdfunding stuff.
The current very low level of dedication proves the opposite.
Overall, rather than investing time into bounty platforms, I find it
more realistic to recruit some dev willing to have a presence on a
subscription-based platform, seek enough regular fund for them and make
them attack specific categories of issues, possibly through some
popularity contest or poll.
FOSS-friendly subscription-based platforms:
https://liberapay.com/
https://snowdrift.coop/
https://opencollective.com/
Ilmari
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