from Hacker News

I tried to help monetize Open source projects. People hated it

by pmestha on 7/7/20, 3:05 PM with 5 comments

Hello all, You might already know that codefund.io shut a few days back. Most of the OSS developers only rely on sponsorship for their projects yet don't make much money. Being a full time OSS contributor is a difficult path to move forward. I attempted to help monetize OSS packages by building a marketplace (privjs.com) for "PRO" nodejs libraries where OSS developers could release a PRO version of their existing libraries and help cater the paid users better. Posted it on reddit and it was flooded with hate comments.

I just do not understand - what's wrong in monetizing OSS? And, why is it so hard to monetize? Why do people hate paying for code that saves hours/days of their time?

-Prasanna

  • by stocktech on 7/7/20, 6:57 PM

    IMO, you're fighting the culture of OSS. I see that culture as "give some, take some". Where we exchange help and knowledge rather than payment. Adding explicit payment cheapens my involvement - and passion and creativity - because now, like everything else, there's an expectation of compensation. Even if I'm not involved, I'm now a second tiered citizen compared to "pro" packages because "if it was any good, wouldn't you sell it?". It taints the entire system. We have jobs for that.

    But here's the thing, there are examples of commercializing open source software. Red Hat, MeteorJS, GhostJS, and more that I can't remember. These companies add value and most are appreciated. Your business model ignores this and feels like a "fuck you, pay me".

    If I was you, I'd find a way to keep OSS exactly the way it is, but make consulting around those OSS projects extremely easy.

  • by gus_massa on 7/8/20, 12:06 AM

    How do you expect to deal with the licences? In particular, if the normal library has a GPL licence.