I'm pretty sure we have a problem when one of the most

Community
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I'm pretty sure we have a problem when one of the most notable voices in the community responds to a "well, you could hire folks to implement things for you" like this:

And folks wonder why I'm on burn out leave at the moment. Like, we really need to have a serious conversation about just how much free and unpaid labour we're all relying on here. If I can't pay my rent, then I can't contribute to open source, it's that fucking simple.

#opensource #mastodon #activitypub

Chat log from a discord I'm in: <p>renchap 18:03:</p> <p>It helps if there is discussion with us first</p> <p>Evan Prodromou 18:05:</p> <p>Nice. I’ll give it a try. There are a few small ActivityPub items l’d love to see tweaked.<br> Really active Open Source projects can get the majority of their code written by people outside the core team, but it requires a lot of effort on the part of the core team.</p> <p>renchap 18:10:</p> <p>Most Open Source projects are not user-facing products<br> If you want a strong and consistent product & user interface, it is very complex. This is why we ask that significant contributions first start by a discussion with us, so we can (maybe) assign some product design time to the contribution to ensure that it will be done in a way that can be merged</p> <p><a href=thisismissem@hachyderm.io 18:25:

Paying a developer familiar with the codebase can also help in getting things implemented, though the conversation with the Mastodon team is still necessary of course

Evan Prodromou 18:25:

LOL

(two people reacted with a confused reaction)"/>

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@thisismissem Hey, Emelia. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I was talking to Renaud about how I could start contributing to the Mastodon codebase. I thought you were joking when you interrupted to say that I should pay you to do it instead. Like, "I want to take up sewing" followed by "Oh, you should buy clothes at a store instead." Next time I will be more careful and take you more literally. Good luck in your work.

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@evan I said what I said because the mastodon codebase, especially the AP parts, is quite complex, and you'd need a lot of rails & codebase experience, hence suggesting if the goal is to land features, it may be easier to hire people rather than attempting complex work on your own.

I'm not saying don't contribute, just the barrier to contributing is quite high, so depending on your goal, hiring an active contributor could get you to your goal faster & easier.

I read your goal as adding AP features you think are missing, not as you wanting to become involved with the project as a code contributor

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@thisismissem cool, thanks for the explanation. I'm sorry I didn't understand your perspective.

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@evan afaik, that's how others also read your question & the thread.

So you can see how "LOL" comes off as "LOL, why would I ever pay people more experienced than me to achieve my goals"