I think this is pretty troubling. Including myself in the sentiment that the self-hosting community needs to do better. Aside from funding individual projects, are there any organizations that help fund self-hosting projects?
I’m also in the “no” bucket, but I’ve contributed bug reports and do intend to donate soonish now that I use more visible projects (used to just be minidlna, BTRFS, and openSUSE). I only added Jellyfin a few months ago, and I do intend to donate since I don’t intend to report bugs or contribute code.
True, it’s a good percentage, and probably better than most free software. That said, given the communities the self hosted apps support, their excitement for the products, and for some the essential nature of some of these apps, it would be nice to see the yes/no number more 50/50 at least.
I have subscribed to a couple projects on github (the recurring payment thing) and purchased the optional immich license. I think the immich license is a great model, and more projects should do it.
Agreed. Grayjay has something similar, though it’s not actually FOSS (it’s source-available though). I’m happy to pay for software, but donating somehow has a different feel to it and doesn’t feel as “necessary.” So yes, an optional license fee would be awesome for more projects and could encourage more people to actually pay.
I love that it doesn’t unlock any features, but it does prominently display in the app as “activated” or whatever. It feels like “yeah, I have paid my portion, I am now entitled to use this forever guilt-free”
There’s a fundamental problem with FOSS culture that anyone who asks for money is seen negatively. Which I get, but also, I think the other edge of the sword, depending on donations, is worse, because ad-driven and freemium companies like Google and Meta have created a culture of entitlement. Ideally they would set up a 501c3 like Signal or Ghost, but obviously that can be cost and time-prohibitive.
I’m pretty sure that Pop OS isn’t the product but I absolutely see what you are saying. I’m talking about things like commercial support for companies and maybe some sort of user facing service but I’m not sure how that would work.
The sad part about Matrix is that it isn’t supported, it is used. I think the blame is about 50/50. Users should donate and the leadership shouldn’t of assumed that companies would give them money.
I also think that it is up to the developers to make it sustainable
If they want funding they need to seek it. It has been shown that when a project has a one time donation popup they can raise a significant amount of money. They aso could sell products or services.
Yeah, really don’t get this one. As an example, I’ve been supporting the guy who writes most of the software I use via Github sponsors for a while, now. It’s nice to get access to additional support chat rooms and perks and stuff, but just the feeling alone is satisfying enough.
Feelsgoodman.jpg
I genuinely recommend those with gainful employment to consider supporting the people who make the software and media you like (E.g. Patreon).
Issue reports and the likes are nice, but they’re really not a substitute for cash (in my opinion).
I think this is pretty troubling. Including myself in the sentiment that the self-hosting community needs to do better. Aside from funding individual projects, are there any organizations that help fund self-hosting projects?
How so? 40%-ish is actually pretty good!
I’m also in the “no” bucket, but I’ve contributed bug reports and do intend to donate soonish now that I use more visible projects (used to just be minidlna, BTRFS, and openSUSE). I only added Jellyfin a few months ago, and I do intend to donate since I don’t intend to report bugs or contribute code.
True, it’s a good percentage, and probably better than most free software. That said, given the communities the self hosted apps support, their excitement for the products, and for some the essential nature of some of these apps, it would be nice to see the yes/no number more 50/50 at least.
I’m more interested in dollar amounts. Are people sending $5 every now and then, or is there more consistent funding?
I have subscribed to a couple projects on github (the recurring payment thing) and purchased the optional immich license. I think the immich license is a great model, and more projects should do it.
Agreed. Grayjay has something similar, though it’s not actually FOSS (it’s source-available though). I’m happy to pay for software, but donating somehow has a different feel to it and doesn’t feel as “necessary.” So yes, an optional license fee would be awesome for more projects and could encourage more people to actually pay.
I love that it doesn’t unlock any features, but it does prominently display in the app as “activated” or whatever. It feels like “yeah, I have paid my portion, I am now entitled to use this forever guilt-free”
That’s still better than nothing I guess
Sure, but it doesn’t really pay the bills.
I don’t wanna ask if and how much individuals contributed to the ones that host their instances ;)
I’m in the no-bucket, but instead i spend time on issues, helping the community and sometimes code contributions to self hosted projects instead.
This is not taken into the account of the question, however, but should be considered as contributing.
(I also consider donating to be contributing.)
Agreed. I’m not much of a coder, so the best contribution I can give is probably $$. At least until I get off my ass and learn something new!
There’s a fundamental problem with FOSS culture that anyone who asks for money is seen negatively. Which I get, but also, I think the other edge of the sword, depending on donations, is worse, because ad-driven and freemium companies like Google and Meta have created a culture of entitlement. Ideally they would set up a 501c3 like Signal or Ghost, but obviously that can be cost and time-prohibitive.
I wish there were more commercial services around Foss. (And I don’t mean proprietary)
They could do all sorts of things like sell swag and support.
Exactly. Pop OS is funded by hardware sales (though they do accept donations as well).
I’m pretty sure that Pop OS isn’t the product but I absolutely see what you are saying. I’m talking about things like commercial support for companies and maybe some sort of user facing service but I’m not sure how that would work.
Yeah that works as well. Matrix is supported that way. As does Rocket Chat and I’m sure plenty of others.
The sad part about Matrix is that it isn’t supported, it is used. I think the blame is about 50/50. Users should donate and the leadership shouldn’t of assumed that companies would give them money.
I also think that it is up to the developers to make it sustainable
If they want funding they need to seek it. It has been shown that when a project has a one time donation popup they can raise a significant amount of money. They aso could sell products or services.
Yeah, really don’t get this one. As an example, I’ve been supporting the guy who writes most of the software I use via Github sponsors for a while, now. It’s nice to get access to additional support chat rooms and perks and stuff, but just the feeling alone is satisfying enough.
Feelsgoodman.jpg
I genuinely recommend those with gainful employment to consider supporting the people who make the software and media you like (E.g. Patreon).
Issue reports and the likes are nice, but they’re really not a substitute for cash (in my opinion).
100% of my self-hosted projects are run exclusively by my recurrent donations.
Good thing nobody’s asking about what I’ve donated to the software projects I’m using to self-host.