[0xbadcafebee]

I was thinking about FOSS funding earlier, and it's actually quite a complex problem. Depending on the application and the users, it may have a different audience with more or less money, more or less users, and different types of users and use cases.

And regardless of all that, what is the money going towards in each case? Does the developer (or developers) need a full-time salary, or part time, or just coffee money? Does the money get split between all contributors, or just ones making changes recently, or just the 'leaders'? Is it being saved up for infrastructure, dedicated staff, travel to conferences?

It seems we need a ton of different funding models, or a model that takes a ton of different variables into account.

[rndhouse]

I agree with your view.

I imagine the distribution curve of funding. If it shifts one way, more developers become full time open source maintainers. Those who previously received nothing might start receiving coffee money.

If we can normalize a low friction mechanism for receiving funds for developers then the curve might be shiftable.