[lamontcg]

> Over the past decade, people in the community, not just Shopify employees, started to conclude that rubygems and bundler were being monetized by some key maintainers.

The logical conclusion of this argument is that if you maintain a critical piece of infrastructure with a "large moat" you are apparently expected to live in poverty, or turn it over to a $2.68B revenue per quarter company because trying to extract $60k/yr of living expenses from rubygems is a bridge too far.

And I just don't buy all the framing that donating your employee's time is fundamentally different from donating money.

[TheCleric]

No one should live poor, but any entity that takes donations (code, money, etc.) should be VERY above board with disclosures and conflicts of interest. The point isn't that they can't make money, the point is it shouldn't be a secret.

[ilikehurdles]

Yes I would actually be mad if a volunteer at an org sold member lists or gave preferential treatment to outside sponsors as a way to make ends meet for himself, for example. Like are you kidding? If you don’t like the terms and pay, change them or don’t sign up. Anything else - like monetizing off your own insider access - is underhanded and unethical.