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by jr_isidore 3 days ago
appears to receive stable funding from the FSF

No, about ten underemployed or semi-retired graybeards on the emacs.devel mailing list burn most of their waking hours futzing with emacs. That's not an exaggeration. They receive no remuneration.
2 comments
kqr 3 days ago
That's sad. Is there a way I can fund them without going through FSF? I tried looking into it before but it seemed like FSF was the only alternative, so I assumed it was well-managed.
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sachac 3 days ago
https://github.com/tarsius/elisp-maintainers and https://github.com/freetonik/support-emacs-community-devs list quite a few people, so you can support them directly.
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kqr 3 days ago
Ah, thanks. At least one of them is apparently already receiving recurring donations from me!
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jr_isidore 3 days ago
Bro, the FSF is an unchecked post office box somewhere in Kendall Square, and besides, do you really think $10 per month makes a difference? I don't know what these guys feed off of, but it's not food or anything else that money buys.
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beepbooptheory 3 days ago
The emacs devel mailing list is way more active than that.. although you do see some regulars there for sure.
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jr_isidore 3 days ago
You misunderstand. Every mailing list has their healthy share of drive-by contributions, but emacs.devel contains a handful of dudes for whom *all they do* is emacs. We're talking nights, weekends, holidays. If they were indeed working a job, the inordinate time spent on the mailing list would constitute defrauding their employer.
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