It seems like I can’t stop myself from talking about monetization of FOSS projects and the “demands” that developers are making. After a discussion on software licenses or additional terms to licenses the other day on the Fediverse, I came across this currently unavailable blog post by Geoffroy Couprie.
Although a bit of interesting image, I do believe it can be a useful analogy. It’s certainly a good description of the fact, that taking care of FOSS isn’t always a pleasant thing.
At the same time I think it falls short to highlight, that if you put up a toilet and add a sign that says “use it however you like” (i.e. a permissive license), you get no right to be upset when people don’t pay you for using it or leave a dump without flushing. 💩
If you want to be paid, don’t give it away for free
Or find a way to build monetization options around the toilet.
- 🫙 Have a tip jar
- 🧻 Sell toilet paper (but don’t prey on people)
- 🚿 Charge for bidet usages
- 🪠Offer commercial assistance services
- 🧼 Provide premium experiences
- 🫂 Build a supportive community
- …and many more.
Remember though, nobody can force you to maintain the toilet just because you’ve created it in the first place. They have the freedom to use it, you have the freedom to clean or not clean it.
So far I’ve been lucky, that none of my personal projects have risen to massive popularity as to be on the receiving end of “enterprise pressure”. While I for example have fallen behind in implementing some of the small feature requests and bug reports for my Stream Deck Clockify plugin, I don’t feel the pressure to have the changes done ASAP. I enjoy fixing this up eventually, certainly also because I’ve received many “Thank You” for provide the plugin.
Speaking of funding, in case you’ve missed it, you can become a GitHub Sponsor for SFML or donate directly on the Open Collective platform. I’ll be writing more about that journey in the future here, so stay tuned!