[Foundation-l] Re: Rewards for developers

Sun Jul 25 01:32:56 UTC 2004

On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 02:26:49 +0100, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net> wrote:
> Anthere wrote:
> 
> > I would like that all developers (others may
> > participate as well of course) help setting up a list
> > to define how development tasks completed could be
> > rewarded.
> 
> Heh. I was going to suggest a payment system for developers after my
> project deadline next week.
> 
> The core idea of my proposal is:
> 
> * developers should be paid every month
> * developers who received money the previous month receive "voting
>    power" (i.e. power to influence the proportions how money will be
>    distributed) for the next month
> * how much total money is awarded for the completion of a particular
>    feature or bugfix is determined by the donors: with every donation,
>    the donor can say "this-and-this much of this donation (but no more
>    than, say, 25% of the donation) should go towards rewarding the
>    completion of this-and-that feature/bugfix".
> 
> Then the whole thing would work approx. like this:
> 
> * Alice donates $20 and says "$5 of this should go to feature X"
> * Bob donates $50 and says "$10 of this should go to feature X"
> * Charlie The Developer suggests an implementation plan for X
> * Doris The Developer makes a major start towards feature X
> * Emily The Developer finishes feature X
> * Developers who received money last month vote on what percentage of
>    the feature was done by Charlie, Doris and Emily
> * The votes are averaged out and may yield something like
>    Charlie - 5%, Doris - 75%, Emily - 20%
> * Charlie's Wikimedia account is increased by 75¢
> * Doris's Wikimedia account is increased by $11.25
> * Emily's account is increased by $3.00
> 
> This is my basic idea.
> 
> It is in part modelled after the "Bazaar" that LiveJournal once used to
> have (albeit only for one month, ironically).
> Timwi

It seems too convoluted and prone to conflicts to work effectively
IMO. Donors are unlikely to identify all the features/bugs needing
work. Likewise, we're unlikely to reach an agreement to the
percentages. It might also lead to races between developers who start
stepping on each other's work in order to get more money.

-- 
[[en:User:Dori]]