[pm-h] Fwd: [New post] Why I finally joined Gittip and why you should, too

[Todd Rinaldo]

If you don't already follow David Golden, you should. He's a prolific CPAN
author and often a very insightful writer. For instance, I'm still trying
to parse this phrase:

"Open source is a community. Or possibly, it's like an iterated
prisoners-dilemma game."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dagolden <donotreply at wordpress.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 9:09 PM
Subject: [New post] Why I finally joined Gittip and why you should, too
To: toddr at cpan.org


   dagolden posted: "I was a Gittip skeptic. Heck, I still am. But I signed
up anyway and I'll tell you why. But first, I want to talk about money and
altruism. Most people contribute to open source for free. They don't do it
for money. They do it for fun or self-satis"
      New post on *dagolden*         <http://www.dagolden.com/?author=2>  Why
I finally joined Gittip and why you should,
too<http://www.dagolden.com/index.php/2325/why-i-finally-joined-gittip-and-why-you-should-too/>
by
dagolden <http://www.dagolden.com/?author=2>

I was a Gittip <http://www.gittip.com/> skeptic.

Heck, I still am. But I signed up anyway <https://www.gittip.com/xdg/> and
I'll tell you why.

But first, I want to talk about money and altruism. Most people contribute
to open source for free. They don't do it for money. They do it for fun or
self-satisfaction.

The danger of offering money to a volunteer is that they might revalue
their contributions in light of the money. Put differently, it's possibly
that getting a *little bit* of money might be more demotivating than none.

Consider shareware as a related example. You bust your ass writing some
software and then typically find (a) few people download it and (b) even
fewer bother to pay.

Now think about that from the open source "tip jar" perspective. For one,
lots of work doesn't even have a download count. And given that it is
typically "free" (in both the "speech" and "beer" sense), I would expect
New York City Subway "Showtime"
Panhandlers<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKgD1-6O1m8>to get more in
tips than the typical open source developer.

The fallacy in that argument is that shareware – and subway panhandling –
is transactional. It's cash (or not) for a product or performance.


*Open source is a community. *
Or possibly, it's like an iterated prisoners-dilemma game.

In a community, like in an iterated game, you participate over time and
your self-reward can be reinforced or diminished a little bit in every
interaction.

If you're totally self-motivated and only the challenge of the code matters
to you, then community isn't a big deal. But if you're like most of us,
positive feedback from the community, whether karma points, or "+1" clicks
or thanks, or tips, all contribute to the feeling of self-reward.

For me, someone recognizing my efforts is a huge boost. Even a bug report
tells me that someone used my code and it helped them enough that they'd
try to make it better. That motivates me to fix more bugs and write more
code.

Recently, Ribasushi
argued<http://blogs.perl.org/users/peter_rabbitson/2014/02/i-bought-a-weekly-round-for-my-friends.html>that
Gittip makes *consistent
reward easy* and that even *chump change adds up over time*. Ovid
argued<http://blogs.perl.org/users/ovid/2014/02/please-join-gittip.html>that
just *raising
Perl's visibility* on Gittip benefits the community.

To some extent I agree and to some extent I think both are missing the
larger point. It's not about the money and it's not about the marketing.

In a community, *everyone* should be looking for ways to reinforce
behaviors that improve the community. Thus, *every extra way to say thanks
is worth pursuing*.

Thank with email? Patches? Gittip? Flatter? Awards? Karma points?

Yes!


*Whatever methods you find motivating to thank others are the ones you
should use. *

   - If you have more free time than mad money, find ways to produce things
   the community needs. Write code, write articles, give talks, answer
   questions on Q&A sites and so on
   - If you have more mad money than free time, find ways to support those
   producing. Donate to TPF <https://secure.donor.com/pf012/give> or
EPO<http://www.enlightenedperl.org/donations.html>.
   Or, if you want to make your support personal, donate via Gittip or
   something similar

Either way, *try to make sure your efforts are also reinforcing those
around you*. Sending bug reports and patches or even just a thank-you email
benefit the recipient much more than you might think and might even do more
good for the community than your own next bit of code or authorship.
Sending a gittip or saying "+1" to a grant proposal are ways to give thanks
with currency.


*Thanks comes in many forms. The more we have in any form, the better off
we all are. *
Maybe Gittip is a flash in the pan. But maybe not. If that kind of
personal, consistent thank you appeals to you – whether as a donor or as a
recipient – don't think about it, just do it. More is better.

Join Gittip here <http://www.gittip.com/>. Join the Perl community
here<https://www.gittip.com/for/perl/>.
Find your favorite CPAN authors on CPAN Tip <http://neilb.org/cpan-tip/>.
And if you want to gittip me, here I am <https://www.gittip.com/xdg/>.

Or just shoot me an email sometime. ☺
  *dagolden <http://www.dagolden.com/?author=2>* | March 3, 2014 at 10:09
pm | URL: http://wp.me/pvxIN-Bv

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-- 
Todd Rinaldo
todd at rinaldo.us
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