[HN Gopher] Show HN: StackAid - Fund all your open-source depend...
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       Show HN: StackAid - Fund all your open-source dependencies
        
       We strongly believe working on open source software should be a
       viable source of income for many more developers. Unfortunately,
       the following barriers limit the extent of open source funding:  -
       Only a small fraction of open source projects are funded, and most
       money goes to a few notable projects.  - Each project has to market
       is self to get significant funding.  - Large corporate donations
       provide the bulk of the funding, making it unreliable and
       unattainable for many.  - Finding and supporting each of your
       dependencies is a cumbersome task. Which ones, how much, and on
       which platforms?  So we built StackAid, a service that
       automatically discovers and funds your direct and indirect (second
       order) open source dependencies with a monthly subscription.
       StackAid is early and has a unique allocation model, so we're
       working with supporters and open source projects to validate the
       experience further. We're matching subscriptions up to $100/month
       during the beta.
        
       Author : nevernude
       Score  : 173 points
       Date   : 2022-09-14 14:35 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.stackaid.us)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.stackaid.us)
        
       | jacobr1 wrote:
       | How are you dealing with tax implications?
        
       | rvnx wrote:
       | This is a well executed idea, the minus is that it is going to
       | incentivize npm managers to create more and more spammy packages.
       | 
       | Isn't there a risk that the creators of is-odd, is-even, upper-
       | case are going to get quite a lot based on their millions of
       | downloads (and indirect popularity) no ? Especially since they
       | are interdependent
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | I don't think it will be a major concern. A couple of thoughts:
         | 
         | - We built a simulation[1] of the NPM ecosystem to see how
         | funds would be allocated. Frivolous projects did not see any
         | significant funding.
         | 
         | - As I mentioned in other comments, you would still need to get
         | many developer to actually use your new packages as either
         | direct or second-order dependencies. Note that 2nd order
         | dependencies receive quite a bit less allocation than direct
         | ones.
         | 
         | - You can always manually manage your dependencies if you see a
         | project engaging in this behavior.
         | 
         | 1. https://simulation.stackaid.us/projects
        
           | qwerty3344 wrote:
           | In the simulation you can see very common helper deps do
           | receive quite a disproportionate amount of funding relative
           | to the effort to maintain though. For example, `rimraf` (~400
           | LOC), `del` (~100 LOC), `cross-env` (this one is archived)
           | all receive a ton of funding, whereas major projects like
           | `electron` get a small amount since it's not used as often
           | even though it would be much more impactful if it were to
           | fall into disrepair.
        
             | boxcarr wrote:
             | We thought a lot about the fairness of allocation. Large
             | funding for tiny packages is a clear edge case of the
             | StackAid model.
             | 
             | We are thinking through how to give subscriptions control
             | over projects and organizations to exclude, so you could
             | choose to exclude tiny dependencies in your subscription.
             | 
             | That said, defaults matter, and so it's still worth
             | considering the implications of small projects getting a
             | large amount of funding:
             | 
             | 1. Subscriptions/open source repositories might be ok with
             | a rimraf getting a lot of money, especially if it funds
             | those developers to build other things that are high
             | impact.
             | 
             | 2. It might also inspire other open source projects to
             | potentially compete for those funds in terms of offering
             | something more or encouraging tooling that incorporates
             | that functionality, thus creating a smaller set of
             | dependencies.
             | 
             | Re: Electron getting much less than these smaller projects
             | in the simulation. Electron getting less money is a
             | function of the NPM packages we discovered and sampled.
             | That could or could not be a representative set. You could
             | argue that Electron shows up more in non-public
             | repositories. It doesn't mean that Electron would get more
             | money than rimraf, but the gap could be significantly less.
        
       | pagutierrezn wrote:
       | something similar for java dependencies?
        
         | boxcarr wrote:
         | We support Java through a GitHub Action that generates a
         | stackaid.json file that we consume with your first and second
         | order dependencies. More details here:
         | https://www.stackaid.us/#stackaid-json
        
       | moralestapia wrote:
       | Congrats guys and I wish you succeed with this project!
       | 
       | This is the fist time I see a pyramid scheme that's actually a
       | good thing :D
        
       | nevernude wrote:
       | StackAid founder here. There are a couple of questions that keep
       | coming up that I thought I would address in one place.
       | 
       | - People don't want to give money to Stripe, Meta, etc since
       | their projects are already well funded by corporations. We agree!
       | Right now, those projects can just not claim their funds which
       | would then be reallocated, or they can pass their funds on to
       | their dependencies instead. We are exploring other ways to allow
       | you to exempt certain organizations/repositories from being
       | funded.
       | 
       | - People will try and game the system. They can try but they
       | largely will not succeed because ultimately many developers will
       | still need to be convinced to use and depend on their projects.
       | How funds are allocated and what dependencies an open source
       | project has is public knowledge and the community will rightly
       | punish bad actors.
       | 
       | Thanks for all the responses and feedback.
        
       | Kukumber wrote:
       | https://www.stackaid.us/github/Microsoft/dtslint
       | 
       | who, how, why?
        
       | giancarlostoro wrote:
       | For those wondering:
       | 
       | > How do you make money?
       | 
       | > When you add your project dependencies, StackAid is treated as
       | an implicit direct dependency. StackAid is on equal footing, but
       | unlike those dependencies, StackAid's allocation is capped at
       | 7.5%. In the example above, StackAid would receive $1.50/mo.
        
         | brendonjohn wrote:
         | I must be missing something here.
         | 
         | On a donation of $10, their cut should be $0.75, given that's
         | 7.5%.
        
           | nevernude wrote:
           | For a $10/month donation yes our max take would be $0.75. The
           | example on the homepage is for a $20/month subscription.
        
           | kredd wrote:
           | The example in the middle uses $20 as a donation, not $10.
           | Thus, $1.5.
        
       | cphoover wrote:
       | Seems interesting... But I wouldn't want to waste my donation to
       | a multi-billion dollar company like stripe who should be paying
       | for their own client library development, which is part of the
       | value-proposition of their service.
        
       | BazookaMusic wrote:
       | How do you deal with the issue that a project might split itself
       | in multiple modular parts to maximize the income from this
       | scheme?
       | 
       | If StackAid becomes popular, I could see developers going that
       | route to maximize their income.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Good question. There are a few factors that I think will
         | mitigate this concern.
         | 
         | - You still have to get developers to use and depend on these
         | new projects.
         | 
         | - Allocation happens on a per subscription basis, so to
         | realistically take advantage of this scheme, you will need many
         | developers to adopt your new projects.
         | 
         | - Subscribers who notice maintainers doing this will be
         | incentivized to vote with their dollars and change their
         | dependencies to projects that aren't engaging in this behavior.
        
         | waynesonfire wrote:
         | i can manage my dependency list just fine and don't need an org
         | to help me do that.
         | 
         | i'd like a service that allows me to send payment to a
         | dependency, i'll take it from there.
        
         | spullara wrote:
         | A more likely optimization would be to remove dependencies by
         | copying their code into your repository if it has a permissive
         | license.
        
       | kube-system wrote:
       | Interesting idea, but I'm not sure that the automatic allocation
       | model would make logical sense for many of my projects.
       | 
       | Some of my dependencies are complicated, critical, high-
       | maintenance parts of my application, some are convenience
       | wrappers for other more important sub-dependencies, and some are
       | basic helper dependencies. Some are independent volunteer
       | projects, and some are maintained by commercial companies by
       | developers on salary. And some of them are libraries for services
       | that I _already_ pay for, like aws-sdk.
       | 
       | I don't think I could use something like this unless I can tweak
       | the allocations.
        
         | armini wrote:
         | Valid point about tweaking allocation, I don't think
         | React/Facebook needs more money compared to some other
         | projects.
         | 
         | Check out https://thanks.dev/ they have a similar solution but
         | allow allocation control.
        
         | slekker wrote:
         | Lovely username
        
         | qwerty3344 wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32841229 touched on this
         | also, auto allocation would lead to disproportionate allocation
         | for basic helper deps
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | On an individual level allocation may seem a bit lopsided but,
         | in aggregate, useful and popular projects will receive more
         | funding.
         | 
         | Commercial projects can either not claim their funds (which
         | will be reallocated), or elect to pass their funds through to
         | their dependencies.
         | 
         | You also always have the option to explicitly list your
         | dependencies.
        
           | black_puppydog wrote:
           | In aggregate the stripe and react dependencies in the example
           | on the page might receive a pretty huge chunk and I'm not
           | sure the stripe api should be funded by donations.
        
             | nevernude wrote:
             | If stripe doesn't want to participate (likely) their funds
             | are reallocated. They also have the option to pass on funds
             | to their dependencies
        
               | capableweb wrote:
               | So users of Stripe SDK ends up donating to Stripe SDK
               | that reallocates those funds to the dependencies that
               | makes the Stripe SDK possible to build, rather than
               | Stripe donating money directly to those dependencies that
               | makes it possible for them to build their SDK?
               | 
               | I'd rather fund libraries that don't have huge companies
               | behind them, and those companies should donate themselves
               | to the dependencies they use, so I can spend my money on
               | donating to libraries I depend on directly.
        
         | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
         | I could see current higher-level projects taking advantage of
         | their "first in line" access to the subscriptions.
         | 
         | I could also see people writing "wrappers," and intercepting
         | the top-level contribution, then skimming a bit off the top,
         | before sending them on.
         | 
         | Face it. There's money to be made, and a _lot_ of really smart
         | folks, with no ethics whatsoever, are more than willing to go
         | for it. They 'll figure out how to game it.
         | 
         | The bottle has been uncorked, and the genie has escaped.
         | There's no putting the candy back in that pinata.
        
           | nevernude wrote:
           | We thought long and hard about how people could game the
           | system but ultimately it will be quite difficult because you
           | still have to convince a large number of developers to
           | actually use and depend on your project. And since the flow
           | of donations and dependencies is public, the community will
           | not look kindly one individuals trying such tactics.
        
             | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
             | Fair 'nuff.
             | 
             | I sincerely hope it works out. I have become somewhat
             | cynical, and maybe that colors things.
        
       | Amir6 wrote:
       | What a fantastic idea. Is there an email address to contact you?
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Yes! You can reach out to me at wes@stackaid.us
         | 
         | We also have a signup page https://www.stackaid.us/invite
        
           | Amir6 wrote:
           | Just sent you a note.
        
       | lijogdfljk wrote:
       | This is really cool. Is there a way to use this with Rust, yet?
       | 
       | I'd be interested to donate say $15/m and then specify repos of
       | mine, maybe mixed with some manually specified projects (ie for
       | things i use in private, but i don't want to give access to my
       | private repos), and have it split among them.
       | 
       | but all of this is Rust-centric. Does that work yet? I'm super
       | interested, this is a problem i've had with Github's Sponsor
       | Program. Feels like a small amount of money doesn't go far with
       | Github, this splitting solves it hypothetically!
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Yes, we have a GitHub action[1] that uses the dependency graph
         | API to generate a stackaid.json file which will list your
         | direct and indirect dependencies.
         | 
         | 1. https://github.com/marketplace/actions/stackaid-
         | dependency-g...
        
           | lijogdfljk wrote:
           | Awesome, signed up!
           | 
           | Can i submit a stackaid.json manually? Ie for private
           | repositories that i want to be counted towards my funding-
           | split?
        
             | nevernude wrote:
             | Yes you can create one manually. If I'm understanding you
             | correctly, private organizations you add to a stackaid.json
             | file will be ignored. Our focus is on funding open source.
             | 
             | But if you mean, can you commit a stackaid.json file in a
             | private repository, yes absolutely. As long as the GitHub
             | app is given access to that repo, we will discover it and
             | fund dependencies specified in the stackaid.json file.
        
               | lijogdfljk wrote:
               | Another question if i may, do we have visibility over how
               | funds have been accepted/moved/etc?
               | 
               | it would be nice to know when library authors have
               | actually received my funds, vs them not taking them for a
               | few months and the funds moving to another library. This
               | would let me as a user pester the author about funds
               | they're missing, since i'm invested in them getting
               | support i'm trying to give.
        
               | nevernude wrote:
               | Yes, projects with unclaimed funds have a notice at the
               | top of their page. I think there is also an opportunity
               | for us to show you which of your dependencies have been
               | claimed in your dashboard.
        
       | mbesto wrote:
       | Super interesting, however you need an option for "this company
       | commercially backs this repo so there is no need to donate".
       | 
       | Let's be honest, it's hard for me to justify giving a developer
       | at Facebook who makes $500k/year an extra $5/year because
       | Facebook is footing the bill for their salary to maintain
       | ReactJS.
        
         | boxcarr wrote:
         | No money goes to a repository that doesn't participate in
         | StackAid. Whatever is allocated to them from a subscription,
         | gets reallocated after a certain period of time.
         | 
         | We are busy thinking through the best way to provide controls
         | around allocation including specifying
         | repositories/organizations you don't want to fund. This
         | feedback is what we wanted to hear before we embarked on an
         | approach.
         | 
         | Some organizations might also specify that they don't ever want
         | to receive money, and allowing us to avoid waiting to
         | reallocate the money intended for their repositories. This is
         | another option we're planning on exposing.
        
           | nathancahill wrote:
           | Essentially, developers/project have to opt-out from
           | participating on your site.
           | 
           | This is the problem that these "fund open source" projects
           | run in to time and time again. Gittip (if I remember
           | correctly) had the same issue. You're accepting funds under
           | the name of various open source projects but not necessarily
           | funding them. Often developers aren't even aware of the
           | parallel funding channel and are rightfully upset about it.
           | 
           | I'm not saying your intentions are bad, and as an open source
           | developer I'd love for a funding model that worked. I've just
           | seen tens of different iterations on this same idea and none
           | have stuck.
        
             | boxcarr wrote:
             | I don't think it's analogous to gittip where someone is
             | attempting to send funds to a particular repository or
             | organization, and, I assume, you don't know the status of
             | your funds.
             | 
             | When subscribing to StackAid, you indicate that you'd like
             | to support your dependencies. It's hopefully clear that
             | their dependencies have to participate to receive their
             | allocation. We're also upfront that not all OSS projects
             | are interested or currently have a relationship with
             | StackAid. As a result, allocation amongst dependencies will
             | shift depending on the OSS project interested in
             | participating, and that's an important feature that sets it
             | apart from other funding models.
             | 
             | All of that said, we've tried to be clear in the messaging
             | and setting expectations. We're very much open to feedback
             | to improve what we communicate.
        
       | basetensucks wrote:
       | If a library author or maintainer isn't a Stackaid user, what
       | happens to their allocated funds?
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | After a few months if the funds aren't claimed we will
         | reallocate them to a subscriber's other direct dependencies.
         | For the time being, if you accepting funds via GitHub Sponsors,
         | Open Collective, etc. we will do our best to get money to you.
        
       | dflock wrote:
       | This sounds a lot like Tidelift, without their enterprise supply
       | chain features?
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | We are similar in that we use a monthly subscription that
         | ultimately pays open source developers but I'd say that's where
         | the similarities end. Tidelift is focused on security and
         | vetting dependencies which is a noble effort! StackAid is
         | focused on eliminating any friction and allowing many many more
         | developers to be financially supported and make a living
         | developing open source.
        
           | karmelapple wrote:
           | Glad to see you doing this!
           | 
           | I like the value add that TideLift does, but the minimum buy-
           | in for TideLift was more than we were willing to spend as a
           | small startup. I felt bummed that we weren't able to help.
           | 
           | No such problem here, though - expect me to signup very
           | shortly :)
        
       | soulofmischief wrote:
       | Super fantastic idea. Signed up. Thanks for sharing!
        
       | protontypes wrote:
       | We tried something similar in the past:
       | https://github.com/protontypes/LibreSelery
       | 
       | Donation were distributed entirely through the CoinBase api by
       | sending emails to each developer in the Git history.
       | 
       | I wonder how you will divide the money among the developers.
       | Giving money just to the project maintainers will not strengthen
       | the community. Unfortunately, this is often exactly the area
       | where support is needed to create sustainable open source in
       | addition to fiscal support.
        
       | fabiospampinato wrote:
       | I love this idea.
       | 
       | I just tried with a package.json of mine and 33% of the money
       | seems to go to Microsoft/TypeScript, which seems odd for a bunch
       | of reasons: they don't seem to have Github Sponsors setup, they
       | don't seem to have an Open Collective either, and TS is owned by
       | one of the wealthiest companies on the planet, so for it to suck
       | up any meaningful percentage of all donations seems wrong.
       | 
       | Edit: ah, sorry, per year figures are displayed in the breakdown
       | table. So I guess TS would get more like 3%, which sounds way
       | more reasonable.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Projects like TS, React, etc that are already well unfunded
         | most likely won't claim their funds which means they will be
         | reallocated to your other dependencies after a few months.
         | 
         | They will also have the option to be pass-through organizations
         | which means that funds allocated to them will instead go to
         | their dependencies.
         | 
         | We are also exploring the idea of being able to declare a list
         | of repos/organizations to exclude from being funded.
        
       | mid-kid wrote:
       | The idea is nice, but it seems heavily reliant on GitHub:
       | 
       | > Owners of open source projects can claim their repositories by
       | installing the StackAid GitHub app. As part of the claiming
       | process, owners can associate one or more Stripe accounts with
       | each repository they own to receive payments.
       | 
       | While I'll admit that most of the modern ecosystem thrives on
       | this site, especially when looking at the javascript ecosystem,
       | there's a fair amount of projects that do not use this site at
       | all. Are there any plans to tackle those?
       | 
       | Also, the simulation[1] shows projects by meta and microsoft near
       | the top. Since these are well-funded projects ran by huge
       | companies, I'd be interested in excluding them from a donation
       | graph, no matter what point in the tree they appear in. Is there
       | any possibility of doing this?
       | 
       | [1]: https://simulation.stackaid.us/projects
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Absolutely. We'd like to support GitLab and Bitbucket next but
         | had to pick a starting point and GitHub was an obvious choice.
         | If there are other providers you think we should pursue, let me
         | know.
        
           | mid-kid wrote:
           | What about sr.ht, savannah.nongnu.org or self-hosted projects
           | using cgit or gitea frontends, most of which lacking such
           | integrations the likes of gitlab and bitbucket provide? I'm
           | sure it's more difficult to support things like these, but
           | I'm wondering how flexible the system is with regards to
           | this.
        
       | josevalerio wrote:
       | Really nice idea, great job :)
        
       | OJFord wrote:
       | > So we built StackAid, a service that automatically discovers
       | and funds your direct and indirect (second order) open source
       | dependencies with a monthly subscription.
       | 
       | Just to play.. I don't know, devil's take-advantager or whatever,
       | if this gets popular isn't the 'smart' move to package your
       | project as numerous components bundled up into one outer wrapper,
       | with all other 'real' dependencies only dependencies of the
       | component packages?
       | 
       | That can be a legitimate packaging strategy of course, that's
       | what made me think of it: 'it doesn't work for ...'; then 'oh
       | wait it works really well for _that_ package(s) '.
        
       | masukomi wrote:
       | what's the thinking around supporting projects that aren't node
       | based?
       | 
       | I've got tons of dependencies but none of them involve JS.
       | 
       | Also, what many node devs have multiple projects they rely on.
       | what about a tool for auto-merging package.json files to make one
       | to submit to you? Seems like right now a dev would have to go
       | through a lot of manual work.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | We do support a number of other languages/ecosystem via a
         | GitHub action[1] which generates a stackaid.json file we use to
         | fund projects.
         | 
         | All the package.json file we discover in your repos are
         | actually automatically merged together, de-duped, etc before
         | funds are allocated. In the app you can manage which set of
         | repos/files you want to be included.
         | 
         | 1. https://github.com/marketplace/actions/stackaid-
         | dependency-g...
        
       | yaddaor wrote:
       | And pay 7.5%(!) of it to a company based in the US.
       | 
       | When reallocating funds back after numerous project won't install
       | some github app to claim the money collected on their behalf, are
       | the 7.5% kept?
       | 
       | What is your estimate on the fraction of projects that will
       | actually take part?
       | 
       | What about the huge amount of highly used projects that are not
       | on GitHub?
        
         | AntonyGarand wrote:
         | It is my understanding that 7.5% is the cap, which should only
         | be reached when you have very little dependencies. If you have
         | 20 direct dependencies, each one will get 5% only, including
         | StackAid.
         | 
         | > When reallocating funds back after numerous project won't
         | install some github app to claim the money collected on their
         | behalf, are the 7.5% kept? The answer is on the site: The funds
         | are held for 2 months, then reallocated: > A project's
         | allocations accumulate for 2 months. If the project is not
         | claimed by then, an automatic reallocation happens and the
         | amount is redistributed to the other dependencies that are
         | claimed. Reallocation occurs on a per subscription basis.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | It's important to note that 7.5% is the max we would make. The
         | more direct dependencies you fund, the less we make. When we
         | reallocate funds, the same rule applies.
         | 
         | Our goal is to support projects outside of GitHub but we had to
         | start somewhere and GitHub seemed like a pretty logical choice.
        
           | postalrat wrote:
           | Is 7.5% still the maximum after reallocation?
        
             | nevernude wrote:
             | Yes it is. If there are no additional projects to fund
             | after reallocation we will donate the remaining funds to
             | other organizations/charities.
        
               | postalrat wrote:
               | Could you just send a refund to the person donating? Or
               | at least roll forward whatever wasn't donated into the
               | next month.
        
               | cayleyh wrote:
               | Which organizations & charities specifically?
        
               | nevernude wrote:
               | We haven't chosen them yet but they will be rotated every
               | so often. If you have suggestions we'd be happy to hear
               | them.
        
       | AntonyGarand wrote:
       | [Edit: Wrong, see replies] I love the idea, but the math doesn't
       | seem to check out on the simulation: The sum of the donation
       | greatly exceeds the donated sum, even on the example page.
       | 
       | Is it also possible to tweak / cap the weight of the donations?
       | While I might have 20 dependencies for types a la '@types/node',
       | I don't want DefinitelyTyped to account for 50% of my donation.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Which example are you looking at? Perhaps you included the
         | "Shared with" amounts to the total, which is actually what a
         | project pays it's dependencies.
         | 
         | Currently there isn't a way to change the weights. For projects
         | like DefinitelyTyped, react, etc, they will have the option to
         | either not claim funds and their allocations will
         | redistributed, or they can elect to have their allocations pass
         | through straight to their dependencies instead.
         | 
         | Lastly there is always the option to create your own explicit
         | set of dependencies you want to fund with a stackaid.json file
         | in your repo
        
           | AntonyGarand wrote:
           | While taking a screenshot, I noticed my error: The donation
           | input is monthly, but the donated amount is per year, so it
           | should sum to 12x the monthly amount.
           | 
           | Thanks for the answer!
        
       | raybb wrote:
       | I think this is an awesome idea, do you have a newsletter or
       | twitter that I can follow for updates?
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Thanks! You can follow our other founder on twitter @dudley or
         | our official account @stackaid. If you sign up for an invite
         | we'll keep you posted on new developments as well.
        
       | orangesite wrote:
       | Step in the right direction. Thank you for sticking your necks
       | out.
        
       | dchuk wrote:
       | I've always felt that the this concept, applied to charitable
       | donations, would be killer.
       | 
       | In particular, I want:
       | 
       | - an app like m1 finance where I can build a "pie" of charities
       | to donate to on a recurring basis, selected from a vetted list of
       | upstanding charities
       | 
       | - to clearly see how the charities use the funds, and how the app
       | covers its own costs
       | 
       | - for any contribution I make, I can see the tax benefits I'll
       | receive for making it (I know that's probably super hard, but if
       | someone can figure that out, I guarantee you'll see a spike in
       | charitable giving)
       | 
       | I (probably naively) think that a product like this could help
       | eliminate a ton of social issues by better funding charities than
       | the current system
        
         | qwerty3344 wrote:
         | > to clearly see how the charities use the funds
         | 
         | https://www.charitynavigator.org/ is a start
        
         | midenginedcoupe wrote:
         | Sounds a bit like https://kiva.org
        
         | soulofmischief wrote:
         | Step 2 is the hard part. How do you break down a "marketing and
         | advertising" budget consistently? You'll find most charities
         | purposefully do not have detailed insight into these accounts.
        
         | Vinnl wrote:
         | Apart from that last point I think that's pretty much
         | https://www.givingwhatwecan.org
        
       | midenginedcoupe wrote:
       | I was sure there was a similar service that folded recently-ish?
       | I can't for the life of me remember its name :(
       | 
       | My only hesitancy is how your company is structured. A
       | charity/b-corp or similar would seem to align more with your
       | domain, but I see no mention of anything like that on your site.
       | 
       | Good luck though - this is a problem that definitely needs
       | solving.
        
         | nevernude wrote:
         | Are you thinking of Flossbank[1]? We are currently structured
         | as an LLC. Are there specific concerns you have that would
         | prevent you from using StackAid because of that choice? Our
         | hope is that our actions and being good stewards of funding
         | open source will help earn and keep your trust long term.
         | 
         | 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31629261
        
           | midenginedcoupe wrote:
           | Ah, yes, I think you're right. It was Flossbank. Thanks!
           | 
           | No, I'm not sure an LLC would prevent me from using it, but
           | I'd probably choose to go with a competing org given the
           | choice. Siphoning off profit over and above operating
           | expenses from a sector that's already woefully underfunded is
           | not a great look.
           | 
           | I'll be watching with interest though, and will take a closer
           | look when you support Scala+sbt dependencies, repos outside
           | GitHub, and drop the need to grant your bot access to my
           | private repos.
        
             | nevernude wrote:
             | Appreciate the feedback. In case you didn't see it already,
             | we take a different approach to getting paid[1] that we
             | think is more equitable.
             | 
             | You can also use our GitHub action to publish a
             | stackaid.json file with your dependencies to a new repo
             | just for the purpose of giving us access. This was your
             | repos/source say private to us, but your dependencies can
             | still be funded. It's a bit more effort on your part but
             | hopefully addresses the concern.
             | 
             | 1.https://www.stackaid.us/#how-do-you-make-money
        
       | iam-TJ wrote:
       | Have you already considered working with/integrating with SPI [0]
       | (Software In The Public Interest) that acts as legal and
       | financial steward for many projects from large to small (e.g.
       | Debian, NTPsec) ?
       | 
       | [0] https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/
        
         | boxcarr wrote:
         | I wasn't aware of SPI. I'd be happy to look into it and reach
         | out to them.
         | 
         | To give some context, if SPI were interested in receiving money
         | for repositories associated with SPI, they would work with the
         | developers to claim those projects on StackAid and associate
         | their Stripe account. SPI's governance model can then decide
         | how to allocate those funds.
        
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