Suggestion: bounty?

[DVitoD]

:D:D:D​

No, seriously: over at the pfSense forum we have a bounty-section, where users can join in paying to have stuff made.

I am not a complete noob on 'puters, and also not on pfSense, but FreeNAS is new territory for me. I wouldn't mind to pay somebody a little money to help me out. For example, writing a tutorial on certain stuff, or even remotely helping out, writing a script for me, etc.

Actually, I was thinking, the benefit can be twofold:

1. The user posting the bounty gets helped (and the helper earns a little money);
2. Depending on the job on hand, and the conditions agreed upon, it could even be possible to donate the product to the project as well. Example: a very nice script ends up in the next version of FreeNAS, a very well written tutorial ends up in the next version of the manual, etc.

Of course, there needs to be thought about how exactly to do this (escrow function comes to mind), but anyway, I am just suggesting something that proves useful @ other fora as well :)

Bye,

 

[cyberjock]

Uuuuuuggggg..... not sure how I feel about this.. lol.

There aren't many people that know FreeNAS through-and-through. There's still lots I could learn (but apparently this is the norm even when you are a certified expert in FreeBSD).

Those that work at iX would be except for obvious reasons (not to mention they do NOT join the forums because the signal to noise ratio is horrible), and the number of people here that can provide help that would be worth paying for can probably be counted on one hand.

Then you got the whole "what if someone doesn't pay" type of thing. I've personally had people try to stiff me before when I did contract work for people in the forum. You'd be surprised how many people want you to spend 4+ hours on their server for $20. I just don't think people would make the dollar amounts worthwhile.

I think it would be a fail before it started. People see the "Free" in "FreeNAS" and they expect the world... for free! The OS is free, but that's about it. Too many just won't get that through their head.

 

[DVitoD]

There's still lots I could learn (but apparently this is the norm even when you are a certified expert in FreeBSD).

Doubt it :D

Those that work at iX would be except for obvious reasons (not to mention they do NOT join the forums because the signal to noise ratio is horrible), and the number of people here that can provide help that would be worth paying for can probably be counted on one hand.

As far as I know the people behind pfSense also don't join in the bounties; it's purely a community initiative :)

Then you got the whole "what if someone doesn't pay" type of thing. I've personally had people try to stiff me before when I did contract work for people in the forum.

That's why the escrow function came to my mind immediately.

You'd be surprised how many people want you to spend 4+ hours on their server for $20. I just don't think people would make the dollar amounts worthwhile.

The beauty of a bounty is: if a skilled person doesn't want it, he simply doesn't do it. I am considered a 'senior expert' (platinum, is what it is actually called), in SAP. I see companies struggling with that system for months, something I can fix in 10 minutes. If they pay me, I'll do it: remotely, 'spro' (go to SAP customizing) and fix it.

I think it would be a fail before it started. People see the "Free" in "FreeNAS" and they expect the world... for free! The OS is free, but that's about it. Too many just won't get that through their head.

I know, that is the problem. I am not like that. I donate to the FreeBSD Foundation, to pfSense, to Debian, to XBMC, to PC-BSD (in the past, but I don't currently use it anymore as I couldn't get it to work nicely about 2 years ago) and so on and so forth. Not large amounts (50 bucks a piece/a time, I'm not rich), but I do donate. It's simple logic: developers need beer too :D

 

[DrKK]

If you know the devs at iX, you'd know they don't need beers to confound their already tenuous grasp of reality, @DVitoD.

Just sayin! :)

 

[cyberjock]

I think the real limitations of this (whether I like this idea or not) is who to manage the escrow account. I know iXsystems would never ever volunteer for the job. They don't want to manage the forums and they *certainly* don't want to manage an escrow account either. ;)

Obviously we could have someone in the community manage it, but if that person decides to take the money and run, then there would literally be no recourse.

 

[zambanini]

@jkh would this be a solution for https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/1301

 

[DVitoD]

@jkh would this be a solution for https://bugs.pcbsd.org/issues/1301

:D:D:D:D:D

:)p)

Think you are in the wrong thread :)

 

[zambanini]

no. bounties may make more sense with coding. other work like help requests could be done with odesk or freelancer.com reinventing the wheel would be a waste of time. this platforms are wellEstablished and do the payment part. anyway, I doubt the need for this.

 

[DVitoD]

no. bounties may make more sense with coding. other work like help requests could be done with odesk or freelancer.com reinventing the wheel would be a waste of time. this platforms are wellEstablished and do the payment part. anyway, I doubt the need for this.

You make a valid point: there are already established services out in the market place.

Yet: I didn't understand the part in your text I made bold. Why not put coding on freelancer.com then?

These platforms take up to 40% margin. Which only adds to the costs of the members that want something built, as the dev will gross his price.

A CEO of a huge multinational once told me: 'anything you can do in house - do in house'. He was my mentor a long time ago in my management traineeship :D

 

[zambanini]

because jkh and his team decides if and which code they will accept. code reviews, maintaining, tests... this is not copy and paste.