

Gittip - Set up recurring tips to people who do great work. - jordanmessina
https://www.gittip.com/

======
lazerwalker
I love the idea, but I'm not so keen on the name.

The mission statement gives examples of how this is a great idea for
musicians, coffee shop owners, and other generally smart people ("genius
grants for the rest of us"). On the other hand: the name, the required GitHub
authentication, and the list of suggested tippees all strongly imply that this
is solely for programmers. This says to me that the grand plan is to start out
by focusing on programers (which makes sense, since it's a group of people who
are on the whole really good at recognizing and rewarding people and projects
that make their jobs easier), and to eventually expand from there.

The problem with this is that 'Gittip' is an incredibly technically-focused
name; it makes perfect sense in context of tipping your favorite GitHub
contributors, but not so much when your average non-engineer Joe wants to give
money to the guy who makes his coffee every morning.

~~~
whit537
You know, I thought the same thing. The idea started as a tipjar for Github
and I bought Gittip.com, but then I realized it was much bigger, so I decided
to use Logstown.com, a domain I already own. But then I was talking to my bro-
in-law this past weekend, a non-technical musician, and he was like "Logstown
makes me think I'm taking a dump. I like Gittip a lot better." So I renamed it
back.

He has no idea what git and github are, so the name gittip to him is just a
nice, symmetrical name that has "tip" in it and evocations of "gift."

Go figure.

Look at the way that "bit" and "wiki" have evolved beyond BitTorrent and the
WikiWikiWeb. I console myself by hoping that with gittip, the same is maybe
happening to "git."

~~~
jmathai
> [Insert name] makes me think I'm taking a dump.

That's about as good of feedback as you can ask for.

~~~
whit537
:D

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aristidesfl
This is potentially nefarious to everyone.

1\. People perform poorly, creative and intellectually, when there is a reward
at stake, specially if it is cash. This is proved by multiple studies.

2\. Small cash compensations will shift the focus from the main reason people
enjoy to code and contribute. Worst, if the amount of cash reward is inferior
to the true value of the work they do (and it will be), people will feel
undervalued and loose motivation. Either pay them well, or not pay at all.

3\. It will be a constant remainder they should be making real money instead
of making tips on github.

4\. The system benefits developers by popularity instead of quality. Besides
popular developers are those who need it the least.

5\. Popularity and profit will poison the minds of the young Jedi's while
coding thus decreasing overall code quality, creativity and productivity.

~~~
whit537
It's also potentially virtuous.

1\. Gittips aren't a paycheck, they are a no-strings-attached gift.

2\. Small cash compensations will free people up to contribute to society on
their own terms rather than wasting their time surfing Facebook in a cubicle.

3\. It might be a reminder that their society values the contributions they
make based on their passions and interests and not on their utility to a
corporation.

4\. Popular developers know who is doing the grunt work and deserves more
recognition. They can call out such people via Twitter, etc. In the future I
can imagine upgrading Gittip to allow high earners to distribute higher
amounts per person per week.

5\. Young Jedis will be incentivized to add true value to society as
adjudicated by the wise crowd, rather than answering to a monolithic
corporation as their societal proxy.

~~~
aristidesfl
The only argument which makes sense at the light of what I said is number 4.

~~~
whit537
You'll have to say more if you want to try to merge horizons.

~~~
aristidesfl
The open source community works well despite, and thanks to, no money being
involved (at least explicitly). The motivation obviously exists without money,
and the results are better because of that.

So, there is no problem to solve, just potential to poison one of the biggest
qualities.

The only argument which makes sense at the light of this, is number 4, and
that is an interesting problem. Distribution of wealth.

~~~
whit537
Where I'm coming from is that I want to work on open source software, and I
get really down on the hoops I have to jump through to do it--consulting,
employment, starvation. I want to add value to society and I want society to
value me in a more direct way.

Tips are small so there's no strings attached. That's different than with
other uses of money.

------
albertsun
It appears some of the people who you can tip on the site actually had the tip
jars set up for them without their knowledge. I think this was on HN before
about why that isn't cool.

[http://krisstraub.com/2011/11/20/kachingle-and-the-
transgres...](http://krisstraub.com/2011/11/20/kachingle-and-the-
transgression-of-opt-out/)

~~~
carols10cents
What if you could pledge a tip to someone but your card wouldn't actually be
charged until they accepted?

~~~
whit537
Hmmm ...

I imagined money accumulating over time until it was significant. Then finding
out about it would be like getting a call that you won a genius grant.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Fellows_Program>

I could see this as a possible compromise if opt-out turns out to really suck
as bad as with Kachinga.

------
devfuel
Is an interesting idea. Presumably taxes are the responsibility of the
recipient when they "withdraw"?

Also, would it be appropriate to have a widget? Includes stuff like:

-"Hey. Here is how you can support this work"

-Gittip Overview Link

-Github handle

-Public income numbers

Or is that too "gimme"? Is this meant to be more of a "for hackers by hackers"
thing? Or more mainstream?

~~~
whit537
Gifts don't count as income in the US. There's a gift tax on the donor, but
that doesn't kick in until you give $13,000 per person per year. Not sure
about other countries.

Widget: Heck yeah! Wanna write one? :-)

Intended to be mainstream, starting w/ Github. But Guido isn't on Github, only
Google+. :-(

~~~
devfuel
Yeah...i had to look at the distinction between "gifts" and "tips" a bit on
the IRS site. I am sure a tax accountant can clarify, but (in my mind) the
name "gittip" had put it informally in the tip category. A little digging made
it seem like that was a restaurant-related thing. Does simply earmarking money
as a "gift" make it so? Is it a special rule in restaurants (in US) that
prevent you from giving a "gift" instead of a "tip"? But I digress.

Perhaps it is just a potential FAQ situation: "If I get some 'gittips' what
are my tax responsibilities?"

------
rys
Do you really think the tips should be recurring to the same person every
week, rather than also having a one off option? Also, once you've started
tipping someone, it's possible to stop?

~~~
whit537
a) Eating isn't a one-off option. Expenses are recurring so income must be
too. I can imagine a one-off option down the road.

b) Yes, it's trivial to stop. And because tips are anonymous, there's no
social awkwardness to stopping a tip.

~~~
rys
Of course eating isn't a one-off option, but it's highly unlikely that anyone
will be using income from this to make ends meet. Mirroring the tip analogy
offline, I don't go into my favourite restaurant and tip the service staff
there every week, even if I haven't eaten; it only happens if I eat there. It
seems to me that one-off tips will be a heavily requested thing at least.

Great idea, I hope it really takes off.

~~~
whit537
Yeah, you're probably right.

<https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/5>

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zalew
From the name I thought it's about sending tips to someone (like tips &
tricks) how he could improve his code via some git pull request or something.

------
whitmo
Kickass!

