
Show HN: Drive development of missing features from any open source project - shaharsol
http://codemill.io/for-open-source
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brudgers
An interesting idea. It looks like there is a point in time at which the
developer has produced and delivered code but has not been paid.

What steps does the platform take to prevent developers from getting stiffed?

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shaharsol
Yes, there is this point at time between the pull request and the merge. We
didn't build any engine to support a possible negligence by the client who
sponsors the work. However we do believe that clients won't just "submit" work
orders and then ignore them.

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brudgers
Because Github allows pull requests to be reviewed prior to merging, what
protects the developer from someone just using their work without paying? It
seems that the platform pushes all the financial risk on the developer.

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shaharsol
This is true also outside of the platform and in any business whatsoever. The
payee is always at risk of not being paid. That said I believe this system
will overall prove to reduce risk for developers and increase overall
collecting ratio. The tasks that are being dealt here are meant to be small
and specific. Not full scale projects. And once a merge happens, the payment
is immediate. Also, a developer that uses this system heavily will have a
never ending pipeline of work and won't be required to do marketing and
customer care anymore, so all in all, their monthly income will increase.

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brudgers
Just to be clear that the payee is not always at risk, I am in the habit of
requiring retainers applicable against final invoice, i.e. the risk rides with
the payer not the payee. In other words my clients are typically vetted by
requiring them to write a check and pay for the work I do not "only if they
like it".

Anyway, I expect that the problem this is meant to solve is more likely to be
driven by the supply side than the demand side...there's an unending line of
people who want better free software and a shortage of people who are capable
of delivering it with quality.

On the other hand, if the platform backs up developers against non-payment,
then there is an alignment of interests toward screening for good customers.
It would also put some money behind the assumption that the payees are going
to tend to be good actors.

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fiatjaf
This tagline isn't making justice to this awesome idea (I had a very similar
idea some time ago, so I will say this)!

I hope people start using it. Also, I want the answers for brudger's questions
too.

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shaharsol
What would be a better tagline in your opinion?

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fiatjaf
I don't know, it's just an impression I had. But I'm not even a native English
speaker so I'm probably wrong.

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fiatjaf
I'm having trouble to open a task. What exactly should I do after opening an
issue on GitHub? I don't see any special tags on the repo I added to CodeMill.

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shaharsol
If by accident you've opened the issue before applying CodeMill to the repo,
or added the codemill$price tag in an edit action (github doesn't fire
webhooks on edit issues) then please simply add a new comment to the issue
with the codemill$price tag and it will work

~~~
fiatjaf
Right, I missed this magic string behavior, and after I had a problem with the
edit thing, but now I finally made it. I'm a cheapo.

