

Gittip: New, Interesting, Important - justinlilly
http://justinlilly.com/misc/gittip.html

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jnbiche
I noticed this a few weeks ago and like the idea. I hope it catches on. I
think Gittip could really benefit from Bitcoin integration, since it would
lower the cost of micropayments to almost nothing.

EDIT: ANd yes, to be clear, Gittip is not down -- it's hosted by github if I'm
not mistaken. The actual address is: <http://www.gittip.com>

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jerguismi
Bitcoin would also make gittip international. Currently payouts work only in
US. This severely limits the possibilities.

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whit537
For reference, here's the Bitcoin ticket:

<https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/14>

And here's the non-US payouts ticket:

<https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/126>

~~~
whit537
(P.S. It's hosted on Heroku.)

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1qaz2wsx3edc
The problem with gittip is the size of tips developers are collecting. Most
developers have high-end salaries, IMO. The top people on gittip are
collecting around $150/week. For these people that's probably converts to an
hour or two a week of paid equivalent work. Great, so these developers can
handle a couple of merge requests a week, but it doesn't actually enable them
to work on something. Gittip also lacks focus, it doesn't commit a developer
to work on something, it's merely a thank you, a donation. Donation-ware
conversions are super low, you can't expect it to supplement anything.

I think gittip is a neat idea, but I strongly feel that it is a doomed project
unless something changes radically.

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napoleoncomplex
The article talks about the focus issue as well, with the "What do they want
from me?" question. I think that's partly missing the point of Gittip, as is
your first point. All of these people have been contributing to open source
long before Gittip came along, and would continue contributing even without
it. Now they potentially get something a little extra for that, no
obligations, no nothing. As I perceive it, it's not outright meant to be a
platform that makes you quit your job and go open source full time (though
Chad's goal is exactly that). It's just showing open source contributors that
their work is noticed and appreciated. Full time salaries might happen for a
certain percentage if/when the service grows, but I don't see that being a
necessary element of the service.

I see other issues with it, but they're all part of a new developing platform.
Biggest one is the payments/receiving payments issue for anyone outside of the
US, but I think Chad is aware of this as much as anyone.

Another one is psychology of the thing. Seems like a lot of people receiving
money from it experience this awkward response, as if it's somehow wrong to
get money for their open source contributions. I don't know if they undervalue
their work so much, but I hope they realise these rewards are to be proud of,
and that they in no way signify any obligations, but just appreciation of
their work.

Last, an issue that's becoming more evident as the service grows, is a need
for a more structured list of people on the platform and their received
donations. I'd love if there was a possibility of browsing through a subset of
developers, for example Ruby or Android developers, maybe by letting users
fill out an additional field in the sign-up process. The effect of this could
be positive from multiple perspectives. The person donating can focus on
donating in the field they're interested in, and as a bonus, it would be a
great discovery platform for open source projects inside that specific field.
As far as people have commented, it's mostly the Python community now, but
maybe grouping specific communities would also have the effect of it being
more interesting to other communities aside from Python (edited from Django),
and some people would just visit gittip.com/Ruby every day.

In general, I love the idea and I hope it continues to grow. Good luck Chad!

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whit537
Okay, your second-to-last paragraph sent me down a rabbit hole, from which
I've emerged with this:

[https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom...](https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8792611)

The idea of associating individuals with groups (aka communities, projects,
etc.) is one of the trickiest aspects of Gittip. I feel one step closer to
finding a solution that handles the complexity appropriately. Thank you! :^)

(A side note: the givers leaderboard is basically ad real estate available to
companies. We've already got one company, workforpie, using the global givers
leaderboard as such. IMO this is totally within the spirit of Gittip because
their gifts still have no strings attached and are anonymous to the
individuals receiving them. Having different giving leaderboards for separate
communities would create more and better-targeted ad space for companies,
increasing cash into the system.)

~~~
napoleoncomplex
Just my two cents here, maybe it's worth thinking of offering a more loose
relation to specific fields for gittip users instead of projects/corporations,
which isn't related to being compensated for being in that field. Something
like the tag system on Stack Overflow, for example. Considering the broad
scope you mention the platform could have in the future, it could look like
this: upon sign-up, a musician adds tags to his profile, #music and #acoustic,
a programmer adds #programming, #python and #opensource. That way you let your
users build your categories, and your users get a nice filter for their
interests, and as you mention in the side note, companies can get ad space by
donating in the fields they care about.

(I decided to give feedback here, since the issue is more about projects than
communities, and I don't want to mess up the issue content.)

Edit: I forgot to address the issue of people tagging themselves with a
specific project. Maybe it's me, but gittip seems to be oriented around
people, which is why I find the projects aspect confusing. I think a much
simpler solution is currently in place (and maybe should be encouraged for
this case in the future), where companies/teams/projects can sign up with a
single account, and people can decide to donate to that account, and the
companies/teams/projects solve the money split internally. I know you've done
a lot of thinking on the projects aspect, and there's been a lively debate on
the issue, but personally, it seems as it adds a lot of complexity to the
system, with relatively little benefit.

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whit537
Great thinking.

Let's use the following ticket for tags / communities:

[https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecom...](https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/94#issuecomment-8794419)

I posted your edit to the projects / corporations ticket:

[https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecom...](https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/27#issuecomment-8794461)

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trotsky
It's a pretty safe bet that the money is related to django as the last time i
looked nearly all of the activity on gittip was django related.

And if you're going to define "open company" I think I'd shoot a little higher
than open source project + authorized_keys

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whit537
> [T]he last time i looked nearly all of the activity on gittip was django
> related.

Quick rundown of the top ten, username - known for:

whit537 - gittip

davisagli - plone (python)

readthedocs - readthedocs (python-centric)

jnoller - psf (python)

alex - pypy (python)

mitsuhiko - flask, etc. (python)

zzzeek - sqlalchemy (python)

steveklabnik - ruby

kennethreitz - requests, etc. (python)

antirez - redis

You could argue it's python-heavy, but not django-heavy. And besides, who
cares? You gotta start somewhere. If you're plugged into different
communities, then go spread the word.

> And if you're going to define "open company" I think I'd shoot a little
> higher than open source project + authorized_keys

Please do. :^)

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kingkilr
FWIW I also do work on Django :)

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whit537
Oops. Too late to edit. :^)

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juanbyrge
Gittip is one of the most interesting charity concepts I've seen these past
few weeks.

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PythonDeveloper
LOL... Gittip.org is down, the URL you have in your post should be
"gittip.com".

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whit537
I scrambled and wired up DNS for gittip.org, but not soon enough apparently,
sorry. :^/

Oh well, ready for next time. :^)

