Long-time lurker, never-time poster on HN, I'm a team member and wanted to mention that we had updated the post title since the OP to clarify that it was an application.
I really like the crowdmatching mechanism, and also in this article it is explained very comprehensively. I did not consider the 'burn out' of donors before, for instance (always thinking from the perspective of the dev team).
> Put another way, we each get to say, "I'm not willing to sacrifice all I can while everyone else freerides… but I am willing to be part of the crowd and part of the movement, if enough others help too!"
> It is also low risk: if very few patrons join a project, very little resources will be spent. Thus, we can escape the pattern where projects are kept going by relatively few dedicated donors and volunteers who struggle to carry the burden until they burn out.
Thanks! When I first grasped the idea, it really felt like one of the few FLOSS projects that could actually change the world. It has been a bit over 5 years since then, but I still believe in it.
That said, we've had a number of technical and organizational hurdles to overcome. As an entirely volunteer driven effort, which has gone lengths to avoid sacrificing core FLO values, progress is not always visible, and always seems to take longer than we'd hope.
I love that approach, even if it is the hardest way to bootstrap an initiative such as Snowdrift. I think you have the world much to learn about sustainable business in the purest form already, but certainly once opeations really pick up <3
Long-time lurker, never-time poster on HN, I'm a team member and wanted to mention that we had updated the post title since the OP to clarify that it was an application.