StackAid

Infrastructure

open source funding

SHOW HN2022

226points
129comments
#234of 2,570 in 2022
Top 10%of 2022 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

12 positive, 40 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 23 critical, out of 80 comments about the project. Thread score -0.13.

Idea: 8 for, 20 againstPricing: 1 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Good idea for funding open source dependencies

    From 3 comments
    • Congrats guys and I wish you succeed with this project! This is the fist time I see a pyramid scheme that's actually a good thing :D
      moralestapia on HN
    • Super fantastic idea. Signed up. Thanks for sharing!
      soulofmischief on HN
    • I think this is an awesome idea, do you have a newsletter or twitter that I can follow for updates?
      raybb on HN
  • Simulation shows reasonable allocation outcomes

    From 1 comment
    • I love this idea. I just tried with a package.json of mine and 33% of the money seems to go to Microsoft/TypeScript, which seems odd for a bunch of reasons: they don't seem to…
      fabiospampinato on HN

Objections

  • Automatic allocation does not fit all dependency types

    From 2 comments
    • Interesting idea, but I'm not sure that the automatic allocation model would make logical sense for many of my projects. Some of my dependencies are complicated, critical,…
      kube-system on HN
    • I think the automated allocation is the major concern here. Otherwise, a good model.
      upen946 on HN
  • Companies like Stripe or Meta should not receive donations

    From 3 comments
    • Super interesting, however you need an option for "this company commercially backs this repo so there is no need to donate". Let's be honest, it's hard for me to justify giving a…
      mbesto on HN
    • Seems interesting... But I wouldn't want to waste my donation to a multi-billion dollar company like stripe who should be paying for their own client library development, which…
      cphoover on HN
    • StackAid founder here. There are a couple of questions that keep coming up that I thought I would address in one place. - People don't want to give money to Stripe, Meta, etc…
      nevernude on HN
  • Gaming risk via splitting projects or spammy packages

    From 4 comments
    • How do you deal with the issue that a project might split itself in multiple modular parts to maximize the income from this scheme? If StackAid becomes popular, I could see…
      BazookaMusic on HN
    • This is a well executed idea, the minus is that it is going to incentivize npm managers to create more and more spammy packages. Isn't there a risk that the creators of is-odd,…
      rvnx on HN
    • > So we built StackAid, a service that automatically discovers and funds your direct and indirect (second order) open source dependencies with a monthly subscription. Just to…
      OJFord on HN
    • Could be that the model is more sophisticated that the quoted text below suggests, but if it isn't ... Well, let's say I maintain a popular package SexyAndUseful, I sign up with…
      jonnycomputer on HN
  • Heavily reliant on GitHub and misses non-GitHub projects

    From 2 comments
    • The idea is nice, but it seems heavily reliant on GitHub: > Owners of open source projects can claim their repositories by installing the StackAid GitHub app. As part of the…
      mid-kid on HN
    • And pay 7.5%(!) of it to a company based in the US. When reallocating funds back after numerous project won't install some github app to claim the money collected on their…
      yaddaor on HN

Requests

  • Support for GitLab, Bitbucket and non-JavaScript ecosystems

    From 3 comments
    • The idea is nice, but it seems heavily reliant on GitHub: > Owners of open source projects can claim their repositories by installing the StackAid GitHub app. As part of the…
      mid-kid on HN
    • what's the thinking around supporting projects that aren't node based? I've got tons of dependencies but none of them involve JS. Also, what many node devs have multiple projects…
      masukomi on HN
    • something similar for java dependencies?
      pagutierrezn on HN
  • Ability to exclude or weight specific projects

    From 3 comments
    • The idea is nice, but it seems heavily reliant on GitHub: > Owners of open source projects can claim their repositories by installing the StackAid GitHub app. As part of the…
      mid-kid on HN
    • [Edit: Wrong, see replies] I love the idea, but the math doesn't seem to check out on the simulation: The sum of the donation greatly exceeds the donated sum, even on the example…
      AntonyGarand on HN
    • Interesting idea, but I'm not sure that the automatic allocation model would make logical sense for many of my projects. Some of my dependencies are complicated, critical,…
      kube-system on HN
  • Longer claim window for funds

    From 1 comment
    • This kind of looks like https://flattr.com/ but specifically for dev/dependencies. Not sure I like that there's "only" a two-month limit in which funds can be claimed, though.…
      wackget on HN

Questions

  • What happens to funds for projects that never claim them

    From 2 comments
    • If a library author or maintainer isn't a Stackaid user, what happens to their allocated funds?
      basetensucks on HN
    • And pay 7.5%(!) of it to a company based in the US. When reallocating funds back after numerous project won't install some github app to claim the money collected on their…
      yaddaor on HN
  • How tax implications are handled

    From 1 comment
  • Whether non-claiming projects are paid via other channels

    From 1 comment
    • After a few months if the funds aren't claimed we will reallocate them to a subscriber's other direct dependencies. For the time being, if you accepting funds via GitHub…
      nevernude on HN

Alternatives named

  • Tidelift

    From 1 comment
    • This sounds a lot like Tidelift, without their enterprise supply chain features?
      dflock on HN
  • Flossbank

    From 1 comment
    • Are you thinking of Flossbank[1]? We are currently structured as an LLC. Are there specific concerns you have that would prevent you from using StackAid because of that choice?…
      nevernude on HN
  • LibreSelery

    From 1 comment
    • We tried something similar in the past: https://github.com/protontypes/LibreSelery Donation were distributed entirely through the CoinBase api by sending emails to each developer…
      protontypes on HN
  • GitHub Sponsors

    From 1 comment
    • This is really cool. Is there a way to use this with Rust, yet? I'd be interested to donate say $15/m and then specify repos of mine, maybe mixed with some manually specified…
      lijogdfljk on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

Add a badge to your READMEShown on HackerShow
[![Shown on HackerShow](https://hackershow.org/badge.svg)](https://hackershow.org/show/32837829)