I'm going to rant about open source a little, I am so sorry.
So much of open source favors people that ~ have time ~ That usually means:
- They aren't caretakers (i.e. they don't have children or elder family that have care needs) or can rely on a partner to do all of that in their stead.
- They can work long hours outside of their 9-5 jobs which excludes many Disabled people or those that have chronic pain.
- They already have a high paying job, they have health insurance.
- OR you work for a company that values open source for one reason or another (there are some very cynical reasons you can think of there, obviously, the potential for unpaid labor).
But ultimately, at the root, because we live in this hellscape where people can't have healthcare and it's a race to the bottom for wages, it's incredibly exclusionary to Disabled people or any one who considers themselves a caretaker.
it just feels like we're never going to live up to the baseline that open source needs to actually thrive. I don't see the current landscape of burnt out maintainers, especially those that are unfortunate enough to have very popular libraries with no corporate backing, as succeeding? People need healthcare. People need UBI. They need childcare. They need elder care.
Not saying we should give up on OS, but sometimes I'm overwhelmed at what we're missing.
I think about this a lot when I see maintainers who shrug off accessibility requests as "Well make a pull request! It's open source!"
The very people that are experts that you need contributions from aren't included or welcomed in this community.
Then, throw in the complicated mess that is "modern" javascript or just frontend development in general. You expect people to be experts at accessibility, to have the bandwidth to contribute, AND to navigate that landscape?
@hbuchel Yup. Open Source doesn't get to ignore the awful system of incentives and privilege.
It just has a slightly different system of incentives and privilege.
I'm really glad there's an alternative at all, but it only gets to "cheat" a little, not a lot.
It still favours people with money and time, like so much of all current human endeavour.
@hbuchel as some have mentioned previously, this affects many fields, artists among them. I think a big reason many arts conferences skew young (or elderly) is that without proper financial support (paychecks) the grind is so tough that many burn out after 5 or 10 years.
Life can be tough for freelancers. I see the same thing in volunteer radio DJs and other "hobbies". It's a volunteer effort for the greater good.
@hbuchel I would like to see a large marketing effort made to pay the people who write the FOSS applications that many depend on.
I think many consumers value the type of work FOSS contributors are doing. By repeatedly nudging them to financially give to those who freely provide their time and resources, they would be paying the workers directly- and not some profit hungry exec who pays the workers just enough to get by.
I believe that sentiment would resonate with a lot of unaware consumers.
@hbuchel Yup as a married parent who values time with my family, OSS isn’t really an option.
Even if it was, the idea that it’s virtuous to turn hobby time into effort that benefits corporations is pretty depressing.
Isn’t it the other way around? Turning my work paid by corporations (SUSE in my case) into an opportunity to contribute to FLOSS?
The same mechanisms are used to trim entire groups out of leadership positions and other better paying gigs.
Women. POC. Immigrants. LGBTQ.
The ability to do unpaid overtime is easier for single young white men.
@hbuchel So much of hiking favours people that ~ have time ~ That usually means:
- They aren't caretakers (i.e, they don't have children or elder family that have care needs) or rely on a partner to do all of that in their stead while they're out in the mountains.
- They can hike long hours outside of their 9-5 jobs which excludes many Disabled people or those that have chronic pain.
- They already have a high paying job (can afford hiking gear), they have health insurance (if they get injured)
@hbuchel nope. Your thread is predicated on the idea that an open source project maintainer owes anyone else anything.
They don't. https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier covers this in some detail in a supply chain context, but it applies equally to e.g. PRs received.
Every time you have a PR accepted, or an issue you reported is fixed, the maintainer is going above and beyond their responsibilities to you. Too few people recognise and appreciate that.
For the past few years, we have seen a lot of discussions around the concept of the Software Supply Chain. These discussions started around the time of LeftPad and escalated with multiple incidents in the past few years. The problem of all the work in this domain is that it forgets a fundamental point.
@hbuchel UBI? Great idea, I'm a big fan.
But even if the maintainer of your favourite open source project receives UBI and never needs paid work again, they *still* don't owe you feedback on your PR or issue.
If they do provide that feedback they have chosen to do so, and they are free to make a different choice at any time.
Anything else and you're demanding unpaid labour from volunteers.
@hbuchel A glance through, e.g., my GH issue history will show that I generally make the choice to help and resolve issues wherever I can.
But the thing that makes that possible - and has prevented burnout for more than 30 years of open source contributions - is the sure knowledge that I am making an active choice to do this, it is not an obligation imposed by others, and a willingness to push back on entitled behaviour when I see it.
Same.
https://chaos.social/@onepict/112242171729685943
But I think it's good you ranted. More of us need to.
I just wish we didn't have to do it constantly.
We also can't participate in "Networking" at conferences because of cost, health etc. So many ways in which folks are excluded from any participation in FOSS.
I have some thoughts about FOSS sustainability and burnout. If we want projects to be a part of the commons to encourage the commons to join in, they need to be able to afford to. TLDR: We need universal basic income. Our current systems can't cover everything. If we want to prevent maintainer burnout, we need better support structures. Which isn't going to happen with anymore Orgs set up specially. http://onepict.com/20240409-sustain.html
@hbuchel although I don't disagree with you overall, I have severe chronic pain (due to fibromyalgia) and contribute a lot to open source software due to it rather than despite it
it made existence somewhat tolerable in the many years I spent without having any working treatment, and it was also basically the only thing I could do anyway, as anything more physical or requiring commuting or using public transit a lot was excluded, work or hobby
@hbuchel Is this a rant about open source, or is it just a rant about economy/politics? Essentially: In your opinion, who is doing wrong here?
I don't think you can really berate either open source maintainers or contributors who are just doing as much as they can for the benefit of everybody...
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