About putting explicit bounty link in bugtrackers

[Ilmari Lauhakangas]

On 30.1.2021 11.58, julien2412 wrote:
> Reading a French page
> https://linuxfr.org/users/qdm/journaux/programmes-de-bug-bounty-dans-les-projets-libres-en-general-et-libreoffice-en-particulier
> about bounties in FLOSS and LO specifically, I wonder if it could be
> interesting to add a bounty link in bugtracker.
> 
> I mean, we all know we got a pb of human resources to fix bugs so we need to
> be able to motivate people/newcomers.
> Of course bounties is not a new idea but perhaps it would help to increase
> its visibility by putting an explicit link (and perhaps also a field
> displaying total amount so in a search it could be sorted with it?)
> Now I must recognize I don't know websites/softs about bounties/crowfunding
> and don't know too if Bugzilla can be easily customisable, it's just an
> idea.

I've studied and written about FOSS bounty platforms for almost a 
decade. Example in Finnish: 
https://coss.fi/blogiartikkelit/avoimeen-lahdekoodiin-erikoistunut-joukkorahoitus/

FOSS bounty platforms never took off despite efforts started all the way 
back in 1998. Instead, people moved to subscription-based platforms that 
provide continuous funding for individuals and teams. The only 
LibreOffice contributor on these platforms is Andreas Kainz: 
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=10071325

The only active "old school" FOSS bounty platform that I know is 
Bountysource. It charges a 10% fee, so is not very attractive for devs 
compared to the subscription-based alternatives.

Then there are a bunch of platforms revolving around cryptocurrencies.

There are also https://issuehunt.io/ and https://gitpay.me/ but they 
have a self-imposed vendor lock-in with GitHub.

I think for all the cases, where a bunch of users want to fund 
something, they should start by seeking out a developer willing to take 
on the job. This is usually the hardest part.

Perhaps as a concrete challenge for these types of users one could 
propose: make it so Andreas Kainz reaches his first goal on Patreon. 
This would prove that there is actual interest in crowdfunding stuff. 
The current very low level of dedication proves the opposite.

Overall, rather than investing time into bounty platforms, I find it 
more realistic to recruit some dev willing to have a presence on a 
subscription-based platform, seek enough regular fund for them and make 
them attack specific categories of issues, possibly through some 
popularity contest or poll.

FOSS-friendly subscription-based platforms:
https://liberapay.com/
https://snowdrift.coop/
https://opencollective.com/

Ilmari