I'm disappointed at the standard being set for bounties.
It has been half a month since the release of hist.nostr.land, which was made to fulfill fiatjaf (nprofile…9h9m) 's bounty for a relay that kept old contact lists. Since then, I have not been paid, with my submission being initially dismissed for not meeting criteria not mentioned in the bounty post, with the only time estimate for payment I have gotten a few days after that being "this year", and no further follow ups after that.
This sets a dangerous precedent and creates a bigger power imbalance between people offering bounties and developers: developers can have their submission dismissed on terms that were never mentioned, and the people offering bounties can postpone payment for however long they please, while developers have to open source what they made before they get paid to be eligible.
A bounty is already a risk for developers: someone can claim it before them, and their efforts could go to waste. Setting precedent that allows people to postpone payment to developers for whatever reason and add arbitrary terms will only reduce the amount of people willing to work on bounties, and goes against common practice:
You pay first (or sign a contract and/or escrow funds), and once the work is complete, you have to pay. No subjective terms, no arbitrary rejections, if it meets the terms then you get paid. Bounties as they are completely flip this on their head by requiring people open source their work without a guarantee to get their promised amount, and terms can be added after the fact.
We can't do much about this due to the nature of bounties, but we have a few options to improve the situation:
- For fiatjaf (nprofile…9h9m) and others to pay bounties when it meets the terms without adding arbitrary terms after or withholding payment. If you don't have the money to pay right now then don't make a bounty.
- Switch to alternative solutions. Grants after project release do not work as they rely on some entity like OpenSats to accept the project after developers have done all the work, with no guarantees since they can be rejected due to whatever reason, such as it not matching with the vision of the grantor or due to personal issues. The ideal solution is to have a contracting system: have some group of people escrow funds, have clear defined terms, and only pick one developer (and add more later if nothing gets done).
Semisol
npub1226…grkj
2024-02-27 17:13:41
Author Public Key
npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkjPublished at
2024-02-27 17:13:41Event JSON
{
"id": "7894b7b7d71abae645615fe75f7dacbef8d85d3c4bd8dbe6c27b2605996feec0",
"pubkey": "52b4a076bcbbbdc3a1aefa3735816cf74993b1b8db202b01c883c58be7fad8bd",
"created_at": 1709050421,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d",
"wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com/",
"fiatjaf"
],
[
"p",
"3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d",
"wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com/",
"fiatjaf"
]
],
"content": "I'm disappointed at the standard being set for bounties.\n\nIt has been half a month since the release of hist.nostr.land, which was made to fulfill nostr:nprofile1qyd8wumn8ghj7urewfsk66ty9enxjct5dfskvtnrdakj7qgmwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8wetnw3jhymnzw33jucm0d5hsqgpm7rrrljungc6q0tuh5hj7ue863q73qlheu4vywtzwhx42a7j9n5zr9h9m 's bounty for a relay that kept old contact lists. Since then, I have not been paid, with my submission being initially dismissed for not meeting criteria not mentioned in the bounty post, with the only time estimate for payment I have gotten a few days after that being \"this year\", and no further follow ups after that.\n\nThis sets a dangerous precedent and creates a bigger power imbalance between people offering bounties and developers: developers can have their submission dismissed on terms that were never mentioned, and the people offering bounties can postpone payment for however long they please, while developers have to open source what they made before they get paid to be eligible.\n\nA bounty is already a risk for developers: someone can claim it before them, and their efforts could go to waste. Setting precedent that allows people to postpone payment to developers for whatever reason and add arbitrary terms will only reduce the amount of people willing to work on bounties, and goes against common practice:\nYou pay first (or sign a contract and/or escrow funds), and once the work is complete, you have to pay. No subjective terms, no arbitrary rejections, if it meets the terms then you get paid. Bounties as they are completely flip this on their head by requiring people open source their work without a guarantee to get their promised amount, and terms can be added after the fact.\n\nWe can't do much about this due to the nature of bounties, but we have a few options to improve the situation:\n- For nostr:nprofile1qyd8wumn8ghj7urewfsk66ty9enxjct5dfskvtnrdakj7qgmwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8wetnw3jhymnzw33jucm0d5hsqgpm7rrrljungc6q0tuh5hj7ue863q73qlheu4vywtzwhx42a7j9n5zr9h9m and others to pay bounties when it meets the terms without adding arbitrary terms after or withholding payment. If you don't have the money to pay right now then don't make a bounty.\n- Switch to alternative solutions. Grants after project release do not work as they rely on some entity like OpenSats to accept the project after developers have done all the work, with no guarantees since they can be rejected due to whatever reason, such as it not matching with the vision of the grantor or due to personal issues. The ideal solution is to have a contracting system: have some group of people escrow funds, have clear defined terms, and only pick one developer (and add more later if nothing gets done).",
"sig": "9f3720dcef778645fa0a94732177e76e48e2c9aa62da593b6c30efe46f7c494bcab72f6e71d2f5615a0be458cf7a485f994110dc6da867a2927e981db5029482"
}