Interesting article on open source leading to burn-outs. It is really important for the user community to help, contribute and pay (whatever they like) to people who work for free.
I think as a growing community we must think about paying contributors. The foundation will go a long way in creating a fund. I hope ERPNext turns out to be different and have ability to give fellowships and stipends to regular contributors.
I personally like the idea of ERPNext becoming a foundation. If done correctly, it will keep Frappe and ERPNext alive and well.
As a small business start-up I don’t have the budget to spend hundreds or thousands on software. However, I would be lost without ERPNext and many other open source projects.
So what can an individual do to help keep ERPNext around?
I have some suggestions, of course;
As you get more familiar with the project you are using for free. Spend a few minutes a day answering questions on the projects forum. Like this one. This will help free up the core developers.
https://discuss.frappe.io
Report potential bugs and provide as much detail as possible. I am a programmer by trade. There is nothing more time consuming than a bug you can’t trace, and nothing more frustrating. Having a community that can assist in gathering information is priceless.
Issues · frappe/erpnext · GitHub
We all get busy and we jump from task to task. When we have an issue we use the forums to ask for the solution. Sometimes we forget to follow-up on the thread we created. My suggestion here is; follow-up on the threads you create. There is nothing more frustrating than a forum thread that has no conclusion to the discussion, or even worse, ends with “I fixed the problem, thanks”. I feel threads like this are only serving an individual, not the group. Follow-up with details.
By the developers a lunch once and awhile. If you are going to lunch, take your smartphone with you. When you get there, use your phone to browse to the projects home page and find the donate button. Eat your lunch. When you pay for your lunch, press the donate button and buy someone else a lunch too.
What else can we do?
Hey @rmehta,
I think this article is spot-on. How does one contribute if so minded? I’d like to support you guys in any way I can (even though all my questions on route_options haven’t been answered ;-)).
Regards,
@zeroxcorbin great list!
(*) I assume when a problem successfully has been solved, a question just been answered the willingness to donate is relatively high. At present it would require a thorough search to do so though.
have you added DONATE button?
Perhaps offering support package for self hosted clients? I want to help funding erpnext but reluctant to signup for erpnext.com not because i have ability to code, i am not a coder by profession but i am a pretty good ‘copy paster’ and i have special love for tinkering with stuffs. I don’t mind paying same price without the hosting.
I would love to have that too. It seems that this existed earlier in time but was ceased by Frappe Ltd.
I assume it’s much less hassle to provide support for something hosted by yourself instead of having to adopt to a system you are unfamiliar with (which supporting self-hosted systems practically includes).
yes, agree for 100% !
@home if you use a quotation of the point or sentence you are referring to it would get much clearer what exactly you are agreeing with
sorry!
I agree with previous post, that I would love to have support package for self hosted clients!