I'm pretty sure we have a problem when one of the most notable voices in the community responds to a "well, you could hire folks to implement things for you" like this:

And folks wonder why I'm on burn out leave at the moment. Like, we really need to have a serious conversation about just how much free and unpaid labour we're all relying on here. If I can't pay my rent, then I can't contribute to open source, it's that fucking simple.

#opensource #mastodon #activitypub

@thisismissem Hey, Emelia. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I was talking to Renaud about how I could start contributing to the Mastodon codebase. I thought you were joking when you interrupted to say that I should pay you to do it instead. Like, "I want to take up sewing" followed by "Oh, you should buy clothes at a store instead." Next time I will be more careful and take you more literally. Good luck in your work.

@evan I said what I said because the mastodon codebase, especially the AP parts, is quite complex, and you'd need a lot of rails & codebase experience, hence suggesting if the goal is to land features, it may be easier to hire people rather than attempting complex work on your own.

I'm not saying don't contribute, just the barrier to contributing is quite high, so depending on your goal, hiring an active contributor could get you to your goal faster & easier.

I read your goal as adding AP features you think are missing, not as you wanting to become involved with the project as a code contributor

@thisismissem cool, thanks for the explanation. I'm sorry I didn't understand your perspective.