Nicholas Zakas on Sponsoring Dependencies, All The Way Down

📣 Sustainer Talk Podcasts
,
1

Nicholas comes back on the podcast to talk about why it’s important for open source projects to not just get funding, but give that funding downstream to their dependencies too.

Listen at Sustain Episode 142: Nicholas Zakas on Sponsoring Dependencies, All The Way Down

2 Likes
2

These are question for Zakas:

  • what are the cost of running the eslint project? You mention ten people work on it on a daily basis. How are they paid and by whom? What is your estimation of the monthly expense it represents?
  • these salaries are essential to the sustainability of eslint, what is the strategy to ensure they are funded in a sustainable way?
1 Like
3

I think we covered this in the first podcast. Sustain - Nicholas Zakas. You can also see more here: ESLint - Open Collective

4

The first podcast explains eslint is made by people who volunteer their time (when kids are in bed :wink: ) and others who “squeeze an hour here and there” as well as Zakas himself who “helps when he can”. This shows an admirable spirit and is very commendable.

I’m asking about how much such labor is worth, how it is evaluated by the eslint project. When discussing the sustainability of a project which almost entirely depends on people spending time to keep it going, this is arguably the most important factor. OpenCollective does not reflect that: it is only about donations made in the last few years and they are not used to fund maintainers.

Does that clarify my questions?

1 Like
5

I’m not seeing this in their docs, but some information is on the blog. A year of paying contributors: Review - ESLint - Pluggable JavaScript Linter

One question that you’re making me ask, Loïc, is where this information is stored effectively outside of the blog. I think this may belong in a docs page on the GitHub or on the website, or at least links to it. I may be missing something.

2 Likes