Steve George <st...@futurile.net> writes: > On 25 Oct, Ricardo Wurmus wrote: >> Steve George <st...@futurile.net> writes: >> >> > One concern with supporting developers is whether it demotivates them >> > in the long-term: from intrinsic to extrinisic motivation. Basically, >> > the answer is that pay doesn't motivate but it does 'enable' for >> > committed contributors: the Linux foundation survey shows this, >> > there's also various academic pieces on FOSS motivation. >> >> Paying some people also has the potential of eroding motivation for >> those who are not paid. > (...) > > Yes, I've heard this concern both in other FOSS communities and in Guix. > > I actually haven't see any evidence that this is the case. Maybe you have?
I have not personally observed this in communities like ours, but I'm not particularly perceptive and more importantly lack experience with other communities resembling ours, so this isn't saying much. I only know of studies of traditional "workplace" environments (for-profit and non-profit), where wage equity and a perception of fairness in terms of co-worker wages have a much stronger impact on employee satisfaction and extrinsic motivation than the absolute value of remuneration. A stronger preference for perceived fairness with respect to peer wages has been observed in non-profits where the level and importance of intrinsic motivation is assumed to be higher than in for-profit environments. It is not clear whether these findings are applicable to our loose organizational structure, but I found it worth mentioning. > If there were more developers > able to sustain their efforts on Guix, I'd personally be happy for > them. I would, too. -- Ricardo
