[HF-discuss] Incentives for contributions, project ideas

[Tillmann Vogt]

Dear fellow Haskell programmers,

I just read the whitepaper. Quote:


"Haskell Foundation will identify a list of technical goals that will 
ease adoption and improve Haskell use in production. We have established 
an initial agenda and are seeking to refine it as we go forward. As HF 
evolves, we will engage technical discussion in a transparent way, with 
input from the community."


For me improvements are about
- finding the biggest pain points
- efficient communication
- incentives to fix problems

There are a lot of places that are embarassing. For example in Ubuntu, 
if I enter "haskell" into the search box of synaptics, I get 
"haskell-platform 2014".
A programmer may think: "Is this language dead?"

There are many projects that drown in open issues on github, where I 
really feal pity for the poor maintainer. We all don't have time.
It could get better if we had
- a good strategy on what to fix first
- incentives
- automation (I am working on something which I will announce soon)


Here are some ideas how to fix this:


Reporting of Error Messages, Lowering the barrier to report pain points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A global variable set in bash that makes GHC send error messages 
anonymously to a central database. For example someone changes code and 
then thousands of people have the same problem, you know how urgent a 
fix is. All that would be needed is to ask people during installation if 
they want to allow this (opt in). Of course data has to be carefully 
accumulated so that it is really anonymous.


Virtual Currency to incentivise fixing of Github/Gitlab issues
--------------------------------------------------------------

Example problem: I am not smart enough to fix an issue in Cabal. I sit 
there one day, trying to understand Cabal. I don't get it and give up. I 
decide to work on an other issue and hope someone else will fix it 
eventually. Unfortunately it does not happen.

Solution:
For some problems I am smart enough to fix them. What if there would be 
a virtual currency that pays me for solving these issues. Depending on 
how important an issue is I would then invest my virtual coins to fix 
the cabal issue.


Concrete implementation:

A big table that lists Github/Gitlab (especially GHC) issues. Sortable 
after topic, urgency, bounty coins when it is fixed, ...

A database with all e-mails that are currently on hackage, pepole on 
several mailing list get an initial amount of coins. New people only get 
initial coins when they have published code of a certain quantity and 
quality.

A simple entry mask with your e-mail/github name, the link to the 
github/gitlab issue, bounty coins you are willing to spend if certain 
conditions are met


Arguments against it:
It's a little bit like capitalism against communism. In communism you 
have a board of leaders of the party. There are no incentives apart from 
making the ideology win and medals, like "hero of work" (the stars on 
github). I understand that there was no other way to do make Haskell 
happen but Open Source and volunteers. It would not be financable.
And I also admit that the current board is really impressive.

Capitalism on the other side is very problem focused, increases the 
idiviudal motivation, but makes people focused too much on the money. It 
could lead to messages like: Give me coins, or I don't fix the issue. 
But for this, A leader board could decide that you are punished if you 
talk about coins on github.


If a first test works, virtual coins could be buyable with real money. 
This could be a source of income for the foundation.


I would be willing to program this for free and open source. I am 
currently making a web page anyway. BTW you don't have to be nice, feel 
free to be negative and critical.


- Tillmann Vogt