> I would personally contribute to OSS more if it didn't feel like I was doing community service but rather actually getting paid for my time.
If you want that, you probably should look at UpWork instead of GitHub. Bounties are a nice way of prioritizing things, but most OSS projects won't get the kind of OSS contributions they want for the kind of money they need, simply because the kind of contributors they want can get 10x better pay on the job market, so why they should bother with OS when they can freelance?
Discounting the recent trends of companies open-sourcing stuff to build a market for themselves elsewhere, open source was always, first and foremost, doing a community service. This aspect is why OSS developers put time into it instead of getting extra paid work.
> but most OSS projects won't get the kind of OSS contributions they want for the kind of money they need, simply because the kind of contributors they want can get 10x better pay on the job market, so why they should bother with OS when they can freelance?
It would still be nice for those who are interested in working on those issues regardless of payment.
If you want that, you probably should look at UpWork instead of GitHub. Bounties are a nice way of prioritizing things, but most OSS projects won't get the kind of OSS contributions they want for the kind of money they need, simply because the kind of contributors they want can get 10x better pay on the job market, so why they should bother with OS when they can freelance?
Discounting the recent trends of companies open-sourcing stuff to build a market for themselves elsewhere, open source was always, first and foremost, doing a community service. This aspect is why OSS developers put time into it instead of getting extra paid work.