The SCNX Open-Source-Developer-Pool

Hi 👋

We at ScootKit (the company behind SCNX) care about our Open-Source-Developer-Community ♥

So today (actually we began with this program back we in April, but we were to lazy to announce it 😅) we are introducing: The Open-Source-Developer-Pool - designed to give back to our OSS-Developer-Community.

What is this exactly?

It's fairly easy: We charge servers for our PRO-Plan. These servers use Open-Source-Modules from different Open-Source-Developers... So beginning in April we decided to share a part of this money with the actual developers - seems fair, doesn't it?

How does this work?

Every month on the 15th our system first queries how many servers have the PRO-Plan and have the bot enabled. A certain amount gets multiplied with the amount of servers matching the requirements. This multiplied amount is the total pool.
After that, we check the module-configuration of each of these servers and check, how many of the enabled modules are open-source. After that, we the total pool by the amount of open-source-modules enabled in total. The result of this division is the value of one piece. The worth of a piece represents, how much a developer receives for every PRO-Server that has their module enabled. So the amount a developer receives is calculated by counting, how many servers has how many of their modules enabled, multiplicated by the piece value. Quite complicated, but ensures that everyone receives a fair amount of the total pool. Please note that, to encourage active Open-Source-Development, ScootKit will also receive an amount of the pool for open-source modules.

TL;DR:
Amount a developer receives = ((((Amount of PRO-Servers with bot enabled) * (Fixed value)) / (Total enabled OSS-Modules)) * (Count of developer's modules enabled in total))

How much do developers actually receive?

So here is the thing: We can currently not share the amount we use for the calculation, neither can we disclose the amount of public servers currently. While developers will receive a confidential document containing these values, we can not publish them publicly.

As SCNX isn't that big, developers may not receive a lot of money currently. This is the case, because most servers are not paying at all, and even if they pay, most of them aren't on PRO-Plan. Depending on the amount of modules a developer makes (and how useful they are to users), amounts can range from a few cents to a few euros a month - can be enough for a coffee. If SCNX continues to grow, this amount could very easily increase without any additional effort required tough. While these amounts are not really big, actively award "bigger" bounties to updates, improvements and merged PRs, more on that later.

In the last three months of operation a developer received (only from the OSS-Pool, bounties may be much higher) on average 13,40€ / month.
Statistical note: Most developer only have a few modules, while ScootKit has more, so if we leave ScootKit out of these developers, the actual amount is around 3,83€ / month.).
Data from 17th September 2023.

Bounties

If we can afford it (this still is side-project to me, Simon), we may, at our sole discretion, award merged (code) PRs to our public code base (or even closed-source parts) an bounty. This is, usually, an amount between 2,00€ and 25,00€ (based on the contribution & our financial situation), awarded directly to the developer.

Since the introduction of bounties, ScootKit has awarded a total of 139,09€ in bounties to 7 different contributors.
Data from 17th September 2023.

Payouts

Developers can pay out these amounts (currently) in three ways:

Developers can only be paid out in euro. Please note that for any Payout-Methods other than SCNX-Credits, we might be, depending on the amount and region, required to collect further information and to verify your identity - we'll reach out if this is nessasary.

How can I participate?

Currently this whole thing is invite-only. Every developer, that has created public PRs (to CustomBot) in the last 3 months, is already invited and participates in this program. If you create some quality PRs, we may invite you as well, if you have received the Open-Source-Developer-Role on our Discord by applying here. This whole thing is currently in very early stages, we have a lot more planned for developers.

Transparency

ScootKit is commited to transparency. While these amounts in this article seem insignificant, it's important to remember that we are not that big and actually loose money running SCNX. We commit to continue offering this program in the future.  

Legal stuff

ScootKit is not required to run this program. ScootKit has the right to modify, change, remove or revoke any parts of this program at any time without prior warning. This program is run without any liability and you are not entitled to any amount of compensation at any time - this program's purpose is to reward developers and should not be used as actual income, DO NOT (and DO NEVER) become dependent on this program or any money you may receive at any time - we can stop this program at any time and deny payouts without reason or prior notice. Please note that you are required to handle taxes, income reporting, … yourself. When getting payed out to a bank account, we'll generate an invoice to ourselves in your name to document your payment. Please note that, depending on your region, you might need to register a business. Please check with a lawyer.
This is no legal advice. Our Terms of Service apply fully.