Re: GNU Herds vs RMS/FSF -- joining both

[Davi Leal]

> Dave Crossland wrote:
> > I think the FSF jobs site is good for hiring people for full time
> > employment or very large jobs,

IMHO you feel that just because it is listing now such kind of jobs. RMS/FSF 
has been working hard to be able to show such listing.

The FSF could have done it with GNU Herds, to the benefit of all people and 
comunity in general. Instead the easy-money way was chosen.


Matt Lee wrote:
> You are correct [...] in the different goals of the FSF jobs page and
> the GNU Herds jobs page. A place where projects can ask for volunteers
> wouldn't work at $250, and that's not what we're doing here.

GNU Herds was not thought just as a place where ask for volunteers. It was 
designed too to get full time jobs. That helps FS contributors and so fit 
with the aims [1].

  [1] http://gnuherds.org/charter#Aims

> We've created a place for people who are looking for contractors or
> salaried employees, working on or more likely with, free software. These
> people can pay $250.


> I think GNU Herds is building what might be described these days as a
> social network. It's a community of users built around sharing, and jobs
> is just one part of that. That's a great thing.

Nowadays "social network" is an overused term. Any web application which allow 
users registration can be named as social network. The FSF listing could be 
named as "social network" too.

GNU Herds is managed by its own users [2] [3], so IMHO it is not a 
pseudo-controlled social network as some we all know of. IMHO the FSF listing 
seems more a social network than GNU Herds does.

  [2] http://gnuherds.org/charter#Decisions
  [3] http://gnuherds.org/charter#Membership


> Great! Nobody's saying GNU Herds shouldn't exist.
>
> I do think, however, that the current FSF job listing stuff could be
> improved with some of the concepts GNU Herds is using.

Duplication is a waste of effort, I agree.

IMHO, if the FSF renounces to that $250 per offer the community could win a 
lot more than those $250 per offer.  That would be a true-service (gratis) to 
the community and people in general. That was the idea we were proposing to 
RMS. We have spent a lot of energy to work it out.

The FSF proposal is following a too much controlled way which I think will not 
match with the GNU Herds goals [4].

  [4] http://gnuherds.org/faq#JobSite

My feeling is that the FSF has just got the idea with the aim to get money, as 
you as already exposed several times. What a pity!

> The FSF is using Django, and so I think that if possible for Davi to
> rewrite GNU Herds in Django, that could be a useful thing for both the
> project (as Django makes it pretty simple to add new things and gives
> you a lot of stuff out of the box, such as admin interfaces and such),
> and potentially the FSF if we ever decide to develop our jobs page
> beyond the current, manual procedure.

We do not rule out the move to Django but now, IMHO, it has a low priority.