Meteor Software Ending Github Sponsorship

community
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Harry… Interestingly, you bring up the confusion between DevRel and HR, as these are distinct fields with different responsibilities.
DevRel, especially in an open-source environment like Meteor, encompasses a wide range of tasks that go beyond pure code. It’s a role that addresses the ecosystem in which the code is created and used, including the community that supports it.
I’m also surprised that the conversation has yet to evolve into a more solution-focused dialogue concerning hard skills and specific technical challenges. I strongly believe in practical, targeted actions that solve concrete problems rather than philosophical debates, which, though interesting, may not lead to effective changes.
Given your enthusiasm and interest in the community, I look forward to seeing you actively participate in the various initiatives we’re planning. This includes mentorships with a particular focus on contribution onboarding for new members and the creation of technical documentation and articles. Actions like these are what build a strong community and a better product.

We are currently focusing on building a robust technical ecosystem based on respect and contributions in all aspects of an open-source community. Because of this, I don’t intend to spend any more time on this topic. We’ve already established a good dialogue, and if you have technical ideas that could solve problems and improve the Meteor ecosystem, I’m eager to hear them.

Once again, thank you for your feedback. It’s only through open conversations like this that we can improve.

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Hi! Thank you for your valuable feedback. My previous tone might have come across as overly formal. However, my direct approach during the first few months was intentional and necessary for me to entirely focus on understanding the Meteor ecosystem. This includes everything from its history and community to its technical content and practices.
I want to add that I have experience in other open-source communities, where I’ve organized groups focused on various contribution aspects. This extends beyond just code and includes the promotion of diversity and inclusion, establishing healthy codes of conduct, and encouraging practices that developers can apply in their careers beyond the open-source context. One of my greatest passions is helping people effectively share knowledge.
As for DevRel, it’s a multifaceted role. It’s not just about coding; it’s also about building a healthy community, organizing educational resources, and providing technical guidance. My strategic focus has been on strengthening the educational aspects and creating room for contributions beyond just code.
If you have any specific ideas or suggestions, I would be happy to hear them. I appreciate your feedback once again. Conversations like this allow us to grow and improve; I’m always open to that.

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I agree with some points of the discussion, but not with all, and will like to add some things.

In the past I have commented that one of the main issues with Meteor, is that there is not a clear way to contribute, and many times contributions end up never even getting discussed after there is a PR by someone. This is likely, as it has been stated many times, because of a lack of clear communication and organization, and this could be improved and hopefully bringing in @TatiBarros can affect positively the communication, which most of us have asked for many times in the past.

So let’s focus on what can be improved and what can be done by the MS and us to keep around the people with the know how, but also to spread that know how so that it doesnt stay in the head of a few and more of us can contribute.

For ex: Many times I would have liked to work on some meteor internals, but the lack of documentation and the code being to “old”, makes anyone without prior experience on it to need to check around everywhere to understand what something does or comes from, and this makes any attemp to take extremely long.

Just an idea, it might be interesting, after getting meteor 3 out there, to organize some kind of online events, where the core devs share their knowledge of the meteor core so that others in the community can dig deeper and understand more about it. In the end this can help more people to be able to contribute.

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I totally agree with the analysis @pmogollon, not exploiting and involving the community is a short-sighted choice. For example, after the release of Meteor 3 the age-old issue of migrating third-party but frequently used packages will arise. Without clear planning, one risks doing the same work at the same time and creating further entropy.

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This is very sad news. I guess it’s time to move on. If such key players leave the ecosystem, Meteor does not really have a future. It’s sad.

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Sorry, but it is not woke blurb that we need. Just sayin’.

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I would not be so negative about it, people come and go and we have seen this in the history of Meteor.

But I do share the sentiment, Meteor organization has a history of alienting key open source contributors, I personally never understood that myself, it breaks trust, I just assume there is something happening behind closed doors. I personally would never have let @zodern go and would pay him over any dev relationship role while simultaneously empower others to contribute. But I didn’t want to say it because the action has been done. So I would highly advice Meteor software to never alient current contributors, long time community members and existing clients, they kept Meteor going.

However, I do think Meteor internals could be better documented and more welcome to empower all kind of maintainers going forward. Specifically the parts that need it stay aligned with Node.

Also, I would really appreciate less drama and more focus on practical things, please stabilize the team, structure and support so we don’t keep having FUD like this. People saying they are leaving, people have existential issues over sponsors, etc, it’s a piece of tech to allow building stuff not a cult, people doing their jobs/businesses, focus should be maintaining and improving it in a sustainable long-term way.

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This pretty much sounds like the “communications strategy” of good old MDG to me.

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Maybe you’re right with this. And maybe it’s just my frustration about this common pattern I could see in the past years. But I was really hoping that Tiny would value great contributors like @zodern more. As a pure user, I am very thankful to guys like him and his great work. So it’s sad to see that these guys are let down once again. Just my two cents. And no, marketing and corp blurb won’t change my mind.

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Yes I hear you, @zodern and other key contributors should be funded and set free, and never micro-managed, I think cutting sponsorship on him was big mistake. He has been a gift to the community and I think everyone here admires and appreciate his work.

Non-developers see all develoeprs with same lens, developers know the exceptional when they see one.

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I found this statement quite funny

The old MDG failed to get along with community contributors, and Tiny has not improved here one bit. Meteor needs them now more than ever.

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I can’t judge her qualification. But if I read all that corporate and woke blurb, I am not convinced.

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Let’s give her a chance. It sounds like she’s asking us to accept that she can do the job. So she’s covering all her bases justifying the importance of her role.

I know there is more to it that just that - there’s the hurt and distrust felt by hard-working community members who create useful content, find and resolve issues, submit PRs, assist other MeteorJS devs, solve problems, build and maintain packages that make MeteorJS useful, and more. I understand and get that.

Tatiana had nothing to do with that. Meteor Software hired her. Take it up with them. But in the meantime, this name calling and insults is ugly, and it doesn’t make the people doing it look good or professional or mature. There are plenty of jobs and roles I thought I would be a better fit for that someone else who got it. But getting this angry wouldn’t help my case. If anything, it would probably confirm that they did well to skip me.

Now if you want to get angry with me, fine. But DM me. Don’t do it out in the forums. It makes this place look toxic and if all of us who are working to get new people to try Meteor care about doing that, then venting publicly like this has to stop.

Don’t get me started on doing this to one of the only women who is on the forums. And yes, her gender matters here and how she is treated matters. Again, if you have something to say about it, DM me.

We do need a good, reliable, trusted person who can advocate on behalf of the community and properly communicate the needs of all stakeholders. I’m hoping we’ll see less horn tooting and more engagement.

Tatiana can prove she is capable by doing the job, and we should give her a chance.

It’s interesting to me that this thread started on my birthday. I love this community and the members in it. But this is not the present I’d want.

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I really really like you man and wanted to reply to what you’ve brought up in private but you make false accusations that left unchecked would mean you’re right which isn’t the case.

Tatiana had nothing to do with that. Meteor Software hired her. Take it up with them. But in the meantime, this name calling and insults is ugly, and it doesn’t make the people doing it look good or professional or mature. There are plenty of jobs and roles I thought I would be a better fit for that someone else who got it. But getting this angry wouldn’t help my case. If anything, it would probably confirm that they did well to skip me.

uhhhh, ok. Then fuck you MS, happy? I don’t care how the decision was made and matter of fact this further proves my point that MS don’t know shit. Either way, I only care about the results. And now, we have a developer advocate who doesn’t know what Meteor is. Name calling and insults??? Can you please point to where exactly me or anybody said such words? Surely, we might’ve been angry and stern with our words yet I was extra careful picking me words and made sure I didn’t step out of line and this wasn’t to please MS or @TatiBarros rather to get my point across without people accusing me of hurling insults just like you did. :wink:

Believe me, if I was out to hurl insults my words would’ve been a lot more hurtful.

Now if you want to get angry with me, fine. But DM me. Don’t do it out in the forums. It makes this place look toxic and if all of us who are working to get new people to try Meteor care about doing that, then venting publicly like this has to stop.

Why not do it on the forums?? Matter of fact by making it public everyone is put to his own words. People can either correct him or agree with him. Conversation and debate helps evaluate ideas and by the looks of it. It seems that plenty of people here on the forums agree with what I’ve brought up. I’m not above this either, I apologized when I made a mistake and I’m quite ok with it. I’ve yet to see MS do the same :man_shrugging:

Don’t get me started on doing this to one of the only women who is on the forums. And yes, her gender matters here and how she is treated matters. Again, if you have something to say about it, DM me.

uhhhh where exactly did we bring her gender up? Have you heard of @awatson1978? Yes, we’re mean spirited towards any woman here on the forums. BACK TO THE KITCHEN, WOMAN! She proceeded to explain the difference between HR and DevRel when I tried to come up with an analogy to explain why we’re frustrated with the decision. :man_facepalming: And then someone flagged my video because it was too inappropriate, lmao. This very accusation is what led me to reply publicly here instead of private to you. Sorry not sorry.

We do need a good, reliable, trusted person who can advocate on behalf of the community and properly communicate the needs of all stakeholders. I’m hoping we’ll see less horn tooting and more engagement.

I agree.

Tatiana can prove she is capable by doing the job, and we should give her a chance.

Well, yes. She can and may. It’s all up in the future but I’m talking about present and past which wasn’t very pleasant. Not communicating such a crucial step with contributors whom the support was immediately cut off or the community. Even the future plans and how this bounty system might look like wasn’t communicated either. I am fully qualified for the position I hold HAHA, sure thing bro sister!

It’s interesting to me that this thread started on my birthday. I love this community and the members in it. But this is not the present I’d want.

Happy birthday, Alim. I’m glad to have you around us and I’d be a lot happier if you’d continue be around us for many many years to come. Happy birthday!! :birthday:

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Dude, I read the whole thread and I can say that you’ve been an asshole the whole time.

Meteor hired Tatiana to do the job, she arrived at a really tough moment of the company where many people are CONTRIBUTING to deliver the Meteor 3.0 instead of being FLAMING new employees in the forum and bringing the staff to this useless discussion instead of focusing on what matters: delivering good contributions.

Well, yes. She can and may. It’s all up in the future but I’m talking about present and past which wasn’t very pleasant. Not communicating such a crucial step with contributors whom the support was immediately cut off or the community. Even the future plans and how this bounty system might look like wasn’t communicated either. I am fully qualified for the position I hold HAHA, sure thing bro sister!

Do you think you own it just because you’re long-term contributors? I mean, it’s open source and the MAINTAINERS decide what they’re going to do. Besides, Meteor Software is still a company that needs PROFIT to pay its employees.

Hiring Tatiana is a medium-term investment that the team decided to make. They hired her because of his DevRel skills that are known by all the Brazilian community. You literally don’t know ANYTHING about her and you’re yelling a bunch of crap just because you’re mad that people didn’t ~text~ you to let you know.

Seeing all this thread, it’s just like you’re a xenophobic person (I hope I’m wrong about that) since you’re basically pointing out that there are only Brazilians on the team. I mean, I’m a Brazilian person and I know how to do the job. Developer Advocacy is about the product that you can learn in a few months or less. But a MANAGER, like Tatiana, has more tasks that you could ever imagine.

The company published the job test we are available to everyone. If they don’t pass this, maybe Brazilian developers who earn WAY LESS than most part of the US/EU and also deliver a good job.

We do need a good, reliable, trusted person who can advocate on behalf of the community and properly communicate the needs of all stakeholders. I’m hoping we’ll see less horn tooting and more engagement.

You have to have faith in the people running this company. For example, do you ever know how hard it is to maintain such a structure with 8 people on the core team? With no budget to invest? For God’s sake, just think for a moment and you’ll realize that Meteor is probably trying their best to make things work.

If people want your OSS rewards (aka. just do a good job on the bounty section and help finish all the tasks and release 3.0 and that’s it. Simple as that, right? Or the only thing that makes you contribute to Meteor (AFAIK about) is the sponsoring?

I see the great work of the Meteor guys from Twitter and sometimes go to GitHub to check out some issues, but I never expected the community to have a face like this: someone who yells every time someone gets hired.

Other than that, I’m here to help and learn more about Meteor so I can contribute to the project and build a better community.

You even hired a Developer Relations Manager, who started her Meteor forums account less an 90 days ago!!! WHAT THE FUCK DOES SHE KNOW ABOUT METEOR??? HOW ABOUT GIVING THAT MONEY TO PEOPLE LIKE @storyteller @jkuester @alimgafar WHO STARTED A GODDMAN PODCAST ABOUT METEOR??? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?? I’m truly perplexed by the amount of ignorance the people making these decisions have. There’re some other problems but I’ll refrain from mentioning them here so as not to take the spotlight from the problem this thread is for.

By the way, if you talk to any member of a community I’m moderating, you’ll probably get banned. I don’t care if you’ve been contributing there for TEN YEARS, or even if you’re one of the founders. This attitude just shows that you are a childish person who doesn’t know how to start a proper conversation.

Have a good day!

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It’s really sad to see a brightful community fall off to misogynistic discourse, this is the real reason why meteor don’t have more contributions. Tatiana is doing an amazing job by engaging the brazilian community (that btw create most part of good software around these fields :eyes:) and bringing more contributors while supporting the existing ones, a project is not done only by it’s commits and if you think that you don’t know anything that you’re trying to talk about.

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Are you guys fucking serious? How does a discussion like this come to be like that? Letting a misogynistic being be misogynistic for free and for everyone to see with just a human being defending. That’s why this community is not going forward, this is not welcome for other ethnicities or women. Defending that “OMG, look how I’m not misogynistic, we have another woman here before her” WOW HOW INCLUSIVE, ONLY ONE MORE WOMAN HERE. That’s disgusting. And where tf is the staff to defend a new member and a woman suffering all this shit? I’m really disappointed, I was working hard to know more about Meteor. I was working on an article after I saw Tatiana and more Brazilians being hired, but now? Now, I just don’t want to support a community like this.

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It has become evident that the ongoing discussion is unhealthy and no longer serves the purpose of discussing the end of the GitHub sponsorships. We (the moderators) have seen an unfortunate escalation of personal attacks and disrespectful behavior towards fellow members.

To maintain the integrity of our forum and uphold our community guidelines, we have decided to close this topic. We will work on improving our guidelines and announce those changes soon.

As for Meteor Software, we will explain our plan regarding the bounties system and try to clarify this topic soon at another opportunity.

Thank you for your understanding.

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