I am the proposer and main dev of NumerBay, the community marketplace for anything Numerai. I am posting this request for proposal amendment with regard to the funding.
Request
I hope the community and CoE could adjust the hourly rate (currently at $35 / hr) to equalize with other proposals (~$50 / hr) with a one-time back pay.
Background and Reason
NumerBay was one of the first proposals after CoE came into being earlier this year and was the first
software project proposal for CoE. There was no reference for pricing, so I went with an arbitrary rate of $35 / hr.
This project has turned out to be a big commitment for me, taking about 33-36 hours per week (excluding breaks), 226 hrs in total so far working full-time on this. The project has completed one milestone and one feature release, with the second milestone (On-platform sales and NMR payment) coming in a few weeks. Based on the feedbacks I have received, the work quality has been generally decent.
I hope the rate could be increased to $50 / hr, which appears to be a consensus rate for other proposals. This will keep me more motivated and continue to devote my best to working on NumerBay full-time.
Impact
Regardless whether this request for amendment gets approved or not, I will continue to work on NumerBay with my best efforts.
However, if approved, this would motivate me financially to keep committing full-time and put more efforts into this over my other commitments.
Thank you for all the support for the project!
Poll (closes on Sept 5)
Do you support this rate adjustment?
Yes
No
0voters
About NumerBay
Original Proposal
Project Updates
First Milestone
Dev Updates and Feature Releases
See #numerbay in rocket chat
I 100% support this backward and forwards. I think this project is a huge step in the right direction for the CoE and the community. I can’t imagine the CoE or the larger community having any issue with this. Although a separate issue, I’d like to see @hb1’s suggestion of additional funding so you can get help with your projects and continue to develop your project or even add new stuff to the queue.
@restrading We (the CoE) are sympathetic to your proposal. But back pay unfortunately, wouldn’t be feasible. Hypothetically, if we were to pay $100/hr for something in the future, would we have to go back and pay the difference for everyone who has ever been funded by the CoE? We don’t want to set a precedent for conundrums like that.
On the other hand, based on the impact your project and its execution has had on the community, we’d be delighted to increase the rate to $50/hr going foward. Of course, needless to say, this is predicated on the community’s approval. Please post your next update after the poll closes and we’ll comply.
One more thing. Going forward, could you please create a git branch with all the commits for this project from the current week and include a link to that week’s branch in your update?
@jrb thanks for the reply. Back pay is a one-time thing due to the lack of reference price. I will not ask for any back pay in the future. I do not take this as a precedent setting thing as this is the only first project.
As for branching, there are multiple feature branches that I work on simultaneously, it would be hard to manage to have a new branch every week. All commits for all branches are available for audit.
@jrb@jrai@hb1@uuazed If a project or a person involved with it, has demonstrated exceptional value, is there an argument for a retroactive bonus? I think most of us would agree the work that has been done would exceed the initial price quoted. We can avoid back pay scenarios that would systematically apply to everyone, but consider a quality bonus that is project-specific. This could also open the door for more flexible funding: Maybe the CoE sets a base rate between 40 and 50 an hour with a 10 to 20 an hour bonus, for periods where the work exceeded expectation.
@jrb, is there a path here to avoid setting an “if-one-then-all” precedent? @jrai has indicated elsewhere reviewing projects on a case-by-case basis is the best approach, and it appears that’s how the CoE currently functions.
It may help to explicitly and officially state your review policy somewhere to avoid setting precedents.
“The CoE considers each proposal on a case-by-case basis and votes independently, based on the merits of the project, with no regard for previous approvals or rejections.”
As long as you’re communicating clearly to the community, you should be able to avoid most (some?) of the drama that may follow when you say yes to one but not the other.
As the community strongly approved of this going through, we should find a path to alleviate your concerns about future proposals while seeing @restrading properly compensation for exceptional work.
@jrb The reference price was the price level for all proposals following the numerbay proposal, which is roughly around $50. Either way, I think the concern for setting precedent is valid and I am fine with the rejection of backpay.
The poll is now closed, with 75% voting yes on what was written. If the CoE thinks the NumerBay project deserves this rate, I will post balance based on $50 / hr from the next update onwards.
Thanks to the CoE and everyone for the support. I have been and will continue to devote my best to this project.
Thank you!