Funding Challenges and Community Engagement in OctoPrint

Guest

Gina Häußge

Panelist

Richard Littauer

Show Notes

In this episode of Sustain, Richard chats with guest Gina Häußge, the creator and maintainer of OctoPrint, a web interface for 3D printers. Gina shares her journey in open-source development, discussing how she transitioned to working full-time on OctoPrint through crowdfunding. She talks about managing burnout, maintaining a healthy community, and the complexities of balancing development with user demands. Gina also explains the importance of API stability for plugin developers and her approach to keeping the project sustainable. The episode highlights Gina's creative solutions, such as the introduction of an achievement system to engage users and encourage project support. Press download now to hear more!

[00:01:38] Gina shares how she combats the stress and emotional toll of dealing with entitled users by using a heavy bag and playing the “DOOM” soundtrack.

[00:03:24] Gina explains OctoPrint and all its features.

[00:06:00] Richard inquires about Gina’s approach to governance and how she maintains a healthy community while preventing burnout. Gina explains her gut feeling-driven approach to building the project and how it turned into a larger community.

[00:08:51] Gina talks about how she transitioned to a four-day work week to protect her mental and physical health, and how it improved her productivity and well-being.

[00:10:34] There’s a discussion about the importance of API stability for OctoPrint’s plugin developers, and Gina explains her efforts to maintain backward compatibility and avoid breaking plugins with every new release.

[00:14:34] Richard asks how Gina manages community communication with forums, Discord, and other tools. She mentions the importance of searchable forums for documentation over real-time communication platforms like Discord.

[00:16:58] A conversation comes up on the “third-party licenses” file on OctoPrint’s GitHub, and Gina explains it’s to ensure proper credit and transparency.

[00:18:45] Gina discusses how some early architectural decisions for OctoPrint were based on gut feeling and she talks about the complexity of modernizing the UI due to the large plugin ecosystem and technical debt.

[00:23:21] Gina shares her discomfort with self-promotion but explains how essential crowdfunding is to keep OctoPrint alive, and she highlights a post she wrote about financial concerns and how it led to a significant increase in support.

[00:27:09] Gina shares how she introduced a fun achievement system into OctoPrint to engage users and gently remind them about supporting the project.

[00:29:50] Find out where you can follow Gina and OctoPrint online.

Quotes

[00:18:58] Why this Thirdpartylicense.md file: “It felt like the right thing to do.”

[00:19:29] When did your gut feeling fail: “Architectural decisions throughout the lifespan of OctoPrint when I didn’t know anything better.”

[00:20:42] “A plugin system like OctoPrint is both a feature and a curse.”

[00:23:54] “I hate being in the spotlight, I hate marketing myself, but I do love doing this work.”

[00:24:17] “I feel like I’m actually making a difference and if I want to keep doing that, then I need funding.”

Spotlight

• [00:30:45] Richard’s spotlight is Eric Berry, an excellent human.
• [00:31:05] Gina’s spotlight is the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide.

Links

• SustainOSS
• podcast@sustainoss.org
• richard@sustainoss.org
• SustainOSS Discourse
• SustainOSS Mastodon
• Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
• Richard Littauer Socials
• Gina Häußge LinkedIn
• Gina Häußge Website
• OctoPrint
• OctoPrint GitHub
• OctoPrint Third Party Licenses GitHub
• Eric Berry X
• Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide by Mendel Cooper

Credits

• Produced by Richard Littauer

• Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound

• Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Gina Häußge.

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