Pocketbase lost its funding from FLOSS fund
PocketBase, a popular open-source backend, announced it lost its anticipated full-time funding from FLOSS/fund due to unforeseen regulatory constraints and the author's distrust of the proposed alternative payment method. This setback, however, has led to a deep dive into UI development, with the author opting to build a custom, zero-dependency JavaScript framework over established options like Svelte or Vue. The story resonates on HN as it highlights the complexities of open-source funding and a developer's pragmatic, yet technically ambitious, approach to project sustainability.
The Lowdown
The PocketBase project developer, 'pocketbase', announced the unfortunate cancellation of their anticipated full-time sponsorship from FLOSS/fund. This funding was intended to allow dedicated work on the project for a year, with a primary focus on a significant UI rewrite. However, due to regulatory issues with FLOSS/fund's partnership with GitHub, the funding mechanism changed to a wire transfer from India, which the developer declined due to concerns over data security and trust in the process. This decision means the developer will no longer be able to dedicate full-time effort to PocketBase as initially planned.
- Funding Loss: The FLOSS/fund sponsorship was retracted due to regulatory constraints affecting their GitHub partnership, with a proposed alternative payment method via wire transfer from India rejected by the developer over security and trust concerns.
- Revised Development Plan: While the core goal of a stable PocketBase release remains, the loss of dedicated funding necessitates a more intermittent development schedule.
- UI Rewrite Motivation: The primary technical goal is to address PocketBase's current limitation in dashboard customization and extensibility, which existing server-side plugin mechanisms do not adequately support for UI elements.
- Framework Challenges: The developer explored various frontend frameworks (Svelte, Vue, Lit, etc.) but found them unsuitable due to concerns about forced build steps for users (with compiler frameworks), framework-specific DSLs, and long-term maintenance burdens, given the desire for PocketBase to be a 'complete' project with minimal dependencies post-stabilization.
- Custom Framework Solution: To overcome these issues, the developer has begun experimenting with 'Shablon', a new, zero-dependency, plain JavaScript frontend framework designed specifically for PocketBase's needs, eschewing traditional 'component' concepts for direct DOM manipulation with optional reactivity.
Despite the financial setback, the developer remains committed to achieving a stable PocketBase release and is pursuing an innovative, self-reliant technical path for the UI rewrite, prioritizing long-term maintainability and minimal dependencies.