Add configuration option to disable fund message

[samlitowitz]

Add a configuration option to disable the fund message addressing #11765

[samlitowitz]

@Seldaek for visibility because you commented on the originating issue #11765

[fredden]

@Seldaek said that this should be an environment variable, not a configuration option. Can you help us understand why you have decided to make this a configuration option anyway?

Ref: #11765 (comment)

there could be an env var to turn this off if anything, I don't think flags or config option makes sense

[samlitowitz]

@fredden
I think the ability to "set it and forget it" across multiple environments provides an ease of use which is valuable to those who would use this option and a configuration option seems like the best method to do so.

I think the ability to temporarily or individually set this is also very helpful and an environmental variable would solve this. I do think that adding support for the environmental variable should be treated as a different "feature" done under a separate PR.

[fredden]

I see the use-case for "don't show me the funding options" is where an individual chooses to not see the messages, rather than a project deciding this on behalf of its users.

With an environment variable, a user can "set and forget" a system-level environment variable on their machine. This then has a consistent experience for that user across all projects with which they interact.

With a per-project configuration variable (as proposed in this pull request), a /project/ makes the decision to not fund its dependencies. If a library makes this choice, then contributors to the library won't know about any dependencies which would benefit from funding.

[samlitowitz]

With an environment variable, a user can "set and forget" a system-level environment variable on their machine. This then has a consistent experience for that user across all projects with which they interact.

Absolutely, I think an environmental variable would be very useful. To my mind it is a related but separate piece of work to be done in a different PR. I believe it probably should be done even if this change is not accepted and definitely be done if this change is accepted.

[samlitowitz]

@fredden As an update to this conversation, I have made another PR (#11779 ) which adds support for an environmental variable to show/hide the funding message.

[fredden]

Thinking about this a little more, I suggest that a simple boolean isn't the right approach here. What are your thoughts on a list of packages to ignore the funding requests/messages for instead? This way when a new dependency is added then it's an explicit choice to not fund that new dependency, rather than an implicit "we do not fund anything" choice. This feels more in keeping with the (assumed) intent: to increase funding of open-source software.

[samlitowitz]

Thinking about this a little more, I suggest that a simple boolean isn't the right approach here. What are your thoughts on a list of packages to ignore the funding requests/messages for instead? This way when a new dependency is added then it's an explicit choice to not fund that new dependency, rather than an implicit "we do not fund anything" choice. This feels more in keeping with the (assumed) intent: to increase funding of open-source software.

To me this seems like another useful feature which gives library/projects a more granular option in addition to the all or none model. I think it would be great as an addition to this current work. My concern with using it as a replacement for the fund option is that it would not be inline with the original ask and would likely be so cumbersome to use for that case as to be unusable.

Having the fund option default to true means a library/project would have to make an explicit choice to hide funding messages. I believe that the majority of libraries and projects will retain the default value to support open source work.

[Seldaek]

Thanks for the PR but IMO the env var in #11779 is more than enough. And for the record having the option to ignore by name etc seems way overkill to me.