Ghostty is now non-profit

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

The three most prevalent themes in this Hacker News discussion are:

Admiration for Hack Club's Scale and Operations: Users expressed surprise and respect for the size and maturity of Hack Club's fiscal sponsorship program, especially given its focus on supporting youth organizations.
- Supporting Quote: "I wasn't aware of Hack Club before and wow, their fiscal sponsorship program is enormous: https://hackclub.com/fiscal-sponsorship/directory/ - looks like they cover more than 2,500 organizations!" (simonw)
Interest in Community/Learning Opportunities for Adults: Several users, inspired by Hack Club's model, inquired about similar learning or building-focused communities specifically for adults who missed out on those experiences earlier in their careers.
- Supporting Quote: "This community sounds amazing, is there anything similar for adults rather than teens? The “understanding through building” mentality is something I never got to experience as a group..." (kace91)
Discussion of Ghostty's Sustainability and Mitchell Hashimoto's Funding Model: A significant portion of the thread focused on Ghostty, particularly the foundation's sustainability structure (using donor funding via HCB) and the context of its creator, Mitchell Hashimoto, being independently wealthy from the HashiCorp sale.
- Supporting Quote: "The monetization strategy is that my bank account has 3 commas mate." (mitchellh, quoted by charcircuit)

🚀 Project Ideas

A tool that aggregates and clearly compares the requirements, benefits, and service levels of various fiscal sponsorship organizations (like PSF, Hack Club, etc.) for independent projects and meetups.
Core value proposition: Reduces administrative burden and confusion for open-source projects needing non-profit status infrastructure.

Key	Value
Target Audience	Open-source projects, volunteer community groups, and meetups seeking 501(c)(3) indirect support.
Core Feature	Comparative dashboard allowing users to filter sponsors by project type, geographic scope, annual fees, processing overhead, required reporting frequency, and governance structure.
Tech Stack	React/Vue frontend, backend using a modern framework (e.g., Python/FastAPI or Node/Express) to manage scraped/inputted data, potential database like PostgreSQL.
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Why HN commenters would love it: Addresses the complexity and administrative friction implied by simonw's comment about PSF accounting being busy and garyhtou's mention of PSF supporting meetups. It formalizes the comparison between models like PSF vs. Hack Club.
Potential for discussion or practical utility: High. It formalizes a necessary but opaque decision point for many non-corporate open-source endeavors.

A curated, high-trust directory and matching service for adults (post-education) seeking intensive, cohort-based, "understanding through building" technical communities, similar to Recurse Center or Hack Club's student ethos.
Core value proposition: Connects experienced/pivoting engineers with curated, supportive, building-focused peer groups.

Key	Value
Target Audience	Engineers professional/transitioning into tech (like the user feeling they missed out in their 30s) looking for the communal building experience of Hack Club or Recurse Center.
Core Feature	Vetted listings for adult programs (Recurse, Handmade Cities meetups, civic hack groups) with filters for commitment level, topic focus, and application requirements. Includes a community submission/review system.
Tech Stack	Static Site Generator (Hugo/Jekyll) for simple maintenance, potentially integrating with a lightweight forum/Discord integration model for community vetting.
Difficulty	Low to Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Why HN commenters would love it: Directly responds to kace91 and mellowyeller's desire for an adult equivalent of the community dynamic they see in Hack Club. Its utility is explicitly mentioned by positive discussion around Recurse Center.
Potential for discussion or practical utility: High. It centralizes scattered, high-value knowledge about self-improvement communities that are often word-of-mouth.

A service that analyzes the disclosed financial practices (e.g., via public governance reports like HCB) and organizational structure of popular open-source projects that accept donations or sponsorship.
Core value proposition: Provides transparency on financial sustainability models (e.g., individual donor reliance vs. broad foundation backing) to encourage targeted charitable giving.

Key	Value
Target Audience	Developers, users, and potential donors who are wary of project longevity or financial control (concerned about the "one guy funding it" dynamic or "rug pulls").
Core Feature	Generates a "Sustainability Scorecard" based on donor diversification (like the Hack Club transaction history shown), licensing structures (permissive vs. copyleft), and reliance on a single large entity/individual (like mitchellh's situation).
Tech Stack	Backend focused on data ingestion and computation (Rust/Go for performance), simple web interface. Could potentially integrate with governance data sources.
Difficulty	High
Monetization	Hobby

Why HN commenters would love it: Directly addresses the nuanced debate between relying on a wealthy founder (mitchellh, fragmede, charcircuit) vs. forming a sustainable, diversified foundation (mitchellh's goal vs. neural_thing's skepticism). It quantifies user concerns about "unserious organizations" (throwaway29827).
Potential for discussion or practical utility: Very high. It injects quantitative metrics into the qualitative discussion about open-source funding ethics and longevity.