Show HN: Ideaflow Software License (opens in new tab)

The Ideaflow license is an experiment for which I'd love the thoughts/opinions of the HN crowd. I’m an engineer, and I really value the thoughts and opinions of other people that build things. These folks often participate in the open-source software ecosystem. We make use of software that other folks have written and contribute our own software to be used by other people. Most open-sourced software contains a license that describes how the author permits others to use their work. Ideaflow is such a license.

The Ideaflow license is based on the Beerware license, which states that "As long as you retain this notice you can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.”

Like Beerware, Ideaflow permits others to do whatever they want with the code, but it offers a different mechanism by which the user can thank the author. The license will include a link to material for review, and the person using the code is requested to look through that material and offer their thoughts/feedback/criticisms. That feedback will come via a form that’s also linked in the license.

I hope that this might help generate something like a peer-review ecosystem within the open-source community that doesn’t just operate on software that’s already written, but also operates on ideas, non-software-related work, etc. In addition to helping one another write code, it would be neat if we helped each other develop ideas.