Isn't what he is proposing essentially a service to find a consultant to customize the solution? Seems reasonable to me.

Something like that, but then again that's a well established practice. It has been a valid business strategy for years.

I agree. The only (remotely) interesting thing Atwood said was "wouldn't it be nice if there was a service that would hook up the consultant with the customer?"

However, it would probably be little more than the dozen "find a third-world-or-starving-student-coder" sites that already exist. It would just be branded differently.

>"What's being suggested here? Don't pay but then do pay?"

Pay but give the source back to the community.

I think it's brilliant.

It's also known as the GPL.