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Playbooks is a digital marketplace where developers can buy, sell, and exchange code seamlessly. Our platform offers an alternative to open source letting developers monetize their time and expertise. We call it Hybrid Source Software.

We believe developers are the unsung heros of the internet and that our time should be respected the same as any other industry. That's why we're building a creator economy for developers that celebrates your creativity while fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment.

Hybrid Source Software is a term we've coined for Playbooks that indicates our platforms offers a mix open and closed source software. For starters, Playbooks allows free and paid software repos to be posted to our platform. If your repo is free, anyone can access the code and download it with a Playbooks account. If your rep is paid, then other developers will need to pay for access or have a matching subscription to access your code. In either situation, the repo author (and their contributors) are paid for publishing their work for you to enjoy.

At Playbooks, we believe developers are the unsung heros of the internet and that your time should be respected the same as any other industry. However, we've left ourselves in an untenable situation where the expectation is that we'll either work for free on open souce or are prepared to launch a business selling closed source. The reality is that many of us are in between meaning we're willing and capable of performing a public-service but we'd like to be compensated for our time. And, of course, we'd like others to be compensated for their time too. That's how markets work provided other developers find value in your contributions. For that reason, we believe developers deserve a new creator economy (something we've termed "hybrid source software") that works for everyone.

Nothing is wrong with Open Source Software ("OSS"). But, the market is evolving and we don't think open (or closed) source should be the only game in town when there is a broad need for more tooling and expertise. Ultimately, we think that by adding some financial incentives to the mix developers will enjoy better code, better support, and more options over the long-term if folks can make a living from building solutions for each other.

Playbooks is a platform for code distribution and community collaboration. It is not a developer productivity or version control system. Instead, we hook into those platforms so you can safely and securely distribute your work with us and get paid at the same time. Ultimately, we see ourselves as a complementary, value-add player to the developer ecosystem and we are looking to grow the pie.

Most industry observers would tell you that AI still has a ways to go before it replaces developers at scale. Especially mid to senior-level developers. Nonetheless, we're well aware of it's potential to impact our business. It's quite similar to the no-code / low-code revolution that's taken place in front-end development for awhile now. That said, it doesn't make sense for developers to continue writing open-source code knowing that AI will quickly consume it and take your job. As such, we think developers are looking for a new, more sustainable business model that will protect, and perhaps elevate, their careers. Therefore, we think folks will come around to the idea of licensing their code for AI and other purposes which Playbooks is designed for.

Accounts represent either a logged in user or team. To create an account, simply click the get started button at the top right of the page. That will take you to login or register for an account. After logging you, you can toggle between your user and any teams that you have access to. To learn more about setting your account, please read through the experience section below.

A merchant is a representation of the connected account we setup on your behalf over at Stripe. In order to submit content to our platform, you first need to create a merchant for payment processing. To do so, please visit ythe merchant area of your account settings and then click 'Get Started' to be taken over to Stripe. After completing your setup, you'll need to add a credit card and bank account via your accounbt settings. After that you should be good to go.

Roles indicate which features you have access to on the platform. For instance, contributors can submit bounties, creators can submit repos, writers can submit articles, and editors can submit collections. Every account starts out with the 'basic' role. But, you can contact us if you're interested in becoming a contributor or creator. To view your current role, simply open the dropdown at the top right of the page and look beneath your user.

Users represent an individual developer whereas Teams represent a shared workspace. You should create a Team if you want to distribute code under that brand and share access with other developers.

To create a team, simply visit your settings > teams and then click the plus button. This will launch a wizard that takes you through the creation process.

Yes. After creating a team, you can seamlessly toggle between your primary user and your team accounts via the dropdown at the top right of the page. It's important to note that, when you toggle to a team, you are acting as the primary owner of that team and not an individual member.

No, not at the moment. Right now, all accounts are public but we'd love your feedback on this if you feel we should do otherwise.

To manage any of your accounts, simply toggle to the appropriate account and then visit your settings page.

At it's core, Playbooks is a marketplace platform where buyers and sellers can exchange software repositories seamlessly. Anyone can access the marketplace with an account and there's lots of free content to enjoy. However, some content does requires purchase or a paid subscription to access the underlying data.

For now, Playbooks is a curated marketplace meaning you'll need access to submit content. For instance, only creators can submit repositories and only contributors can submit bounties. To become either of these, simply head over to the submission flow and click 'Request Access' to jump on the waitlist.

Some repos on Playbooks require purchase or a subscription in order to view the code or download the repository. And, some bounties require a financial contribution that will eventually get awarded to the winner. In each case, Playbooks takes a 20% commission from every transaction and then distributes another 10% to the Community Fund. The remaining 70% is transferred to the content creator (and / or relevant parties) at the appropriate time. The same thing goes for subscriptions however those funds are distributed on a monthly basis rather than immediately.

An order represent a contribution or purchase for paid content on our marketplace. For instance, if you're on the Free Plan, some repos will require purchase before viewing the code or downloading the repository. And, regardless of your plan, most bounties will let you contribute any sum of money toward the development of that project. After placing an order, you'll be able to access the underlying resource at anytime via your orders page.

Subscriptions represent a monthly or annual fee that grant you unlimited to certain resources on the platform. For instance, if you're on the Pro Plan, you'll gain unlimited access to Pro Tier resources. And, if you're on the Plus Plan, you'll gain unlimited access to Plus Tier resources. Generally speaking, subscriptions offer a substantial discount for repeat customers. So, if you accessing Pro or Plus resources more than 1x per month you should consider a subscription.

Contributor pools allow repository owners to share revenue with whomever they'd like via the platform. For instance, if you want to share 20% of your revenue with 5 different contributors, you can do so. Then, when someone places an order for your repo, we'll transfer 80% of the proceeds to you and split the remaining 20% among your contributors. Contributor pools work automatically for orders and subscription revenues. The only requirement is that each contributor must setup their merchant account and bank account in order to get paid.

The Community Fund is an endowment that gets funded by every transaction on Playbooks and is primarily used for bounties, editorial, and content creators. For now, the Community Fund is operated by a mix of admin discretion and some automations. But the plan is to fully automate this down the road. In the meantime, we're working to establish a public ledger for Community Fund activity so you can follow along.

A transfer represent the movement of money from our platform over to your Merchant account. Depending on the resource and type of payment being made, transfers run at different times and at different intervals. But, in general, our platform is setup to transfer the money you're owed ASAP and on a regular basis. For repository orders, this happens right away at the point of sale. For bounty contributions, this happens right after a winner is selected. And, for all subscriptions, this happens on a daily basis though we include a 1-month lag to account for customer service issues and churn that may occur. In each scenario, we'll notify you when a transfer is made to your account and you can always track your activity via the Analytics page.

A payout represents the movement of money from your Merchant account (on Playbooks) to your bank account (in the real world). Due to the dynamic nature of our platform, we process payouts on a daily basis with a 2-day lag to account for any discrepancies that may occur. So, for instance, if you receive 5 transfers on Monday that come out to $100.00, on Tuesday we'll initiate a payout for $100.00 to your bank. Once a payout is initiated, it typically takes 3-5 business days to reach your bank. It's important to note that some payouts may take longer to process since they do require admin review and approval.

Playbooks relies on our community to participate in all content that gets posted to our platform. That means posting content, starting discussions, leaving reviews, and reporting things when something appears off. We also invite your feedback at anytime so don't hesitate to conact us.

At Playbooks, we're interested in building an open, transparent, and rewarding economy that works for everyone. If you see something that appears offensive or fraudulent -- it more than likely shouldn't be on our platform.

Most of the core resources on Playbooks have a reporting function tied to them so you can quickly flag something for our team. If you see something that is off, we ask that you use that form since it does pass meta data to our system that will steer the inquiry to the appropriate team.

Whether you're setting up a user or team, we suggest you go through the setup flow to get started. Here, we'll ask you to fill out your public profile, connect to Github, and add relevant skills and interests. We'll then use this information to curate your experience and provide recommendations.

Skills are a way for you to indicate which technologies you're familiar with and how you would self-rank your expertise. By adding skills, we'll send you a notification when relevant bounties (ie project proposals) get added to the marketplace. You can turn these notification off via your settings.

Interests are a way for you to indicate which technologies you're interested in learning more about. By adding interests, we'll you a notification when relevant repos get added to the marketplace. You can turn these notification off via your settings.

Follows are a way to engage with other users and teams on the platform. By following other accounts, we'll send you a notification when they add bounties or repos to the platform. You can turn these notifications off via your settings.

Bookmarks are a way to engage with specific content on the platform such as bounties and repos. By bookmarking content, we'll send you a notification when critical updates happen such as a winner being selected for a new version release. You can turn these notifications off via your settings.