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Comment by nwinter | Hacker News Reader

If someone makes a level on another CodeCombat server in their own database, they can share that with other CodeCombat servers all they please. We are just being cautious about the levels that end up in the main codecombat.com database, because at some point we might want to either make premium-only campaigns or allow others to sell access to their campaigns, and we can't do that if the levels are all MIT.

Hopefully we can keep all levels free for everyone anyway, since recruiting is looking pretty good as a monetization strategy so far.

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I'm honestly amazed at the idea of recruiting as a monetization strategy for a project like this. It seems to be a way to make money while keep literally everyone happy. I think the only thing that could be worrisome is if perhaps there will end up being a disconnect in how hard a challenge needs to be to make it worth it as a screen, and how good of a programmer the primary user base will be.

What does recruting as a monetization strategy means? That is, what is recruting? Truly curious.

If their plan is anything like similar startups (like the also-YC-funded Hacker School), the idea is that they can connect employers looking to hire with engineers looking for jobs. Maybe this means something like letting people flag on their profile that they're looking for a job, and giving companies tools to search, filter, and contact the users who've said they're looking (and vice versa).

After someone takes a job through CodeCombat, the employer would pay them some sort of referral fee. This sort of arrangement is common; a typical fee structure is around 20% of the new hire's annual salary.

Employers get a concrete way to assess the skill of potential employees, job-seekers get free visibility they wouldn't otherwise get (this sort of thing tends to benefit newer programmers whose limited experience doesn't accurately represent their raw skill and potential), and CodeCombat gets paid. Everybody wins.

MOOCs have struggled with this avenue unfortunately, but considering CC is so different and more "practical" if you will, I hope they have a much better go at it, as what they're doing is awesome :)

Also, just want to point out the CLA specifies contributed content is still owned by the creator, but we're also granted the right to distribute and license it on our end. So creators can always do what they want with their content.

Cool. Congrats, and thanks, for opening everything up. It looks like you have not only opened it up, but invested significant effort into making it super easy to hack on (including a VM appliance!).

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