Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

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MisterMaker
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Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

So most of us know the Freecad is a bit underfunded. Now I think we should get more corporations on board, and well corporations like advertisement. So why not give them a bit more attention?
Now blender has this website with the logo's of the businesses that sponsor them.
What if we add them to the start screen of Freecad, and give people the option to turn them off?
Or would this turn Freecad into adware?
Should we only do a website like Blender?
Anyone other idea's? Or strong opinions against these kind of ads??
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sliptonic
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by sliptonic »

There are two different but related concepts:
1) sponsorship is where an entity provides resources to continue or facilitate the work. Sponsorship is time-bound. In other words a company might be sponsoring us now but not in the future.

2) credit is acknowledging work done in the past. It's perpetual.

IMHO, companies should never get 'credit'. Work is done by people and those people might be working in companies but it's still individuals using their minds and talents to do things.

Companies can and should provide sponsorship and they should be recognized for that. Both because it's a good thing to do. They should be applauded for it. Also, so the rest of the community can know who is influencing the project. Sunshine is good.

So, there should be a web page with links and even a paragraph where the company can say something about their relationship to the software and why they sponsor. I have no problem giving them some voice in the community this way.

But, I'm strongly opposed to putting sponsorship related stuff IN the software itself. Once the sponsorship ends, the software continues and that becomes inappropriate if they still have a presence there.

I'm ok with there being a 'credits' page in the About page where we acknowledge the special contributions of people - actual human beings who did stuff.
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Kunda1
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by Kunda1 »

I feel @sliptonic represented my opinion on this exactly.
Furthermore, the column in the proposal could be used for other practical advantages like a way to connect to the community via forum/discord, random tips and tricks, announcements etc...'

Edit: thanks @MisterMaker for starting this thread
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

@sliptonic something like this? And then the names link to Patreon or whatever the person wants? Maybe add some text for what they do.
Can these fields load dynamic from a official freecad webpage? Because as you mention names wouldn't be an issue but the links can be a big issue.
Like if someone leaves and the page they link too dies and turns into a spam or spoof site.
Without links it is a nice gesture too but I think with links would connect the devs with the community way better.
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Kunda1
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by Kunda1 »

Screenshot_20220525_120814.png
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

@Kunda1 I see always people thanking God so I joined in. :lol:
The start page is a html global variable. I was like hey I can do HTML, bet then realized it is python that makes the html....
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... artPage.py
keithsloan52
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by keithsloan52 »

Looking at https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Donate
  • FreeCAD project association https://github.com/FreeCAD/FPA
  • Open collective for which there are five sponsors - no companies as far as I can tell
  • There are a number of developers with individual patreons projects
I do not know if the project association has received any donations from companies, organisations etc but looking at the accounts
I suspect not.

I think it would be good to acknowledge any company making a donation even if a one off, hopefully it might encourage more.
If we ever got sponsors I think they should also acknowledge them, so in the fullness of time three categories
  • Current sponsors
  • Sponsors
  • Donators
Trouble is if we were to do this now all it would do is advertise that we don't have any, plus I would suggest just starting with Donators.

Question : if companies make donations I think they can set this off against tax on profits, is there anything we as FreeCAD would have to do to facilitate this, a brief description of the rules in the main counties would be useful ( or better links to info, as it most likely changes )
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KurtF
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by KurtF »

FreeCAD is funded? I didn't know that. I'll have to read about it. But, man, if I start seeing advertisements on my screen in FC, then I will follow what is probably a popular assumption and assume FC doesn't need private donations...

Kunda's hilarious. :-)
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

keithsloan52 wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 4:48 pm Trouble is if we were to do this now all it would do is advertise that we don't have any, plus I would suggest just starting with Donators.
So we use the advertisement space to advertise we need donators. I think that is pretty smart. Like those billboards with no renters.
YOUR NAME HERE
by supporting Freecad!
I think it is good to remind (first) users it is community funded. But it shouldn't be annoying and there should be an option to turn it off(if you pay 100 euro, just joking :D ).
Full disclosure, I am not a top donator. At least I hope I am not... :oops:
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KurtF
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by KurtF »

What about the Wikipedia advertising model? None! And from time to time, when their treasury is low, they use their public screen real-estate to ask for small donations. FC startup could check a dedicated FC wiki page and if content loaded, present content on FC startup screen. Then a hosted, trivial html page can dynamically control all users' FC startup screens.

And when they do ask for donations, they remind us that they are ad-free thanks to us. :-)
May whatever Higher Power you believe in bless the Ukrainians. They are a decent people who never hurt anybody.
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