Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

KurtF wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 6:04 pm 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. :-)
The startpage is build everytime you boot Freecad so this could be done pretty easy I guess.
# This is the start page template. It builds an HTML global variable that
# contains the html code of the start page.
# Note: It is built only once per FreeCAD session for now...
Although such a campaign should be actively managed.Not sure if it would work but trying wouldn't hurt.
drmacro
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by drmacro »

This would be totally wasted on me...I've had the Start workbench turned off for years.

:lol:
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by adrianinsaval »

MisterMaker wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 2:51 pm Or would this turn Freecad into adware?
Should we only do a website like Blender?
yes to both

a sponsorship banner on the startpage is excessive, a thanks page on the about dialog maybe, but it would need to connect to the internet to fetch current sponsors then so IMO it's not worth the effort. If put on the startpage at most it can be a separate tab, not the front page.

Links to donate to the project or to specific developers in the startpage would be ok.
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

I would totally make a start-page template with some text from the devs, but I can't code for sh*t in python, I am trying but ugh it's not easy.
freedman
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by freedman »

I don't get it, does McDonalds or Pesi use CAD, are we trying to make fat users with poor circulation :)

Seriously, I think the idea is valid but lets target folks in the industry. Could we model something for DigiKey or Mouser? Could we contact a few mill-station companies or 3D prototype companies and ask to model something for them (for some $$). This would be an ad that I could live with, knowing that both parties are working towards a common goal.
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Kunda1
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by Kunda1 »

Thankfully we have The FreeCAD Project Association (FPA) to deal with these complexities. But I do like the initiative that mistermaker is taking. It may not be sponsors but it would be excellent to tweak the StartWB for sure!
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

freedman wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 7:33 pm I don't get it, does McDonalds or Pesi use CAD, are we trying to make fat users with poor circulation :)

Seriously, I think the idea is valid but lets target folks in the industry. Could we model something for DigiKey or Mouser? Could we contact a few mill-station companies or 3D prototype companies and ask to model something for them (for some $$). This would be an ad that I could live with, knowing that both parties are working towards a common goal.
The common issue is that we are all being exploited by a Oligopoly of CAD vendors.
That we the designers aren't owning our own designs anymore in those CAD programs.
Most companies are having the same issues being forced into a subscription models just to be able to keep working with their own data. Paying for updates they don't need. Or working with 10 year old software like Catia V5.
Companies are huge customers to CAD companies and have huge budgets for CAD if companies would spend 1% of their CAD budget on Freecad we would have 100 full time devs.
So basically there is a huge market for opensource CAD that somehow has not been unearthed.
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MisterMaker
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by MisterMaker »

Kunda1 wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 7:50 pm Thankfully we have The FreeCAD Project Association (FPA) to deal with these complexities. But I do like the initiative that mistermaker is taking. It may not be sponsors but it would be excellent to tweak the StartWB for sure!
Yeah combining that with start page is probably a good idea, or at least placing a link on it to that github. Or maybe a fancy page on the website!
reference: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FPA/issues/3
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yorik
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by yorik »

I totally agree with @Kunda1 and @sliptonic. My 2 cents:

Although it's thrilling to see FreeCAD enter more seriously the professional world, and therefore it's a good idea to call these companies to contribute, it should always be crystal clear, everywhere, all the time, that FreeCAD is free, no strings attached, and that its future, working, or anything else is NOT depending on money. I'm always a bit worried of open-source projects becoming kind of wikipedias, mozillas, always begging for money and implicitly (my own perception of course) "threatening" to shut down if they don't get enough money.

I find it cool that a person or a community in a poor, remote rural area, for example in some parts of africa or latin america, can take FreeCAD and immediately feel its theirs, no strings attached. To resume, I think we shouldn't nag people with stuff like donation or sponsoring when they are using FreeCAD. FreeCAD itself should be clear of any stuff like that (again, that is my own personal opinion only). I feel we would loose users more than we would gain money.

The place to do that IMHO is on the website. A company interested in FreeCAD should simply think "I like this 💩. how do I sponsor it" go to freecad.org, find a "how to sponsor" link, and that's what they need. Basically a passive thing. Offering the great opportunity to join an epic journey to build a fantastic software, not beg for money.

To attract sponsor's attention, I think it should be done elsewhere. On other websites, talk about FreeCAD, go to industry events (I'd love if we could start doing that) and showcase FreeCAD, etc... For that, I think we need 1) a list of events where we could go, and people ready to go, 2) printable material, 3) ready-to-show demos and showcase material

Another cool and non-intrusive thing we could do is, after someone clicked one of the download buttons, be redirected to a page that suggests donation or sponsoring.
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onekk
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Re: Idea's to give sponsors more attention?

Post by onekk »

For how much it count I agree mostly with yorik:

- It is a good idea to have sponsors
- If some enterprise will make money using FreeCAD, it will be a good idea to "ask for a Donation" , maybe with something in the download page:

like:
If you find this software useful and you make money using it. Please consider making a donation.
(suggested donation (x) hour of what you charge for your work.)
Or similar thing, maybe with the indication that the money will be used to improve FC developing.

Other things, could be made, maybe with encouraging and supporting some "FC consultancy" improving documentation and examples.

I could think that if I'm a consultant and supplying consult to business firms that use FC and make 100.000 WCYH (Whatever Currency You Have) i will donate 10 or 100 WCYH to the program that make my income possible.

As yorik as told, we must think also and IMHO always in people in third workd countries or deprived area that struggle "survive" and use FC as a mean to "feed the family", so FC has to be as the OpenSource is Free for whatever use you make.

Usually we people that live in first and second world, will forget easily that there are many people that struggles to "feed the family" (and sometimes we don't see even our neighbours when they have similar problems, but this is mostly OT)

Sorry for bothering

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Carlo D.
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