Drop inactive sponsorship banner

[saivann]

Current sponsorship will end on September 1th.

It is not decided yet if the Foundation will renew it's support (which I'd be happy with as far as I'm concerned). In the mean time, the sponsorship banner can be put on hold.

Note; This pull request should not be merged until September 1th.

[ABISprotocol]

I wasn't aware the Foundation was considering pulling its support for bitcoin.org - I don't have a vote in the matter, but (as a member of the Foundation) in my humble opinion, bitcoin.org is an excellent website, and I think the Foundation should support it if it has funds to do so.

I'm copying @BruceFenton and @vessenes on this comment, and will also drop Bruce Fenton a link to this discussion via reddit.

[BruceFenton]

Bitcoin Foundation is working on ways to continue the sponsorship by working with members.

[saivann]

@ABISprotocol Thanks. Yes we were already in touch with Bruce.

@BruceFenton Please let me know here or by email if there is any update on your side. Meanwhile we may also search for alternatives to see if anything positive comes up.

[vessenes]

I have absolutely nothing to do with the Foundation at this point; not even an e-mail there. I always liked the idea of sponsoring bitcoin.org, but even when the Foundation was flush, I personally considered it non-core, and more of a charitable contribution than mission critical.

That said, if bitcoin.org is struggling financially, that's a big deal for the ecosystem. I would have loved to see it get built out further; there are lots of things that could be done there, especially continuing to improve the documentation and keep up with developments like mastercoin and other on-chain tools.

[wbnns]

@bitjson - hey Jason, do you think BitPay or Copay might want to be featured as the sponsor for Bitcoin.org?

[bitjson]

@wilbns that's definitely possible. I'll talk to the team.

I would have loved to see it get built out further [...]

I think it's also very possible BitPay could contribute in terms of design and development work. BitPay's enterprise sales process is already very oriented toward growing interest in bitcoin, and I think bitcoin.org is certainly helpful to newcomers.

[wbnns]

@bitjson ah, that's awesome. cool idea. here's @harding and @saivann's (lead maintainers) emails in case you'd like to loop anyone into a convo that doesn't have a github account:

• dave harding
• saïvann carignan

if you think it would be relevant to do so, i could also reach out to emily over there to shoot her a heads up about this. she and i interact every now and then on another unrelated project.

[bitjson]

Great thanks, we'll follow up via email.

[ABISprotocol]

Thanks for the quick response on this for those involved thus far. My preferences related to this pull request are:

@saivann ~ Please hold open the pull request and hold off on the Sept. 1 merge. If the Bitcoin Foundation continues the sponsorship at some level or serves in a coordinating capacity such that it communicates with Bitcoin Foundation members to become sponsors, then it seems to me it would make sense to retain the banner.

@BruceFenton ~ Please reply in this thread as to the specifics of what ways the Bitcoin Foundation plans to continue the sponsorship by working with members (and if it plans to continue funding directly, at what level).

@vessenes ~ bitcoin.org has long served as the most significant and known website for resources about bitcoin and if you are to google the word "bitcoin," it's the top result. It's also a common domain targeted for censorship by countries such as Russia. It has not only provided excellent information and updates about Core, but provides in general a system for review of other wallets which would be considered for the site, and the system for review of wallets to be featured is rigorous.

Support bitcoin.org

TY

[BruceFenton]

Hi,

The Bitcoin Foundation is doing the following:

1- trying to get a corporate member to serve as sponsor -- we had a line on one who had expressed interest but they've gone a bit dark, I'm reaching out to them and others

2- we can work with our members to do some crowdfunding -- this should provide something at least depending on how much interest and exposure we can get

If you could hold off on the change until I can see if these efforts work that would be great.

B

On Aug 31, 2015, at 2:08 PM, ABIS notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks for the quick response on this for those involved thus far. My preferences related to this pull request are:

@saivann ~ Please hold open the pull request and hold off on the Sept. 1 merge. If the Bitcoin Foundation continues the sponsorship at some level or serves in a coordinating capacity such that it communicates with Bitcoin Foundation members to become sponsors, then it seems to me it would make sense to retain the banner.

@BruceFenton ~ Please reply in this thread as to the specifics of what ways the Bitcoin Foundation plans to continue the sponsorship by working with members (and if it plans to continue funding directly, at what level).

@vessenes ~ bitcoin.org has long served as the most significant and known website for resources about bitcoin and if you are to google the word "bitcoin," it's the top result. It's also a common domain targeted for censorship by countries such as Russia. It has not only provided excellent information and updates about Core, but provides in general a system for review of other wallets which would be considered for the site, and the system for review of wallets to be featured is rigorous.

Support bitcoin.org

TY

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[saivann]

@bitjson @BruceFenton Thanks, your involvement is welcome! Looking forward to exchanging more by email.

I may still merge this pull request (as the sponsorship banner isn't accurate at the moment). If so, that doesn't mean that discussions have ended or anything. The sponsorship banner can be re-displayed or changed just as easily a bit later. I'll exchange a few words with domain owners about this PR, as they seem to show interest in involving with the sponsorship too.

[ABISprotocol]

Glad to hear something is being worked out here. Cheers

[saivann]

I haven't received any followup by email, so I'm merging this pull request for now. Still looking forward to exchanging with @bitjson and @BruceFenton .

[saivann]

Note; Just opened #1045 to add the Foundation to the list of contributors. It should already have been here in fact I think.