contribute to The Changelog

[chadwhitacre]

was: partner with influential bloggers / open source evangelists

Via HN:

Another idea that could work well is partnering up with some influential bloggers / open source evangelists and holding an international "Feed a coder" day, which brings awareness to the open source community and asks people to make a donation to their favourite projects / libraries / Wordpress plugins on that day.

There are a lot of Wordpress Bloggers out there who would be happy to donate to their favourite plugin authors but just haven't and this could push them over the line (this is just one community I'm quite involved with).

[chadwhitacre]

Let's turn this into a ticket about evangelizing Gittip in the open source community. Who needs to find out about Gittip and what channels can we use to spread the word?

The one I have my eye on is The Changelog, for which @steveklabnik is a contributor. How far along does Gittip have to be to get on there?

Where else should we be promoting Gittip? Please tell me.

[chadwhitacre]

/cc @alex, @jtauber, @jacobian, @freakboy3742

Let's page @waferbaby as well. Thanks to @synapticarbors, I believe I'll have an interview on usesthis.com later this month.

[steveklabnik]

It doesn't have to be far along, but since I'm on the leaderboard for contributions, I shouldn't cover it. Wynn or Adam might be interested, though, you should email them.

[chadwhitacre]

I think it's going to be really important for people like @mitsuhiko to put in a plug during conference talks, etc. Any time left at DjangoCon Europe?

The bottom line is that it can't depend solely on me for Gittip to grow. If you all want it to exist then let's make this happen.

[chadwhitacre]

Got it, thanks @steveklabnik. I've reached out to Wynn and Adam.

[rubiii]

hey guys. is peter cooper aware of this project? apart from the changelog, he's the one i would turn to for "publicity".

[chadwhitacre]

@rubiii Thanks for jumping in. I've contacted him.

[rhertzog]

If you want gittip to grow, you must provide better widgets for developers who are seeking donations via gittip. The current one is not good enough... for example one should be able to integrate the list of donors with the amount they have given (to prove that donations are handled transparently). You could also provide a progress bar showing how far the developer is from its funding goal.

The word of mouth is still the best publicity and for this you must have a successful donation widget. And to succeed, it must inspire trust and build up on proven marketing strategies.

[chadwhitacre]

From private email with @rhertzog:

On Gittip, donors are recognized on the homepage, unless they opt to be anonymous.

This is not enough because they don't get to see it before they make the donation. And people are supposed to come from the developer's webpage, not from gittip.com directly.

[chadwhitacre]

If you want gittip to grow, you must provide better widgets.

@rhertzog Agreed, and we have a few specific tickets toward that end. The idea of a progress bar is covered in #150. See also #175 and #177.

[chadwhitacre]

[O]ne should be able to integrate the list of donors with the amount they have given (to prove that donations are handled transparently).

Well, making particular tips non-anonymous would be a fundamental change for Gittip. The principle here is "no strings attached" for both sides of the equation. Anonymity in the particulars means that when I stop giving to you, there's no social awkwardness the next time I see you. This principle is essential to Gittip, though see #236 and #306 for some ideas on softening it somewhat.

That said, I think there are ways to increase transparency as you suggest without violating the anonymity principle. For example, individuals have access to a detailed history page (#43) and now also to a bar chart of gift amounts (#300). I've ticketed the idea of making these public as #325.

This is not enough because they don't get to see it before they make the donation[;] people are supposed to come from the developer's webpage, not from gittip.com directly.

Good point. It seems that having this info available on each profile page would address this.

[chadwhitacre]

@rhertzog I've reticked the idea of exposing giving details through the/a widget as #326.

[eduardodsolomon]

Is this a place to make a list of websites we should be partnering with? Or should I open up a new ticket?