NOV
8
2002

KDE Merchandise Sales to Support Developers

Submitted by Waldo Bastian

Shawn Gordon of
theKompany has found
a new and innovative way to support KDE development:
a new line of
KDE-themed merchandise has been made available and each month a random KDE developer will be awarded with the profits from the sale.

"I came up with this after discussion with some of the core KDE developers," Gordon says. "There is no decent KDE merchandise and a lot of people would like to have some. We've made some original designs for the various products and have made them available at slightly above cost to the general public. We don't want to, nor will we make money off of this; this is what will happen with the profits:

"We have made
a registration system that KDE developers can sign up for to apply for it as a kind of 'grant'. All the money made from the month will go to a randomly selected person from the list, you can only win once until everyone else who is in the system has won. We will verify that in fact you are contributing to KDE and not just trying to get free money by checking the CVS logs, and the money will get paid out."

"The idea is to try and help support KDE developers that aren't hired full time to work on KDE. The amount of money they can earn is directly related to how much merchandise gets sold, so it is in everyone's best interest to try and promote this as much as possible. theKompany gets nothing out of this, but is simply the facilitator. We're hoping this can do some good and provide some incentive for all those hard working KDE developers that don't get any compensation for their work," Gordon said.

Comments

For one, if we truly believe in our product, we should by all means use it and encourage others to do so. Having the merchandise hosted on an IIS and Win2k show lack of judgement on our part because we haven't done enough research to find a merchandising company that runs on Apache and Linux. We can say Open Source is cool, this and that, but what ultimately be a deciding factors are the people who are actually using it. Much like smoking, people tell you to not smoke but they smoke. Do you think you will trust what they say?

By Anonymous at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

Where's all this "we" stuff. It sounds like Shawn took the initiative. I didn't see "Anonymous" anywhere in the article as a contributor to this effort.

It's a big world out there ... get used to it.

Jim

By Jim at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

very good idea!

By asf at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

Next payday, I'm buying the messenger bag. I ride my bike to work, rain or shine, and need a good bag to take my lunch, books, etc.

I like the yellow, and the messenger bag seems to have the best logo colors (black and red, as far as I can tell).

Good show! I'm happy to contribute.

By Shamyl Zakariya at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

I've had a KDE-themed shop up at Cafepress for over a year now. Sales weren't too bad at first, but have really tapered off what with the poor economy, job concerns in the tech sector and such. Anyway, I've been forwarding the profits to Mirko Boehm over at KDE e.V. whenever they come in.

Feel free to check it out:

http://www.cafeshops.com/kde

Perhaps I should work with Shawn to merge these two stores under their control ?

By David Huff at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

KDE thongs, huh? *LOL*

By Navindra Umanee at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

You know I just went in to add the polo shirt and saw the thong and the x-mas ornaments and decided to add them. I thought the thong was funny as hell, especially with the slogan, but then again....

By Shawn Gordon at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

x-mas? where?

Jad

By Jad at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Ok got it!
here: http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=kdegear and I looked
here: http://www.cafeshops.com/kde

J.A.

By Jad at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Yeah, I just added them yesterday. A pair of those + the baby-tee would make any woman a geek sex goddess... ;->

By David Huff at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Lol!! It's great!! :)
I just whish there were Hooded Sweatshirt with konquis, and something on the back to, like the regular Sweatshirt.

Very cool shop! Keep it up!
Jad

By Jad at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

> Perhaps I should work with Shawn to merge these two stores under their
> control ?

If you do, please keep all items!
Jad

By Jad at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Is any one else incredibly impressed to see the kde thong? That's a bold move when first trying out merchandising.

By Jon at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

I miss the matching bra ;-)

Bye
Alex

By aleXXX at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Hacker's phantasies....

A women's T-shirt (as can be seen here or here) would me much nicer and more practical.

eva

By eva at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Dunno, at least here in the US, many (younger) women wear thongs these days. Not sure about Europe.

By hmm at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Impressed? Bold? Nah.
But I think it's funny and a good idea :)
Swimsuits or bikinis would be cool too.

Jad

By Jad at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

I was just about to purchase the messenger bag when I had a look at the logo. Where the H-E double hockey sticks did that logo come from? That is not the standard logo for KDE? Hmm, you just lost my money!

jr

By Jules at Fri, 2002/11/08 - 6:00am

no, *I* didn't loose your money, some KDE developer just lost it. See my previous comments for where the logo's came from.

By Shawn Gordon at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

KDE the FLAME THROWER! (the kids love this)

:-)

By Xanadu at Sat, 2002/11/09 - 6:00am

Gotta wonder how many women will be wearing the official KDE thong with the come get some logo....

Karl

By Karl at Mon, 2002/11/11 - 6:00am

official, nothing. this is no official.

By ac at Mon, 2002/11/11 - 6:00am

Nice logos!

But - why are all the shirts white? (ash grey counts as white for me)
It would have been very nice with something dark - brown, black, blue or green, just something not bright and white!

I think I will by a white one anyway

and: Why the thong? - why not mens underwear too?

(Well, I suppose I could try wearing the thong :-P)

Dag

By Dag at Tue, 2002/11/12 - 6:00am

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