Re: Donations

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

Am Sonntag, 30.01.05 um 12:57 Uhr schrieb Quentin Mathé:

> Le 30 janv. 05, à 11:52, Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf a écrit :
>
> > Am Sonntag, 30.01.05 um 04:18 Uhr schrieb Adam Fedor:
> >
> > >  This should be plenty to pay for the first round of icons we've 
> > > commissioned.
> >
> > What will be the proceedings? I hope that we hold a contest where 
> > those donations are the price money. This way we can "kill two flies 
> > with one stroke" as a german proverb goes.
> > First we get many solutions to choose from (by poll or whatever), 
> > second we get a portion extra attention when we advertise the contest 
> > on slashdot or whatever.
>
> I'm not sure you are talking of a contest for the GNUstep icons, but 
> if it is case it is unrealistic in my opinion,

How can you say that without even trying? I mean 600$ is a quite large 
amount of money given that it was raised from donations. We should try 
to get some more bang for the buck (read attention) than just /one/ set 
of icons (which might in turn be appealing to a special taste - but 
then the money is gone).

>  because such icons set involves a lot of work and no icon designers 
> will subscribe to it if he is not sure to get paid.

I don't believe that. Ever googled for 
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+icon+set ? Or have a look 
at those theme sites like http://www.resexcellence.com/themes/ ? Most 
of the themes are downloadable for free. I don't see where somebody 
here did not work without a paycheck.

> I'm saying that because it took me lot of time to find an icon 
> designer who accepts to work for us even with his work remunerated…

I would say you didn't try hard enough. I - for instance - wasn't aware 
that you were looking for designers. And I am a person that is somewhat 
involved with gnustep. I did not see any announce at our web site and 
so on.

>  Really good icon designers have no problems to find more remunerated 
> projects than they could manage, and moreover for icon designers the 
> current look of GNUstep doesn't look really exciting in my opinion, 
> this point could explain the difficulty I encountered to find one who 
> accepts to work for us.

That's why the contest. We need more publicity. And: all public 
projects - even government ones - use the practice of open competitive 
bidding or tender offers before giving the contract to someone. 
Otherwise a bad aftertaste might result: What if the contractor is a 
personal protege of the project leader. I am not saying that your 
designer is your pal for whom you'd like to provide some sort of easy 
money making - but the impression could arise.
Even if the designer is saying: "I am not taking part in a competition" 
that is no good sign: if he/she is the best and it is under his/her 
level to take part in a competition why so? If you're so great you'll 
easily being the winner - if not you weren't so great obviously.

And: When we a starting something big with pomp and circumstance I tell 
you a lot more people are willing to take part (a lot more of that who 
denied when asked in private email) We only need the right appearance.

> Quentin.

regards, Lars