Re: Feedback for starting a crowd funding campaign

[Urs Liska]

Am 05.03.2014 17:42, schrieb David Kastrup:
> Janek Warchoł <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > 2014-03-05 14:53 GMT+01:00 Urs Liska <address@hidden>:
> > > If we reach the goal we will update the source repository to a usable state
> > > and remove the references to the publisher.
> >
> > Why remove them?  After all, it _was_ published by Sound-rel.
>
> And I suppose the printed editions will remain available there.

Yes. And may be updated. _And_ the printed edition uses non-free fonts. 
We will continue to use them because with considerable effort I didn't 
find an appropriate free replacement.

> So it
> would be self-defeating to remove the references to it.  The point is to
> have the source available for use, study, and modification.  But there
> is absolutely no reason not to make a commercial variant available and
> use the freely available source as an advertisement for it.

I'm more thinking of a fork. Branch off the "commercial" version and 
purge the "community edition".
But actually I may mix up things a little bit. Our repository contains 
material that definitely should be purged because it should have been in 
separate repositories from the start (for example our advertisment 
materials). So actually I'm asking myself if it is better to make a 
snapshot of the current state, clean that up and make that one 
available. I think it isn't strictly required to make the current 
history available too. But in fact I would consider it important to have 
it in this case. Provided it will be feasible to purge the repo and its 
history from that material.

> > > _And_ we'll significantly reduce the retail prices for the printed
> > > books.
>
> That's something I'm not sure I'd overstress.  Reducing retail prices
> should be more or less dependent on overall sales, not all that much on
> the Kickstarter.  Of course, both are related.  But you don't want the
> "I'll wait until it becomes cheaper" effect...

Yes, I don't want that. I know that most of the campaign will be a kind 
of "Do good", not a "I want to have that cool thing first" campaign. But 
OTOH I'd feel somewhat insincere when doing the campaign and only tell 
people afterwards that they can get the book cheaper, now that they have 
sponsored it ...

Best
Urs