Lars Weber wrote:
"Lord" == Lord Alistair Davidson, part time deity lord_inh@yahoo.co.uk writes:
Lord> Every time someone sees our logo, be it on a website or a letterhead or Lord> a tshirt, that reinforces our brand in their minds. It's like Lord> advertising. T-shirts are advertising that not only pays for itself, but Lord> is potentially a source of revenue for us! (albeit a limited one next to Lord> donations etc)
Personally, I don't think it is good to think in terms of "marketing" or "advertising" here. If T-shirts are designed, they should be designed for the people that are going to wear them.
I probably come across as a bit hard-headed and cynical. I'm not. But I *am* very goal-focussed. As I see it, our goal is to increase the freedom of the people with regards to software. This means, in short, more Free Software.
The only real limit that I can see on how we acheive that goal is that our actions must be morally and ethically sound.
Now, I would want t-shirts to be made regardless of any marketing benefits. I want an FSFE t-shirt! :0)
But we should also be aware of the ways in which t-shirts can help our cause, so that we can leverage them; anything less would be a betrayal of our cause. Freedom will not be won easily. Our opponents (mostly certain proprietary software companies and their allies in the various legislatures and parliaments) will use everything at their disposal to fight us- we can expect FUD and restrictive laws and propaganda campaigns (you just have to look at some of Microsoft's recent statements and speaches to see examples of this). We cannot use FUD etc ourselves, because that would be morally and ethically dubious, to say the least.
So we must use everything at *our* disposal to fight back. That means everything from t-shirts to political lobbying. We need to be aware of the implications of everything we do. We cannot, in good conscience, deliberately ignore a potent weapon in our fight for freedom. We are going to produce t-shirts regardless- we should be aware of how they can help us.
Yo uactually touch on another benefit that I missed- community. Wearing an FSFE t-shirt helps someone to feel part of the European Free Software community. If they understand the issues well, this turns them into another advocate for our cause, another warrior for freedom.
Wearing a T-shirt with a logo from something that one believes in is a good way to show other people that one does so. But first you have to be able to identify yourself with what's on the shirt.
Of course. I agree completely.