What a cheer, huh? :-) Anyhow, at the moment we're the #2 most popular project on SourceForge, with 77,074 downloads over the past seven days:
http://sourceforge.net/top/toplist.php?type=downloads_week A look at the details shows that the big surges in downloads came just after glowing press coverage in Slashdot and on MSNBC: http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/?group_id=15518 If that's not enough to motivate folks to keep pushing on the evangelising front, I don't know what is. Just think, if YOU manage to get another prominent link, YOU could motivate tens of thousands of people to try AbiWord. Where else can you have such an immediate effect on so many people with only an afternoon's work? So if you're wondering whether your evangelism can have a big effect, give it a try, then watch those downloads fly! Here's a quick recipe for evangelizing success: 1. Pick a community of potential AbiWord users that you have something in common with. For example, MacOS X users, or people who speak Polish, or whatever. 2. Figure out why they might find our 1.0.1 release interesting. Then figure out (or just guess) where most of them tend to hang out online. For example, what's the Slashdot equivalent for Mac folks? Another example: the Windows equivalent of freshmeat.net is download.com. 3. Write up a short interesting blurb that appeals to that audience. 4. Grab a copy of Martin's official press release. http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/02/May/0300.html If necessary, translate it. 5. Submit your blurb with a copy of or pointer to the press release. 6. When your stuff makes it online, send a note to this list with the URL and a summary of anything interesting you've learned from the new community of AbiWord users that YOU created. Have fun! Paul, wearing his rah-rah hat PS: People who are interested in doing more sophisticated evangelism are encouraged to search the archives of this list for more detailed suggestions of what to try.
