Forwarding the message to the mailing list, as it was sent just to me. This is a LibreOffice user, who is tangent to the community, and he provides the POV we should be addressing with the label.
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] MARKETING PLAN: Some Proposals Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2020 18:14:30 +0000 From: James Harking <james.hark...@gmail.com> To: it...@libreoffice.org Hello all, I have followed these discussions for a number of months now. I am just a user of LibreOffice and not as well connected as clearly you all are. In my opinion I believe that an 'average' user that downloads LibreOffice does not care about the label much at all. It's secondary for almost every user to the fact they get a free (as in beer) office suite. It is the organisations you need to be concerned about. You are in reality saying how can I make them feel 'guilty' or 'oblidged' to stop being freeloaders and put something back. I think the personal label does that for the reasons stated by Italo. I like community edition also but it doesn't feel as explicit. Community can mean different things to different people. If it was me I would have the branding in multiple places. I would make it prominent. It doesn't change the licence, it doesn't put restrictions on users but it does inform on a purpose and it is unlikely you would put typical users off from using the software. The choice as I see it is what will keep development going for the long term if the people who fund this development were to stop through no sales? If the choice is possibly upset some sensibilities in a small group of community members or see the project stagnate? Then that's no choice at all. Do you wish to continue as you have for the last ten years or make a bold change. Just my opinion anyway, James On Mon, 9 Nov 2020, 15:06 Italo Vignoli, <it...@libreoffice.org <mailto:it...@libreoffice.org>> wrote: So far, I have not participated to the discussion, hoping that this could help others in pushing forward their proposals. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so I am trying to share some thoughts and proposals for the following action item: 1. Product Label for the community supported version provided by TDF First of all, it should be clear that this label is not targeted to community members, but to the outside world of LibreOffice users (so, probably to 99.9% of all users). Rejecting a label because it is not seen as appropriate for community members is not helping the decision, because we need to improve the positioning for all those people who do not contribute at all to the project (apart from donations, which are not seen as contributions for this decision). The unfortunate reality is that the majority of enterprises is using LibreOffice for free - is their right, but they usually save a rather substantial amount of money by replacing MS Office licenses with LibreOffice - without giving back anything, while they should support the project at least in the same proportion of individuals who donate (because they recognize the value of the software). So, we need to exert some moral suasion on enterprises by making it clear - with a label - that the LibreOffice version they are using is not targeted to enterprises, as it is not supported professionally, or it is not packaged according to the needs of enterprises deploying LibreOffice on a large number of PCs. Proposals in line with the objective: COMMUNITY: makes the Community happy, but does not communicate to users the right message, as Community is the feature-limited version of open core projects (best case, competent users or 1% of all users), or the organization where you treat addictions (worst case, or 98.9% of all users). IMHO not applicable. PERSONAL: does not make the Community happy because Personal is not interpreted in the right way by OSS advocates (Personal as in personal computer or personal productivity), on the contrary is rather clear for users outside the community ("I can use it for free on my PC"), and is providing the right message to enterprises (by the way, a label will not stop anyone from using LibreOffice for free on hundreds or thousands of PCs, but will give us a reason for a strong message). IMHO the best. ROLLING: Rolling is a techie term for OSS advocates, based on several Linux distros, although not popular amongst users provides a feeling of something which is not perfectly stable, and as such could be used - but the deployment should be carefully studied - to provide a message for enterprises. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable. CLASSIC: Classic is a typical branding term used by very large brands to label the "original" product, when there are variants available. As such it could work, although the message for enterprises should be carefully crafted and added. IMHO sub-optimal but probably acceptable. BASIC: this is the closest label to "home" or "unsupported", which were suggested by ecosystem members (but have a negative meaning which is not appropriate for a quality product such as LibreOffice), it is not the most elegant solution but it could be deployed with some extra care, and some specific message targeted to enterprises. IMHO the last resport, if nothing else works. Looking forward to other proposals, possibly with a rationale. Of course, please remember the planned meeting on Wednesday, November 11, at 2PM UTC. 2. Where to position the label: title bar, about box, start center I would like to get some ideas also for the positioning of the label. I am not sure that adding it to the Start Center would make a difference, because most users do not read what they have on the screen, and so the enterprises. Of course, we have to find a place where to add the label, in addition to the About Box (which is the natural place for it). In any case, the effectiveness of the label will be related to the communication effort around it, which will be based on specific actions and messages. We will have to educate enetrprises, which are not trivial to educate as a target. On the other hand, if enterprises do not give something back to the project, the sustainability is at stake. Sorry for the long message, happy to read other contributions. -- Italo Vignoli - LibreOffice Marketing & PR mobile/signal +39.348.5653829 - email it...@libreoffice.org <mailto:it...@libreoffice.org> hangout/jabber italo.vign...@gmail.com <mailto:italo.vign...@gmail.com> - skype italovignoli GPG Key ID - 0xAAB8D5C0 DB75 1534 3FD0 EA5F 56B5 FDA6 DE82 934C AAB8 D5C0 -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: marketing+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org <mailto:marketing%2bunsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org> Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy -- Italo Vignoli - LibreOffice Marketing & PR mobile/signal +39.348.5653829 - email it...@libreoffice.org hangout/jabber italo.vign...@gmail.com - skype italovignoli GPG Key ID - 0xAAB8D5C0 DB75 1534 3FD0 EA5F 56B5 FDA6 DE82 934C AAB8 D5C0 -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: marketing+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy