[Draise]

I run Facebook stuff a little, and I am a big fan of BFA. I would love to see it as the competitor yet as a symbiotic competition to Blender for many users and become a thing in the CG world – and I hate Blender still but like it’s features and BFA is the right way. But there is no presence on Facebook, and Facebook is a good 2 billion people large. I wanted to ask, can I build an official BFA page and publish important things, news and articles, whatever we do here on this website toa page, and even invest some of my own personal dollar on advertising? I really don’t mind contributing in this way, since my coding skills basically is finding basic bugs and testing the software, but I’d like to push it more. 

​So… yeah, it is basically transfering some key info from here to the page, and building up posts and investing in popular posts. 

​What do you think?

:dance:

[davis]

To create more awareness for BfA and to reach more potential users, this would be great. I am saying that, although I closed my FB account a while ago, since it was taking up too much of my time. .^^

[Reiner]

You can of course create a Bforartists facebook page when you want. There will most probably never be a real official facebook page for it since i hate facebook with a passion. I don’t even have an account there. So just go ahead and create the account

Unfortunately this means i will never post anything at facebook at the Bforartists page then.

[Reiner]

There will most probably never be a real official facebook page for it since i hate facebook with a passion.

Correction. Since you are a developer now too, i guess we will have an official facebook page then

[pietersmobile]

Hi guys,

Making a FB page is a great idea i.m.o.

Today i had my first experience with BfA and i think the thing you guys did with this blender fork (especially you Reiner) is really awsome!

I think the potential, escpecially for new 3D modellers and indie game devs, is huge. This forked version works so much more intuitive then original blender. The biggest problem is that alot of people are unaware of the excistance of BfA. Also from the name it’s hard to tell it’s a blender fork.

I think having a FB page and going where your target audience is (like at the unity FB page, and also at the tinkercad FB page) sounds like a good idea!

[Reiner]

Thanks

Yes, i think it will really be a great thing. I really look forward to what Draise will do here

[Draise]

Thanks. I am looking forward to it.

Just realized the market is pretty much worldwide. I still don’t have privalages to market in multiple languages, yet, so for now I’ll stick to English speaking countries I know of for ads. I will also index some groups to post to. I am thinking to do a crosspollination publicity – go to Blender, Maya, Max, Cinema4D, Houdini and other groups and areas to post to occasionally, including digital art training/study communities. But.. first I gotta make an index.

I’ll draw up a Phase 1 publicity plan to just get my head clear and for how long I should build the first stage of a publicity campaign. I think I will start on basic features, youtube videos (would also be good to have those as originals to upload directly to facebook as they embed better into peoples feeds) and forum art.

What do you think?

So far we got around 40 likes already.

If you guys have a cloud database on images/videos, I would love to have access to this.

:dance:

[Reiner]

I don’t have facebook, so do what ever you want to do

[Draise]

Hit 100 likes.

Posted the introduction videos from Youtube, and pushed one to a number of “Modeling and Animation” groups.

 

:dance:

[Reiner]

Not bad for a few days. Well done

[Draise]

200 likes hit.

:dance:

[Draise]

 

 

At 960 likes, Davis mentioned competitions. I think that is a good idea for something I could do this year (instead of an opensource project that sponsors BFa). But I want to run some ideas first with you guys.

Current status on Facebook:

• Image of the day (from gallery)
• Tutorials (latest from official Youtube)
• Tip of the day (from the dev tips thread)
• Feature fix (from latest interesting bug fixes or tasks)
• Developer (important announcements here, like new downloads to test)
• Spanish & English support groups
•  1-4 posts a week
• 1-5 organic likes per week
• No ad investment (will ad a little for Feb)

 

Some new things we can do:

• Art theme Competition and prize
• Skill challenge Competition and prizes
• Speed model challenges at regular intervals through periodic online meetings
• Software Cover image competition
• Facebook Cover image competition
• Forum Praise Quotes
• Mentions elsewhere in the internet (from Publicity thread, news articles, other downloads)
• Addon Reviews/Tutorials
• More tutorials

   

Here are some prize ideas:

• Exclusive addon on the Blender market (which I can purchase for their download/talk to devs about giving their addon to be sponsored, etc)
• Paid for subscription for a month to CG/Blender Cookie for a period of time (one paid account I can subscribe to, give access for period of time, log in details change at the end of time period to lock winner out, for a time)
• Praise content on the Facebook Page and homepage of Bforartists.de with exclusive celebration on certain dates
• Banner or Gallery header of the website for a time
• Cover image used in upcoming release
• Exclusive Skype interview with X developer

And I have one question, do we have time to do like a 1 week competition for the cover art of the next release of BFA? I can invest in it and push it and try get some people involved.

 

 

 

 

 

:dance:

[Reiner]

Splash for 0.9.6 already exists. The image from davis. And i cannot say when 0.9.7 will be ready. Can be one month, can be half a year.

Prize ideas, please keep in mind that the Bforartists development is completely non commercial …

[Draise]

 

 

Ah ok, so cover is done. Nice. Will have to experiment with something else.

I get how you need BFA to be non-commercial and non-profit. Any cashflow and legalities, taxes or anything, will slow down development. You put priority on the cause: opensource free software for artists. And to do so, you keep all financial cashflow far away, no ability to donate, no development costs (other than time and skill), no hosting costs, no investment in anything other than what volunteers do with their work and time.

I am not sure how you do it! You work on what insterest you most and somehow you don’t worry about getting some kind of return for something to eat, neither do you worry about getting known or finding a way to be known, nor having to worry about paying the electricity bill! You must have some passive income somewhere somehow from hard worked for assets from the past? In that case, your generosity is amazing. I wish I had such assets… 

And all in all, I am very much in agreement with the concept of free opensource software, and I think it’s great.

So.. in order to free up development… I guess this goes back to the other thread on a project… it would have to be a “Made for Bforartists” project as a third party that sponsors Bforartists.de indirectly outside of and disconnected completely from this area. Correct? If anything was to self invest using some kind of capital exponentially to grow audience exponentially… it would have to be a disconnected third party? Would that be allowed?  

I am wondering how Blender does it, as they do have a foundation and volunteer donations (for those who don’t develop) and other subscription servicefor “opensource” projects. I am also wondering how to harness the passion of real artists to promote with tangible prizes that are more than just fame or “the cause”.  I like the idea that someone can “help the cause” of a software they love and use either directly through development or indirectly through some other kind of alternative – which would be through donations or active participation with their art. I also like the idea that ultimately this software exists for the help, life and workflow and promotion of the artists. I am still just crunching my head to make it more accessible to those who aren’t developers… They must have done something right..over the past 4 years they were the 3rd in software ratings online concerning Maya, Max and Blender.. now they are more popular than even Maya (Google Trends). 

Concerning prizes only with featuring fame and the cause, I think we are still too small to make that of value to motivate artists to learn, migrate and work in BFA .. unless we implement a “featured Image”  in the gallery (which I can’t do) or “pinned post” in the Facebook page (which I can).  Maybe later over time, and maybe some sponsored advertisement, I could do extra feature pushing (publishing to groups, investing in ads on Facebook, etc). But.. that is not a strong solution….

 

 

:dance:

[Reiner]

I am not sure how you do it! You work on what insterest you most and somehow you don’t worry about getting some kind of return for something to eat, neither do you worry about getting known or finding a way to be known, nor having to worry about paying the electricity bill! You must have some passive income somewhere somehow from hard worked for assets from the past? In that case, your generosity is amazing. I wish I had such assets… 

I’m a pensioner

And that’s already a trouble maker when you earn money in any way. And i am simply highly idealistic. The Blender foundation is imho already compromised from the income they generate.

[Author]

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