We all know Synfig needs developers, contributors and more users.
For this to happen I think we need to start pushing for it more, make it more visible. Make people conscious about it’s existence.
I did a quick survey on it’s exposure, checked forums, google and such;
Googles top hit on “synfig” is Synfigs old site, synfig.com. The new site is hit #3.
Besides these sites there are a wikipedia article on Synfig on googles first page.
Then there’s quite a few details about Debian and Ubuntu packages, a few spread forum posts etc. Not the kind of things people find interesting when googling.
We would like blog posts, articles etc. about Synfig topping the google searches. For this we need to get Synfig to bloggers and article writers.
Also we need to get Synfigs old page away from those searches and getting current page as #1. I don’t know how you manipulate google for this though.
At forums it’s quite dark in the Synfig-area…
At animationforum.net Synfig is mentioned in 7 threads (out of a total of about 6000 threads). Of those there are two that has a little more substance than just bare mentionings. Both of these are more than two years old.
At AWN.com (Animation World Network, probably largest animation forum on the net) it’s even worse. Mentionings in 4 threads, of those one with substance and that’s about 3 years old. This is on a forum with 9000 posts.
Making people conscious of Synfig is a slow process, but it is one that all users here on the forum can help with in different ways. It doesn’t have to be much work involved for you if you feel you don’t have a lot of time to share. A forum-post somewhere recommending Synfig is a great help that might lead to a few more users and it won’t take you more than 5 minutes.
From users with a bit more time on their hands and from a community “official” side there are some things that can be done to further raise conciousness about Synfig;
Blogs - we don’t have to start blogging about how good Synfig is but move fitting content to the blog format. Things like the newsletter and an occasional post about a new contest.
People can add the stream to their feedreaders and once i a while get reminded about Synfig. I get reminded about software I find interesting, but don’t visit websites for, all the time by having them in my feedreader.
Promotion films - I know there are a gallery with films made with Synfig but we need more, and perhaps pure commercials for Synfig to spread everywhere. Show what’s possible.
Banners - create with synfig small banners that can be used as advertisement or that people can use as footers in their forum posts around the net.
Advertisement - with banners. I think we can get advertisement space for free at animation sites and such. Places that might like to help open source animation forward. We can’t get more than a no for asking.
Summer of Code 2010. - For this we need someone that knows the code and project well that could act as a mentor. And we would of course need to find dedicated students that can work on the SOC-projects.
Libre Graphic meeting 2010. - Here we have a user willing to go and represent Synfig (Genete). As well as networking with other graphics projects we can raise consciousness about Synfig through the filmed and published conferences at River Valley TV, presupposed they attend LGM2010 as they did LGM2009.
Make a bang release! - For the next release, add a few col features, create press and promo material. A press release with some cool images and a bullet list of cool features to send to relevant recipients, like animation magazines, sites and such. (Yes’ I know this is a bit hard when we hardly have any development at the moment…).
Getting Synfig out there. - This is important and here the Jaunty release was a disaster.
People can’t use the repository packages and we won’t get any new users other than the most dedicated that themselves seek out a working deb on Synfigs site.
It’s not just a loss of users but I think it’s harmful for the application. People try to install from the repos and finding it doesn’t work they think “what a piece of crap!” and moves on, never giving Synfig a second though.
We need to have Synfig easily accessed by anyone to try out.
My last though on this is a repetition of a previous thought;
Spread the word about Synfig!
This is perhaps the most important thing. If someone is asking on a forum for a way to do a task; mention Synfig (if it can do it of course).
If there’s any opportunity to mention Synfig, please do!
This is my view as a relative new user of Synfig. I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this.
Thanks,
-David Rylander
animator, Sweden.
but we should think why Synfig isn’t popular, or why he will have problems in being more popular, I found two obstacles:
What could one expect when it officially reaches Version 1.0.0? Or even later?