In my recent post I have elaborated about two segments of our audience and the changes we made to our infrastructure to fit them better.
But in fact we have more segments!
I talk about the segments that related with particular software projects maintained by us – Synfig, OpenToonz (Morevna Edition), RenderChan and Papagayo-NG. Each of those software projects has its own audience. And there are no guarantee that audience of one project is interested in other our projects and Morevna itself.
Simply put, we have a big segment of Synfig users, who are not really interested in Morevna (as an animation product).
So, understanding that situation and with consideration of rapid growing of Synfig, we took a decision to separate it.
From now on we will stop publishing Synfig-specific news at Morevna Project website, unless they are directly related with Morevna Project. All Synfig news now appear on a newborn dedicated blog at its official website. With that change the audience of Synfig can get its news without a requirement to subscribe for Morevna’s news feed.
So, if you are interested to receive email updates about important news of Synfig development and notifications about new releases – consider subscribing to its blog here. For those who looking for a more frequent updates, there is also a free Patreon feed here.
Some personal background.
If you follow Synfig progress for quite a while, then you probably remember that two years ago I have carried an opposite process of merging Synfig into Morevna Project. The decision was dictated by the crisis in the project – Synfig was at the edge of death, debts were growing and I was looking for a ways to save all ongoing projects by collapsing them into one, with a hope to minimize management routines. Let me admit it: that was bad decision. Yes, we did saved some of our resources and (maybe?) won some time, but the price was high – I’ve got a mixed audience and I lost my sense of it. I lost understanding of who I am talking to. I lost the warm touch I’ve always had with my readers and followers. That was distracting. To be honest, I wasn’t sure Synfig will survive. And that was just making things worse. Luckily it did survived and I think that happened thanks to its community – thanks to their support and commitment. They didn’t let me drop it completely. So, thank you for that! Also thanks to Ivan Mahonin, who was sticking around for all that time and helped by whatever he could, even if his efforts were not funded. Well, I am happy we managed to get to the point where we are now – it is time to separate back. And see the new rise of Synfig.
So, this is the separation of Synfig and the reasons behind this step. Also, I have a few more things to tell, but didn’t found how to put them in the post above. So I composed a mini-FAQ. ^__^
What about other projects?
Eventually you can expect the same separation to happen for OpenToonz (Morevna Edition), RenderChan and, maybe, Papagayo-NG.
When will this happen?
Can’t really tell. That depends on the maturity of the project, the size of its audience and our resources (maintaining the project as separated requires some resources, as well as separation process itself).
What does the “separation” really means? Is this about separation news feeds only?
No. The separation means development of a whole separate web-infrastructure around a project – from its own blog and landing page, to a dedicated documentation hub, support forums (if required), email newsletter, etc. If the project is big enough, it also gets a separate funding infrastructure (like Synfig got now).
Please note, that the separation doesn’t take any influence on our involvement in the software project – Morevna team will continue contributing its resources and time for managing and developing the project, as before.
2 Responses
Very good decision
They could expand the “Featured Works” of synfig to other examples
Yes, that’s a good idea!