GoDaddy sponsorship

[David Nalley]

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Toshio Kuratomi <a.badger at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 12:58:49PM -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>> One of the sponsorships being pursued by our volunteers is with
>> GoDaddy[1], a fairly well-known hosting/VPS/services company.  Some
>> concerns have been raised about GoDaddy as a sponsor, primarily
>> because the perception of some of their advertising may have an
>> unintended adverse effect on FUDCon.
>>
>> We want the proceedings to be as welcoming to everyone as possible,
>> since after all FUDCon is free and open to everyone.  (In fact, AFAIK
>> there is no argument whatsoever that we are overjoyed to have GoDaddy
>> employees attending.)  However, if associating our event with GoDaddy
>> through a direct sponsorship results in a misunderstanding of Fedora's
>> inclusivity, then that sponsorship wouldn't be to our benefit.
>>
>> I'm not offering any opinion on the values or actions of GoDaddy.
>> That's not why I'm writing about this issue.  I simply think we run a
>> substantial risk of creating a mistaken impression about inclusivity
>> in the Fedora Project with such a sponsorship.  With so many other
>> rewarding and valuable ways to spend our valuable resources, time, and
>> attention, I think it behooves us to find sponsorships with less
>> potential for divisiveness in the free software community.
>>
> I'm not coming out for or against GoDaddy here either but... didn't we have
> a similar discussion when some people thought that Arizona itself might send
> the wrong message about how the Fedora project views people from countries
> outside the United States?  The answer then was that you can find something
> wrong with any venue if you're looking for what could potentially offend
> someone and I kinda think that similar thinking could be applied here....
>


While I am happy to just +1 Toshio, I'll add the following.

It's not like we can take money, or that 'sponsoring' FUDcon gets you
some influence in the Fedora Project. In fact it's the opposite, the
fact that we can get sponsors shows that the Fedora Project rocks and
people want to support the community.

Given how we've talked about handling sponsors (ie point them in the
direction of a vendor for something we need paid) this is effectively
like someone offering to buy your meal. If you don't like the entity
offering you the meal/beverage/$thingsponsored you are more than
welcome to turn it down. A sponsor paying for something doesn't affect
whether we'll hold the event, it might mean you have the option of a
extra free drink or two or a free meal, or something similiar.

<facetious comment>
Besides, if we are going to talk about things offensive and
antithetical to the community, can we talk about the sponsor who gives
away iPads as marketing gimmicks   :)
</facetious comment>

FUDcon (and Fedora) has always been free to anyone. I dont see a
reason to change that now, even if we disagree with them.