Someone could print them out themselves. If they had
the space, the foundation could supply them the
equipment to do the work, get the wholesale t-shirts
delivered, and they could ship them out, based on
orders taken on a special registration page at meta.
Or would that be too much like the wiki way? :)
S
--- "Daniel P.B.Smith" <dpbsmith(a)verizon.net> wrote:
> I agree -
CafePress is expensive. But as you
state, there really
aren't any
known good alternatives that are cheaper.
Random thought- you think ThinkGeek would be
interested in some sort
of a deal?
I don't see any point in worrying about it or trying
to optimize
anything.
If the point is to create public awareness of
Wikipedia, its presence
on the Internet (and frequency of appearance in
Google search results)
is probably a (pause for serious numeric estimation)
million times more
effective than wearing T-shirts. If the point is to
support Wikipedia,
why on earth would I buy a $20 T-shirt worth $10 in
order to give
Wikipedia $5, as opposed to a) donating $20 via
PayPal (same cost to
me, four times the benefit to WIkipedia) or b)
donating $5 via PayPal
(same benefit to Wikipedia, one quarter the cost to
me)?
The only reason for having Wikipedia-logo
merchandise is as a service
to those who actually _want_ to wear Wikipedia on
their sleeve, as it
were. Cafepress serves that function adequately.
Wiki-merchandise will never be a significant factor
in Wikipedia's
financing unless there is a major diversion of
someone's time and
attention from encyclopedia-building to merchandise
creation and
marketing.
(But what do I know? I was raised by a mom who never
allowed
advertising within the sphere of her personal space.
No containers of
cream were ever placed on the table; the cream was
always poured first
into a pitcher. The idea of staring at Elsie, the
Borden cow on the
breakfast table was anathema to her. No bumper
stickers on the Smith
family car!)
--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith(a)verizon.net
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is
now back in print!
Sample chapter at
http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
_______________________________________________
WikiEN-l mailing list
WikiEN-l(a)Wikipedia.org
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Messenger - Communicate in real time. Download now.