Happy Holidays and a happy upcoming new year from the MediaGoblin team! Today I kick off something I’ve been planning for a while. Contributor drawings!



Machalus, Duke of Time. Contributor drawing for Matt Lee. Thanks, Matt!

This is the first contributor drawing I made, near the start of the project. It’s been my intention since nearly the beginning to do artwork to thank various contributors for their hard work on the project. Recently I took the time to make several more:



X11R25 robot. Contributor drawing for Caleb Davis. Thanks, Caleb!



Shaquannah, a magician of arts. Contributor drawing for Karen Rustad. Thanks, Karen!



Spencer, a punkish goblin of sorts. Contributor drawing for Joar Wandborg. Thanks, Joar!

(Note, I don’t endorse smoking, even if Spencer does it!)

If all goes well, I’ll be making more and more of these for various contributors for various types of contributions. I think this could be a nice way to incentivize contributions (somewhat along the lines of the famous Knuth checks), but more importantly, to both give me a way to thank various people who have significantly helped the project and as a way for me to find an excuse to unwind a bit and spend some time on my artwork.

I’ll put more formally what to expect about contributor drawings on the wiki, but here are the basic rules of it to keep things interesting both for contributors and myself… nothing too formal, but:

Originally, I intended to do these as incentivization for people to do copyright assignments to the FSF , but it turns out that optional copyright assignments are not presently an option with the FSF , it’s all or nothing. So all you have to do to be eligible is to do some significant work on MediaGoblin.

, but it turns out that optional copyright assignments are not presently an option with the , it’s all or nothing. So all you have to do to be eligible is to do some significant work on MediaGoblin. Don’t contact me, I’ll contact you and let you know if I’m thinking of making a drawing for you.

To keep things from becoming a chore, drawings are not “made to order”. You can’t tell me precisely what you want in a drawing, I’d really like a lot of freedom here. But I’ll probably give you a choice between a couple of themes. Right now I’m doing “unique creature” or “a brand new goblin”. The themes might change at some point. I’ll let you know.

The drawings are not made for you, but they will be dedicated to you. The drawing will not be intended to represent you… I might draw some sort of miscreant, and I don’t want you to be offended thinking I’m insulting you. If I worry about that stuff, I’ll spend too much time worrying about it and then my artwork will become terribly bland. (However, I might think of what sort of drawing you might like while making it, of course.)

to you. The drawing will not be intended to represent you… I might draw some sort of miscreant, and I don’t want you to be offended thinking I’m insulting you. If I worry about that stuff, I’ll spend too much time worrying about it and then my artwork will become terribly bland. (However, I might think of what sort of drawing you might like while making it, of course.) When the drawing is done I’ll email it to you and you can tell me if you like it or not and whether or not you’re willing to have this drawing be dedicated to you. If so, great! If not, oh well, I’ll dedicate it to someone else or possibly just post it without any dedication.

Lastly, I’m doing this for fun, so hopefully it will be fun! I’ll do these as time permits, and I don’t know how much that will be. Don’t be offended if you’ve done quite a bit and I haven’t gotten to you yet… I probably intend to. I hope this ends up being something enjoyable for everyone, and a nice way for me to combine a bit of artistic release with a community that I care about deeply.

If it stops being fun, I’ll stop doing the drawings, but I suspect that won’t happen for some time. In the meanwhile, hopefully I can put up some fun stuff, and people will enjoy it!