Community:Swag

Warning: This page is out of date. See Gear Store for current information on how to send swag to contributors. --Emceeaich (talk) 11:45, 13 July 2016 (PDT)

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Recognition for good deeds is a key motivator for many people contributing to open source projects. We use platforms like the Credits list in the products, Friends of the Tree in our regular status reports, invitation to summits, and other tools for making sure that people contributing to Mozilla feel like their contributions are recognized. One of the simplest and easiest forms of recognition is Mozilla swag and we should be doing more to give t-shirts and other swag to contributors doing good deeds -- especially new-ish contributors. T-shirts and other Mozilla swag serve as "badges" that signify membership in the Mozilla project and so everyone actively participating in meaningful ways should get something that says "I'm a member of the team" and a Mozilla t-shirt serves that purpose quite well.

We're not doing enough of this or consistently enough and I suspect it's because people don't know how easy it is to have a shirt sent to a contributor. It may also be that people don't feel empowered to decide that a contributor should receive a shirt or other Mozilla swag. The purpose of this document is to help make sure that all regular Mozilla contributors feel both empowered to and responsible for this important piece of the care and feeding of the Mozilla community.

Who should be giving out Mozilla swag

• Everyone with CVS access. If you have CVS access, you'll likely be a first contact for people submitting patches or offering other technical help around the code.
• QA and Bugzilla regulars. If you're in Bugzilla and other QA tools regularly, you're no-doubt the first contact for most of our new contributors.
• Marketing and Spread Firefox leadership. Spread Firefox project and program leaders should feel empowered to recognize new contributors to marketing programs.
• Evangelism and Events staff. If you're out in the real world, at conferences or other events, you will likely meet contributors face to face and there's no better time to recognize them for their contributions.
• Infrastructure owners and peers. There are lots of people helping our efforts with donations of infrastructure or contributions to maintaining our systems. You're in regular contact, or are most likely to be in any contact with those kinds of contributors.
• L10n leadership. A key to Mozilla's success is our crazy powerful localization community. If you've got any regular contact for technical or non-technical reasons with one or more translation or locale teams, you should be giving out swag.
• Anyone I left off who considers themselves a regular contributor in the Mozilla community. This list is a guideline to encourage more people to get involved with recognition efforts through swag distribution. It is not meant to be a limit.

Who should be getting t-shirts or other Mozilla swag

• New contributors to any Mozilla project who make a contribution of substance and show enthusiasm for ongoing participation. Recognizing early contributions, even with something as simple as a t-shirt, is a critical component of maintaining and growing our community.
• Contributors who go "above and beyond". For example, someone who takes on a task avoided by others, or someone who pulls all-nighters for the benefit of shipping, etc. If you would nominate someone as a Friend of the Tree, or thank them at a weekly Mozilla meeting, they probably deserve recognition through swag.
• Anyone else you, as a Mozilla leader, determine is worthy. These are guidelines to encourage you to do more community recognition, not limits.

How do you give someone t-shirt or other Mozilla swag.

• get the contributors t-shirt size and mailing information. most times we also need a phone number.
• send that information and a short (it can be one or two sentences) description of why you're sending this person swag -- and if you want your name attached to it, to Rhian Baker <rbaker@mozilla.com>.

See, it's that easy. You should consider doing it today!