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Aral Balkan

Just got an email saying Kitten’s been rejected for funding by Sovereign Tech Fund. No reason given.

I don’t even know why I try anymore, really.

We’ve never received a single penny of public funding for our work even though everything we make is free and open source and all our work is for the common good.

We do have a group of folks who support us via patronage – thank you all so much. It doesn’t pay the rent but it means a lot.

small-tech.org/fund-us

Fund Small Technology FoundationFund Small Technology FoundationWe’re a tiny team of two funded by individuals like you. Your patronage goes towards keeping a roof over our heads as we build a better future for the Internet.

PS. I mean “I don’t know why I try applying for public funding” not why I keep working on the Small Web. I will continue doing the latter regardless of what it takes.

@aral That bites—your work definitely deserves support.

Speaking of which, there's a typo in that URL ("-is" when it's almost certainly "-us").

@ryanrandall Just saw/fixed, thanks. Ironic, though, no? :)

@aral Hey! Small typo in your funding link :)

@aral

I come from a fundraising background, love your values, followed you for a while and read #Kitten's description... but I have to be honest and say that it's not clear what Kitten's supposed to do, what problem(s) it aims to solve or how.

"It's a kit for people to make everyday things" is... pretty vague (even if yes, paraphrased).

People don't fund things they don't understand. They'll never understand your stuff like you do, or read everything you wrote.

Clarity+brevity are key.

@aral

My immediate questions are "What 'people'?" "What 'everyday things'?" "How is this different to other options?" and "What's the benefit of that?"

I'm sure you explained more in your proposal, but often people making the decisions don't read everything, just the tldr version. That's what I did on your homepage / codeberg page and I came out without a clear sense of what I was reading about.

I apologize if I've jumped straight into professional problem solving if you just want to vent!

@Blort @aral Yes, this ⬆️
I like everything I read on your website, specially the principles. I am not too thick - not being a developer of anything, I could still set up a simple website using AWS, which isn’t straightforward for a “user” - but I have no idea what SW does.