Here we plan our advertisements and general public awareness efforts for the FHP. Before placing a formal advertisement about us somewhere, please put a proposed version of the ad here, to give people a chance to tweak it. We also maintain a list of pre-written ads of different lengths and for different formats. You can generally just use one of these directly somewhere, if you want. The main purpose of this is to prevent over-enthusiastic people without very good grasps of English from making us look silly, and also for helping us plan to get the most out of ads. :)

Plans So Exciting They Need Their Own Pages

Links on personal web pages

Please link to us from your personal web page, and then add below a link to the page you link from!

Game projects

This comment by F.D. given its own section:

Any ideas related to this, or perhaps having prizeless contests to produce games fitting set criteria in limited periods of time?

My idea:

  1. Think about _1_ big project. It needs to be a game the average teens would like to play.
  2. Give it a flashy name.
  3. Make it clear its linked with FHP.
  4. Tell about that project on gaming or game programmers sites.
  5. Have regular meetings about the project.

That receipe should draw in some skilled programmers eager to show-off their skill but will also draw wannabe-Carmack with no real talent. After few months, the momentum of the project may (or may not) fade away and hopefully the hobbyist will stay.

To conclude: that may look like an evil marketing plot but I think we care more about getting new people than getting a big project to work :D Of course, you can disagree and I would understand.

Why target it at average teens? Isn't FHP supposed to be for all age groups? -- MikeNolan

Because most of them have alot more free time on their hands than adults. It's true that this idea as it is won't bring adults. You are free to suggest something better. -- FrancoisDenisGonthier

Short kuro5hin text ad

Fellowship of Hobbyist Programmers: Coders dedicated to collaboration, education, and fun

I think posting an ad like this would be a good way to start when we think we're ready. -- AdamChlipala

I posted this a while ago and it did generate quite a few hits, but it doesn't look like anyone has stayed as an active contributor. -- AdamChlipala

Future advertising ideas

I think this last suggestion is good and I would like to be involved in that. But unlike my game project idea, projects made that way needs to succeed and work otherwise that would be bad publicity for HProg. That would require careful monitoring so that the projects don't die off like they did in the past. -- FrancoisDenisGonthier

Let's put such projects on an OfficialProjects page. --MikeLeonhard

It might be worth even a smaller thing - if you are releasing something neat and you have received help/emotional support/amusing belittlement from this group in the process of making it, you could say "Made with the [assistance/support - pick one] of the Fellowship of Hobbyist Programmers - Join Us! www.hprog.org"

The notion of community-owned projects is one I like. In theory, for as long as the community lives members of the community can pick up projects that are dormant, and so neat hprog projects might well never die. --IainMcCoy

I think I will write a message to my University Linux User group this week. I know there are programmers there. I'm also trying to bring a friend but he is playing "hard to reach".

Update: That friend is no longer an hobbyist, no longer using his computer for anything else than work. -- FrancoisDenisGonthier

AdvertisingStrategy (last edited 2008-07-09 05:47:51 by localhost)