Solus on Distrowatch / Community Marketing?

jrsilvey

Here is the Distrowatch reviews for Solus.

We maintain an 8.2 rating overall but have fallen from the top ten to #22. A good DistroWatch ranking does not make Solus any better or worse of a distribution.. however, it is a psychological marker (like CoinMarketCap listings for Crypto) and the ranking -does- influence what non-Solus users think about this distribution.

That in turn affects adoption and the overall user-base.

It is very important to me that Solus succeeds. I am invested in this distribution. If it were to disappear some day it would greatly affect my life in a negative way.

I have complete faith in Beatrice and all of the volunteer team and do NOT believe anything like that would happen unexpectedly. However the psychological impact of people -thinking- Solus might disappear is enough to impact future adoption and the overall number of users.

It is for this reason that I am suggesting the following:

1) If you want to help Solus... but cannot donate to the Collective or have the ability to act as a maintainer...

PLEASE consider writing positive reviews / comments about this distribution. DistroWatch would be a great place to start, but activity on the Solus Reddit or other Linux/FOSS-based sites would work as well.

2) I believe that the volunteers who run this distribution should consider allowing an all volunteer community-based marketing team to form. It needn't be a huge, complicated project.. something as simple as coming up with lists of the Solus marketing platforms (Reddit, Website, Forum, DistroWatch, Twitter, blahblahblah) and ensuring they are regularly trafficked and supplied with various forms of content.

3) The OpenCollective should be more firmly integrated into the website and this forum. It is a very effective platform for raising, budgeting and dispersing funds. I, personally, think that if possible we should have at least one Solus dev paid. When people invest their hard-earned money it builds a deeper connection between user and platform.

This is something I believe should be considered and discussed publicly and by the Solus team privately.

Solus doesn't need new features, fancy packaging, or unnecessary additions to be great. As a distribution, in my opinion, Solus is (almost) perfect the way it is.

It just needs a bit of effective marketing to recapture people's attention and rebuild any sort of lose of faith that Josh Strobl's exit may have made in people's minds.

Thankyou to all of the people who play a role in making Solus the amazing community and Operating System that it is.

WetGeek

jrsilvey It just needs a bit of effective marketing to recapture people's attention

Establishing a Solus Store would help a lot. I'd proudly wear a Solus shirt almost anywhere. It would be a good convesation starter, and would help to raise awareness of Solus as an excellent alternative OS. And, given the prices people expect to pay for bling, it might generate significant financial support for the team.

tomscharbach

jrsilvey A few thoughts:

(1) I think that it would be a good idea for community members to contribute a review to Distrowatch from time to time.

(2) I encourage those of you who decide to contribute a review to look at Distrowatch reviews from the last few months, paying attention to "Was this review helpful?" up votes. The reviews that seem most helpful to people (that is, 10 or more up votes) follow a pattern -- factual, informative, positive but balanced. My own view is that hype is less valuable to Distrowatch readers than balanced reviews (in fact, I think hype is counterproductive) and that seems to be reflected in up votes.

(3) I don't think that we need a formal community-based team, or a lot of discussion. I think that it would be sufficient if a member of the community -- you, for example -- spent a few hours a week looking for opportunities for community members to contribute positive reviews/comments on various sites, and posted the opportunities in this forum as the opportunities arose.

(4) I agree with your comments about making Open Collective more prominent on our website.

kyrios

We don't care about distrowatch ranking or by doing some kind of Solus marketing on the social media.
This being said we are very aware about the lack of communication around Solus.

Brucehankins

I too was disheartened when Solus dropped from #6 on DW outside the top 10. I agree that for myself (and probably a large portion of the forum regulars) that Solus feels like an almost perfect distribution. I encourage everyone who reads and connects with this post or others to go hit the distrowatch page and leave a review. Clicks help too, because a large portion of the rating system is driven on click-rate.
I'm sure you've seen other posts about the communication, blog posts, etc., and some of the issues discussed by the team. I think a volunteer marketing/pr group would be great, but we would need volunteers to step forward or reach out. This would also require more effort from the core team, vetting, coordinating, checking, or otherwise validating in some way the members of the team and then the messaging strategy proposed. So while it might seem trivial, it's still a complex process to ensure the right pieces are in place and the message aligns with the core values in order to promote a healthy, positive, growing brand image of Solus.
As community members and users, we can all do our part by helping each other, promoting Solus through DW and other social outlets, and supporting OpenCollective when possible. One thing I've always felt made Solus feel more like home to me than other distros is the community. The OS and software are wonderful, but those are commodities that you can get elsewhere. The citizens of Solus; core team, the maintainers, and the community I feel are what truly set Solus apart from other platforms.

Renard

WetGeek 😀 A Solus Store would be a wonderful idea.

I can even take it a step further by wishing that Solus would partner with a hardware manufacturer; thus creating a laptop that comes with Solus preinstalled and is sold in the Solus Store.

The biggest irony is that some Linux distributions have already partnered with a hardware manufacturer and people can buy computers that come preinstalled with those distributions of Linux on them via the stores of those Linux distributions.

kyrios

WetGeek I'd proudly wear a Solus shirt almost anywhere. It would be a good convesation starter, , and would help to raise awareness

The only time in my whole life a stranger started talking to me because I was wearing a branded t-shirt is because that guy was also fan of the series and he wanted to know where/how I got that t-shirt.

Never ever I have seen someone starting to talk to a stranger because he is wearing a t-shirt with a logo they have never seen printed on it. In the best case it can help starting a conversation with another fan of that brand but it won't be of any help raising awareness.

jrsilvey

WetGeek Establishing a Solus store would be great. I've worked with some other groups advising them and helping with graphic design.

I know how to make vector images that would be printable without bleeding and have some ideas about setting up shops. The easiest ways to get shops going would be to use something like teespring, but those have the lowest price points. The largest profit margins (the lowest initial investment + highest sales price) would lie in a shop built on something like Shopify, which has warehouse options that reduce overhead by allowing you to buy things there.

jrsilvey

Renard I can even take it a step further by wishing that Solus would partner with a hardware manufacturer; thus creating a laptop that comes with Solus preinstalled and is sold in the Solus Store.

I mentioned this a comment or two above this but selling Solus USB sticks would also be an option.

WetGeek

kyrios The only time in my whole life a stranger started talking to me because I was wearing a branded t-shirt is because that guy was also fan of the series and he wanted to know where/how I got that t-shirt.

I'm sorry your experience was so unrewarding. Mine's been differnt, but it was my openSuSE gecko T-shirt that raised all the interest.

kyrios

WetGeek I'm sorry your experience was so unrewarding.

Why unrewarding? I wear the clothes I like or in which I feel comfortable.

The only time I did wear clothes especially for getting some kind of reward was when I got my first job (wearing a suit). Luckily one of the first things our boss told us is that he doesn't think people work better when they are wearing a tie. The next day I was wearing casual clothes again.

WetGeek

kyrios The next day I was wearing casual clothes again.

I hear ya. As a software engineer, the only times I ever wore a suit was at interviews.

jrsilvey

kyrios

kyrios The only time I did wear clothes especially for getting some kind of reward was when I got my first job (wearing a suit). Luckily one of the first things our boss told us is that he doesn't think people work better when they are wearing a tie. The next day I was wearing casual clothes again.

Jealous.

brent

tomscharbach I encourage those of you who decide to contribute a review to look at Distrowatch reviews from the last few months, paying attention to "Was this review helpful?" up votes. The reviews that seem most helpful to people (that is, 10 or more up votes) follow a pattern -- factual, informative, positive but balanced. My own view is that hype is less valuable to Distrowatch readers than balanced reviews (in fact, I think hype is counterproductive) and that seems to be reflected in up votes.

My method is the opposite: ignore all thumbs up and thumbs down as mostly meaningless herd reactions and use my independent judgement...instead I automatically dismiss a bad review and move on if: 1)whines about installer and didn't bother trying again 2) didn't like looks 3)didn't have the stuff they wanted 4)more indiscriminate whining about "not what I'm used to in my experience so therefore bad" 5)one installation hiccup and bails with low rating----those review I don't glean past a first sentence.
But credit to Tom, if I bothered looking at helpful/not helpful thumbs I'm sure results would correlate to my my independent results.

tomscharbach (2) I encourage those of you who decide to contribute a review

I did about 3 years ago. 5 stars. I'm sure its 40 pages back where no one will ever see it again🙂

jrsilvey

tomscharbach I find it a little ironic that you seem to share the opinions I hold most strongly Tom, because of your interest in Microsoft, Edge, etc.

That said, the reason you do is likely because you understand the importance of marketing to a project's overall success.

@kyrios I honestly don't understand how you can both be aware of the lack of Solus chatter and not see value in Distrowatch. It is a psychological marker, not a real indicator of a project's success, but it is the simplest and easiest for a group of volunteers to influence.

@WetGeek @qsl @brent just a thought here.. but another 'store' like option that might be a great way for people to support Solus would be setting up a shop or site of some kind to sell Solus USB sticks. Thoughts?

brent

I always have a happy Pavlovian reaction to a beer tshirt...linux doesn't work that way🙂

jrsilvey

brent Write another one. Now.

Gogogo.

Staudey

While some positive messaging certainly could help I'd ask you to please not overdo it. Nobody likes reviews that sound like pure ads/spam. Talking about your actual positive experiences is fine of course; just don't try to sell Solus as some kind of flawless magical unicorn ^^

jrsilvey

Staudey I've had the same installation of Solus since late 2018. I have never been able to break my installation past the point of being able to fix it. IT isn't flawless.. the Software Center needs to be updated, I have issues with my Bluetooth devices, and tons of audio issues.

But I would feel overall less secure and much less productive without Solus.

qsl

That I've noticed, Mint tends to steal much of Solus's thunder as far as a beginner friendly distro (and no doubt the release of vanessa has contributed to them getting more spotlight than usual).

That said (I don't know if the beginner market is what the Solus team is after), Mint's popularity has been mostly through word-of-mouth and very favorable reviews on youtube.

Most beginners aren't even looking at distrowatch until they've been disappointed by some other release (at least that was my experience).

If someone were so inclined, an "official" Solus youtube channel demonstrating the features and ease of use would probably be your best marketing (as well as highlighting differences between Solus and other distros).

Letting the software speak for itself will always be your best approach.

jrsilvey

qsl

qsl If someone were so inclined, an "official" Solus youtube channel demonstrating the features and ease of use would probably be your best marketing (as well as highlighting differences between Solus and other distros).

Well, gee, this sounds like soemthing @WetGeek wouldbe so perfectly suited for. 😃

brent

jrsilvey I've worked with some other groups advising them and helping with graphic design.

I know how to make vector images that would be printable without bleeding and have some ideas about setting up shops.

you are talking about sublimation which is logos on tshirts, hats, pens, golf balls, etc---nifty and effective advertising. Since they are mostly heat transferred to a substrate from an Illustrator file (vector graphic) probably turned into a pdf workflow, there will never be any true bleed. Bleed is an offset printing term that involves ink and means only two things: first, the place where a designer needs to extend the image beyond its finish size (normally on four sides) so it can be cut without any white showing on a cutter. (If a designer makes no bleed then the file is no good or the finished product must be cut undersized), Also it refers to ink that has dot-gained or applied to a sheet so heavy it seeps to the other side. I was in this industry a long while; I miss it.
-unless by bleed you mean a graphic that has to be cut before it can be sublimated?
Either way inconsequential. I find your concept of a Distrowatch profile as 'psychological marker' instead of what Distrowatch would like to believe is a real rating scale....I find that genius and a very unexplored way to be thinking of exposure. I really dig that concept.

kyrios

jrsilvey I honestly don't understand how you can both be aware of the lack of Solus chatter and not see value in Distrowatch. It is a psychological marker, not a real indicator of a project's success, but it is the simplest and easiest for a group of volunteers to influence.

Okay it's a psychological marker and some like to be in the top ranked for their ego. No judgement on this it doesn't mean these are bad persons. But I don't think Solus is what these people are looking for.

I don't see the point of asking volunteers to write review, this is fake.

We evolve at our own rhythm, we have an active human sized community many members are there for a long time which obviously shows they are satisfied. New people are joining regularly... some stay, some leave and that's fine. Growth is not a goal, it is a consequence. Boosting it artificially would result in a higher turnover, more expectations and perhaps more frustration too.

What is important is the reliability, I have seen many distro raising, then collapsing. Some of them got very good review or were popular but they all left their users in the shit when they disappeared. A somehow good indicator for this is the duration. The Solus boat went through a few storms but 8 years later it is still sailing. This is a fact, better than any psychological marker.

When I said we are aware about the lack of communication I mean the lack of blog posts about the achievements for example. I wasn't talking about kind of marketing communication which is - in my opinion - just useless bullshit.

Brucehankins

jrsilvey I honestly don't understand how you can both be aware of the lack of Solus chatter and not see value in Distrowatch. It is a psychological marker

I think it's important to remember that Distrowatch and it's ranking system were basically started as a gag by the people that ran the site. Yes, it holds some weight today, but I still don't believe the team should put any stock in it. If the users of Solus want to go pump those numbers, have at it. The core team, global maintainers, and people keeping this ship a float have better things to do with their time than worry about the ranking on a single website.

tomscharbach

jrsilvey I find it a little ironic that you seem to share the opinions I hold most strongly Tom, because of your interest in Microsoft, Edge, etc. That said, the reason you do is likely because you understand the importance of marketing to a project's overall success.

Whatever. I think that Solus would benefit from members of our community contributing measured, balanced, factual, positive reviews to Distrowatch and other forums from time to time as and when the opportunity arises, but I do not think that we need a formal community-based team, or a lot of discussion for that matter, to make that happen. I do not think that we should make a project out of member reviews on Distowatch or elsewhere. If individual members are moved to write a review, that's a good thing, but I would not seek to push reviews.