Badges as Stickers

[amiller-gh]

Devs love their laptop stickers, and it would be amazing to offer these badges as vinyl stickers to recipients! At the end of the day, Open Badges are just images, so it will be impossible to prevent counterfeits. However, a happy-path to receiving stickers for those what want them will help to solidify Node.js Badges as an important part of the community culture.

The easiest way to make this happen is to just make all Badges available as stickers in a Node.js store. This can either be through the existing store.nodejs.org storefront, or through a new account from a service like RedBubble. Badge descriptions can include a link to the official store page where the badge stickers (or pins?!) may be purchased.

It would be nice to limit official purchases of stickers to those that can prove they've been awarded the badge. I'd be interested to hear proposals for how we can pull this off, but I don't want to see it to block us from offering Badge specific merchandise.

There are also opportunities to provide Badge related merchandise at conferences and in-person meetups. This should be considered on a by-event basis, but it may be good to offer guidance for how to plan ahead for event-specific Badges.

@bnb, who would have information about the current storefront, who maintains it, and what kinds of product offerings we can make through it? Those details will help dictate what we're allowed to actually offer and/or what platforms we're allowed to use.

Other outstanding questions off the top of my head:

• Do we have an exclusive deal with the vendor who runs store.nodejs.org?
• How are sales handled? Do we sell at-cost? Where does the money go if we make a profit?
• Do we need special outreach / approval process to print and provide badges at Node.js sponsored conferences / events?

[Tiriel]

I've been ranting quite a lot lately about not having enough sticker, and especially not having Node stickers on my laptop, so I'll definitely agree with this :smile:

[bnb]

@amiller-gh I believe @gtewallace can at least point you to the correct person, if he's not the correct person himself.

Regardless of whatever supplier/method we use I'd like to ensure that they will follow the standard hex format. I know there've been official Node.js stickers in the past that haven't followed the official/standard format, which is a pain point and would limit the usefulness and love these can potentially get. See hexb.in for some more details (and I'm happy to help with this however I can).

[amiller-gh]

@bnb, thats the plan! Don't worry, we won't mess up your fancy new transparent mac shell ;) https://twitter.com/bitandbang/status/968884525819465728

But in all seriousness, I'd be very concerned if we stray from Node's hex icon look while working on https://github.com/nodejs/badges/issues/7. I personally believe hex stickers are the way to go too.

@gtewallace, excited to hear about any information you have on the current store's vendor, happy to jump on a quick call to chat if thats easier.

[maddhruv]

The idea of offering dev stickers is awesome and also fascinating for sticker lovers, attracting more of them to contribute and earn badges :wink: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

But we should ensure authenticated badges issuing so that no user shall buy a badge without completing the task/ earning the badge.

[maddhruv]

I'd like to ensure that they will follow the standard hex format

@bnb the standard hex format is awesome to be included and worked upon and yes we would love including this standard design if we propose some design principle for issuing badges. Also, find a great blog post - https://hexstickers.com/blog/whyhexagon/

[maddhruv]

The nodejs decal stickers still on sale :heart: https://store.nodejs.org/collections/decals

[DanielRuf]

Also, find a great blog post - hexstickers.com/blog/whyhexagon

Their cert expired. Are they still actively producing and shipping stickers?