[Raion]

Hey there folks,

After chatting with people and talking about this for ages we are in the planning stages for a group buy and contest to improve community engagement and provide things you the people want. 

We will be creating a contest and group buy for a custom mouse pad coming in a handful of sizes. 

I'm currently looking at suppliers. If you have suggestions, I am all ears as long as I can get low volume orders for sampling purposes. 

Here's a rundown of what's planned:

1. We decide on a design. This will be a pure democracy decision, and to keep costs down there will be a singular winning design. You will need an active forum account to join the poll once we have base designs. 

We will begin with 4 to 5 and use a runoff system to allow for people to show what they want. True to our intentions, these will be IRIX/SGI related and I solemnly swear there won't be any lazy branded designs. Hell no, we want quality and you do too. 

The purpose of multiple sizes is to fit people's budgets. I know times are tough, and we will keep costs down by ordering in bulk, and keeping the scope narrow. 

After we decide on a design, phase 2 begins:

2. There will be a 60-day period where on either Shopify or woocommerce or something we will have the items for sale. You will pay for what you want up front including shipping (US and Europe, maybe AU as well as an option)

3. We order the final quantities plus a few extras of each size. They ship to someone whose a designated boxer and distributor (probably me or one of the other staff) and then we box them according to orders and mail them out over a 14-21 day period. 

4. We then hold another contest for 60 days. You sign up to silicon image, take photos posing your setup. We then go through and randomly pick 4-5 winners. Those winners will then get a free product from the next group buy. 

If anyone has any questions, suggestions etc. Drop a line here. Other future concepts included:

Bags/cases for the smaller systems (O2, Indy etc) 
Custom SGI-style keycaps
More high quality stickers ala CB_HK
High quality (including plus sizes) tees, jackets and such

I also had some less orthodox ideas. 

All of the proceeds will benefit the site and future projects, including bounties. These funds will be kept separate from Patreon which currently acts mostly as an operating and web dev expense system. If you want to see more software dev, a d potentially hardware one day, this is one way you can support it. We do have a few users who've talked about some simple hardware mods and repros. I also have a few ideas, some of which will take a lot of time and money but would probably give us a lot of benefits down the way. 

I'm also currently on a massive web dev contract from my current job, so I will be around a bit less for the next 2-3 weeks but I will be hopefully back with good news, more money, and a lot of ambitious plans for the forums in the coming months.

[weblacky]

This sounds like a big step and great news. I love the idea of system-specific products or branding! Like a mouse pad for each SGI system (customized and color matched) or the like would be very cool, stickers...same deal, cool.

I would like to add that while not a "prize" for a contest. We do have a need for more 3D printed parts and testing and protection products to keep our systems shiny/mint. As part of community outreach perhaps you could consider 3D prints (sponsored, tested, verified) through a 3D printing house to be a possibility? I'd love to buy item that functionally help each of my systems, while showing them off!

I'm thinking of items like:

1. A new tray bezel "Face" for O2s that replaces the Tray bezel with a good looking blank and an eject button for pioneer slot-loading DVD drives?
1a. Also consider an O2 blank bay for like a SCSI2SD and such instead of CDROM with flap door for SCSI2SD interfacing/SD slot.
1b. Perhaps a 3D-print that takes an OEM O2 CROM tray bezel and makes it a bay that flaps open without modding the part (snaps on) and now a stock O2 has a flip-up CDROM bay where you can install something?

2. Replacement system feet.

3. 3D printed bay blanks (Indigo2, Fuel, etc)

4. 3D printed Drive faceplates WITH activity LED for Indigo/Indigo2 Drive trays (you never seen OEM ones anymore).

5. Plexiglass system display covers?

6. High End Nylon dust covers designed for each system, (good colors) from like a custom stereo deck house (I've used these people for my lab equipment, fantastic quality!): https://www.digitaldeckcovers.com/

7. System mouse cubby/holder for each system style.

Not trying to hijack your thread, but things like sun/dust covers and such would be something I'd actually buy. While mice pads are nice...I only own 2 metal ones...and I don't need more.

Keep us informed as the ideas develop!

[Raion]

I appreciate the suggestions. The mouse pad will be one design 3 sizes likely. In order to keep costs down we're going to have to keep this limited in scope.

[shrek]

How about a remake of the old SGI mousepads with the screenshot on them? The new ones could have different windows open showcasing software ported by the community.

[Raion]

We've not finalized any designs yet. I was gonna order samples this week from manufacturers, but life got to me.

But if you have a design, by all means. We're doing the design runoffs, we're not bothering with forcing a design on users.

[Raion]

I've ordered samples. No telling when they'll arrive.

[Nichosen]

Great initiative.

I’m one of the least active members here in the forum even though I read everything everyday.
But to involve members a little bit more is great.
I will try to add more to the group from now on.

Don’t what I can add to this pool of knowledge though

[Raion]

No worries. Everyone plays their part.

[Raion]

I'm going to assume that my samples were lost in the mail by UPS, as I keep checking the tracking and it's marked "Delivered", whereas I called UPS and they claim that they don't know where it is either. Grrr. The company I bought from only does UPS, so I'll be contacting another.

[Raion]

I finally got the first samples but I wasn't really satisfied with the print quality. I'm arguing with the manufacturer now about it