I have a new idea for Eclipse swag. Committer collector cards. Why? It would be a fun way to get to know more about members of the Eclipse community. Like hockey cards. But we’re better at debugging, and have more teeth.
Here are some ideas for the sorts of information that this could display.
- Name
- Picture
- Commit rights
- ohloh commit history
- LinkedIn url
- Special power
Special power? Yes, all committers have special powers. As a release engineer, my special power is pain tolerance. Much like Wolverine. Yes, it’s true.
I can see this being a popular activity at EclipseCon. Trade a Moir for a Merks, a Bokowski for a Bull. What do you win if you collect a whole project? Bugzilla bingo. You get a bug assigned to you so you can earn your own commit rights. Diversify the community. It’s all very win-win.
Since I’m in the give away free software business, not the marketing swag business, I thought I’d suggest this idea for any enterprising people out there. It could be a branding activity a company who’d like to sponsor such a unique piece of swag. Go for it!
Built to Run 
Shame it's just for committers … that way, I can't have one. My special powers would be my ties 🙂
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That's an awesome idea. Although nobody in their right mind would trade a Bokowski for Bull. A Bokowski rookie card in mint condition is almost as valuable as a Northover. 😉
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Well, Alex maybe they could be community collector cards to be more inclusive 🙂
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Eclipse Community Collector Cards, I like the sound of that.
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Great idea. There should be several decks like “Legendary Committers” and “Bug Erasers”.
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Very much liking this idea 🙂
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A Bokowski for a pair of Bulls and you've got yourself a deal.
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We did something like this as swag at JavaOne when I was with MageLang Institute. Each of our Magi had a card with our picture as a cartoon character (I was dressed as the sorcerer's apprentice).
On the back we had stats. I had
Preferred Weapon: VisualAge of Striking
Preferred Size: (depends on layout)
PreferredLayout: BorderLayout
THAC0: 2
(We each had different stats that we came up with).
We put out different cards at different times, so folks would come by to pick up more parts to the set.
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