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Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch)

Added by Replicant Store over 9 years ago

I am in love with the Replicant project. I also love Gluglug. So I thought that I would create a place where people could buy cell phones with Replicant pre-installed and some Replicant merchandise. I would also like to share a portion of the profits with the Replicant project.

The website is [[http://replicantstore.neocities.org]]

If you are a developer on Replicant (like Paul K.), and would like to team up with me, maybe we can work something out with this. I would love to share profits with the great developers of this!


Replies (6)

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Replicant Store over 9 years ago

My email is and I am working on getting a proper domain, email, and website design.

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 9 years ago

What a great idea! I'm very happy to see such an initiative, that will help spread the word about Replicant and make it easier for everyone to get their hands on supported devices.
A few things have to be carefully taken in consideration, though:
  • You are free to use the Replicant name and logo for your products, but please make it clear that your store is not directly affiliated with the project
  • Make sure to mention that part of the profit (you may specify which part exactly) goes to the project as donations, if you wish to do that at all (there is no requirement for you to give back any of your benefits and I wouldn't mind if you were to keep it all for yourself). You might also want to encourage direct donations to Replicant via: https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=19
  • In your argumentation, please make it clear that the phones you're selling with Replicant aren't running fully free software, only a free system (see http://www.replicant.us/about.php#only-free-software)
  • In addition, please make sure to mention our website: http://www.replicant.us/, About page and FAQ for further details about the project and double check that the facts you expose on the store match the reality that is mentioned on those pages
  • For a general overview of the current issues of freedom and privacy/security on mobile devices, you can reefer to: http://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php
  • For the recommendations of which devices to get, you can mention: http://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php#recommendations
  • It would be very useful to link to each device's page from our wiki when you mention the available devices (e.g. http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/GalaxyNoteN7000): this holds the precise state of freedom and privacy/security issues for each device
  • When selling devices with Replicant pre-installed, please use the officially-released images as listed from our wiki instead of self-built images: that way, people can make sure their installation match our certificates and build ids.
  • When selling merchandise using the Replicant logo, please make sure to use the latest artwork tarball to date: ReplicantArtwork (let me know if you need high resolution exports of the svgs): we updated the typefont recently. This applies to the logos used on the website as well.
  • In addition, please don't include anything more to these images, or mention it very clearly (update to a more recent F-Droid version, for instance)

Thanks again for this initiative, I truly hope it will be successful. Except for some of the points I mentioned above, the website looks good as-is (you might want to reduce the size of the devices pictures though).
Note that "It's a 100% free as in freedom Android based operating system for cell phones." is inaccurate as it supports more than phones but targets mobile devices in general. We usually describe it this way: Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and privacy/security.

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you. I'd be very happy to give you my input on the merchandise before it is officially made available to the public.
When everything is in place, and depending on whether profit comes back to the project, we'll discuss how the official Replicant website will mention your store.

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Replicant Store over 9 years ago

Great! I will take all of that into consideration. I am currently registering a top-level domain, getting an actual working website up (not the one I hacked together), getting hosting, email addresses, etc. I'm also setting up shop to start actually modifying and selling the devices and merchandise. It can only get better from here!

Thank you for your approval. I will be sure to share a percentage of my profits with you.

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Replicant Store over 9 years ago

So far I have this up:

http://replicantstore.com/

I am working on the website, and I will set up email and the payment system as soon as possible.

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Replicant Store over 9 years ago

Okay, the website is finished except for the products page.

http://replicantstore.com/

I have a new email, and haven't checked the old one in a while:

/

And the blog is up:

http://blog.replicantstore.com/

Thank you :)

RE: Replicant Store (purchase devices + merch) - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 9 years ago

Nice to see that you've been working hard to bring this up!

A few comments so far:
The home page states:
  • "Replicant Store is the official store of the Replicant project." which is exactly what I asked you to avoid. Please change this to make it clear the store is not affiliated with Replicant.
  • "We work closely with the developers of the Replicant project in order to provide you with the best Replicant experience.": I don't know exactly what you are referring to here. This seems to imply that you are somewhat involved in Replicant development, which is not the case. Thus, this statement is confusing, please change it. Feel free to bring that statement back once you actually contribute to the project :)
  • "We donate a portion of the profits to the Replicant project." maybe use the future tense here, since it didn't happen yet.
  • The front image looks like and upscaled svg export and looks a bit blurry. Let me know if you need a higher resolution export.
Random notes about the website and the concept:
  • Having a Wiki and Forums on your website as well may end up being a duplicate of what we already have here. I'm not sure this is actually needed, but it's nevertheless not a problem.
  • The prices mentioned on the FAQ seem rather high for these devices: most of them can be obtained second hand much cheaper! This might be a blocker for sales. I would recommend you to lower the prices.
  • About the "100% free" part in the FAQ, I suggest you link to our FAQ as your answer is a bit vague and in fact, wrong: "But things like the bootloader may not be free software, but are currently being worked on.". Some are not being worked on and cannot, as a matter of fact, be replaced with free software, despite our best efforts. Our website explains this with all the details.

Except from these remarks, everything looks good. A general advice would be to not try and duplicate what we already have at replicant.us and keep your website more minimalistic (no wiki, no forums, no info duplication) and just link to replicant.us when needed.

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