Write an article on DDEV Value Proposition #54
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| title: "Why Should We Support DDEV Financially?" | ||||||
| pubDate: 2023-05-24 | ||||||
| summary: "Explaining the value of DDEV that makes financial support of the project worth doing" | ||||||
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Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Don’t tell the reader what you’re doing, but concisely summarize the content:
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| author: Randy Fay | ||||||
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| src: /img/blog/2023/05/developers-at-table.png | ||||||
| alt: Image of a team of web developers working together at a table and delighting in the project they have in front of them | ||||||
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Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Current description offers some interpretation of details that aren’t there and leaves out the weird lap seating situation and twins. I’d be a bit more conservative and describe the contents of the image:
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| - Community | ||||||
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| The DDEV project is committed to setting itself to be sustainable for the long term. We know that your choice of a tool is a signficant investment of resources, and we want your choice to last and be rewarding for the long term. In order to ensure that, we're doing a fund drive, explaining to teams, organizations, and individuals why it's important to financially support the project. Our key priority right now is adding [another paid maintainer](recruiting-maintainers.md) and a documentation/marketing maintainer. We'll be be updating you regularly about this initiative. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. The first part of the first paragraph already got updated based on our chat on discord. i've also suggested to move the second part somewhere after the "what sets ddev apart" list but i think it works as is as well. there are only two small details left: signficant -> significant was missing an "i" We'll be be updating you regularly about this initiative. -> be is used twice. how about change it to something like
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Edits for brevity: pruning redundancy, avoiding the implication that DDEV is the only tool someone chooses, making the fund drive about asking for help and not just explaining, fixing the link. Seems like those are two priorities, and I’m not sure what the reader gets from the promise of regular updates on the subject. (Why not just offer updates?)
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| ## What Sets DDEV Apart | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. would it make sense to pick up the "choice theme" from the first paragraph and change the title to something like " What Sets DDEV Apart and Makes It The Right Choice?" |
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| - **Installation**: DDEV is easy to install. It's a single binary backed by Docker providers everywhere. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
is not very clear. backed by docker providers everywhere made me scratch my head for a second. how about split the sentence into two and be more explicit about the docker providers? providing examples for docker providers would improve the readability. something like: It is a single binary. It can be used with most Docker providers like Docker Desktop and Colima. the reasoning behind exchange everywhere, which implies that ddev is working with each and every docker provider, with most was, that i am always hesitant to state that something works with everything. not sure if ddev is tested with all the available docker providers? |
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| - **Project Setup**: Adding DDEV to a project is as easy as `ddev config` and can take as little as a minute. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. would it make sense to streamline the end with something like "... and takes less than a minute."?
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Shorter, and run commands:
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I realize that the very first run may be different, but I still think this is honest because in daily usage—most usage—it really is well under a minute. Includes editing generated YAML and restarting if you’re a dull one like me that constantly finds himself doing that. |
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| - **Reliability**: DDEV's behavior is predictable and reliable. Automated testing on all supported platforms and manual testing of every new feature make it rock solid. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. When i've first read that sentence
i thought "make" refers to DDEV instead of the automated and manual tests. even though it is clear written correctly it is still somehow hard to read and process. but i haven't had an idea for an alternative suggestion yet.
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Shorter and warmer:
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| - **Multiple OS/Architecture Support**: Even if your team members use macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel), Windows WSL2, Linux, and traditional Windows you can expect consistent behavior across all these environments for the entire team. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. i always try to avoid parenthesis like
that way you cover that ddev is available on the different environments and express in the second sentence that the behavior is consistent and empowers teams with a heterogenous env setup to have a flawless collaboration across environments.
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. +1 on avoiding parenthetical statements that hinder flow! I use them constantly and have to re-edit.
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. I know the Mac and Windows architecture are critically-important DDEV features, but they get in the way of making this point which is about the team’s platform diversity not being a barrier:
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If it’s important to demonstrate depth of commitment to those platforms, maybe make that its own “DDEV runs on that” bullet point where you can address the nuances of each platform and link to the post where you ran DDEV on a Raspberry Pi. |
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| - **Team Consistency**: Teams typically check in the DDEV configuration, meaning that team members can check out the project and `ddev start` and they'll have everything running right away in less than a minute. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. check in and check out probably refers to version control. would it make sense to make that more explicit? and maybe also make the consequence more clear? that each team member is using the same configuration and in consequence the same dev setup that way?
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Don’t assume your reader knows “check in” is Git, but explain the concept and benefit anyway:
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| - **Web server and Database Support**: Out of the box, DDEV supports Nginx and Apache webservers, and directly supports MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL databases. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. Shouldn't
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Attempt to make this a bit more accessible to someone that doesn’t work with web servers and databases:
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| - **Add-On Ecosystem**: A huge number of non-core features are supported via add-ons, including Apache Solr, Elasticsearch, and dozens of others. There are officially supported add-ons and a large number contributed and maintained by the community. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. how about the following, slightly modified, version:
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. “Huge” and “large” are relative terms that don’t offer much—better to link to the best publicly-available list (which I think is in the docs?) and help the reader decide if they need to investigate. Shorten and link:
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I deliberately chose “first-party” instead of “officially supported” to indicate authorship/maintainership and avoid making it sound like “supported” vs. “unsupported”. |
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| - **Community**: DDEV's friendly and active community meets in Discord, the GitHub issue queue, and Stack Overflow. People from many different CMS and framework communities have years of experience and help each other. | ||||||
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Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. “Meet” reads to me like “congregate” here, so the idea of people “meeting” in GitHub Issues and Stack Overflow seems a little strange. More importantly though, I like the point about diversity of CMS/platform experience. This might be a good place to link to a code of conduct or anything that reassures an outsider that it’s a welcoming and non-toxic community—even if subtly. |
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| - **Support**: DDEV's support is world-class and very active. Questions in the issue queue are often answered in minutes. Problems in Discord are often discussed and resolved very, very quickly. Bugs get early attention. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. instead of
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. I bristle when marketers describe their own products or services as “world-class” because it’s an impressive-sounding business phrase that rings hollow. But I’m more curmudgeonly than most. I’d earnestly describe what DDEV’s support is like instead, use “GitHub Issues” rather than the more jargony “issue queue,” and tighten everything up:
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My usual experience with modern support is a mixture of non-response, lifelessness, and lack of care or expertise—hence the words I chose here which I feel are refreshingly and honestly accurate. |
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| - **Maintenance**: Careful maintenance means that new upstream capabilities (PHP versions, other tool changes) and upstream bugs get resolved and tested soon. Extensive automated testing means that upstream problems are detected quickly. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. the title is
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. I’d drop this bullet point because you already conveyed the sense of diligence and care with testing and platform support. Feels like you’re calling attention to something you already told me. |
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| - **Open Source**: DDEV is completely Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). It also can work with FOSS Docker providers on every platform, so you're not tied to closed-source commercial solutions like Docker Desktop, although Docker Desktop is fully supported. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. in the second sentence i would strike the
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. I’d drop the “it also” and Docker Desktop mention. It feels like a dig against Docker Desktop, which a lot of people are probably using? Seems like you can make the point about not being constrained without inviting needless scrutiny of Docker Desktop that may be more of a distraction.
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As written, it reads like “With DDEV you’re not stuck with closed-source things like the one you’re probably using, which we also support.” |
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| **We invite you to calculate the value DDEV brings to your work and consider making a financial contribution to support the project.** DDEV consistently delivers on the promise of making local development work for your projects, every time. How much time, energy, and resources do you save by using DDEV as opposed to maintaining your own solution or using an alternate? What would it cost to achieve the same efficiency and consistency without DDEV? Please calculate that value for yourself as you're considering how to financially support the project. | ||||||
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Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment. the only nitpick is the following sentence.
when i start reading i always think the "local development work"..."for your project" instead of "making local development".. "work for your project.
Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. As I wrote, I think that as a CTA this is phoning it in and asking the reader to convince themselves that DDEV’s worth their investment without offering much help. Even taking one example audience member and demonstrating some napkin math would go a long way. There is no “as you’re considering how to financially support the project” if they’re not convinced they should in the first place. Who is the target audience and what barriers do they have for local development and financial support of the project? |
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| To explore DDEV's strengths in more technical detail, see [What's so different about DDEV](whats-so-different-about-ddev-local.md). | ||||||
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Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Fix title and link:
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| Ready to be part of our journey together? Let's discuss how you, your team, or your organization can contribute to funding DDEV. Contact randy (at) localdev.foundation or visit our [GitHub Sponsors page](https://github.com/sponsors/ddev). | ||||||
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Collaborator
There was a problem hiding this comment. Shorten, and flip so that the more actionable item comes first:
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Does |
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Most images on the site are vaguely wide (16:9, 9:6, etc.) and it won’t stop you from using a square or even a tall rectangle that’s uncomfortably vertical on article detail pages. I’d crop it down, but we could just as well have the site enforce a standard ratio too. I’ve so far avoided that because it’s not been pleasant for images like this one.