Blog post: Stickers

_blog/2024-12-04-Stickers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+---
+title: "Stickers!"
+excerpt: This year we made stickers. Meet Mike!
+date: "2024-12-04 08:00:00"
+image: "2024/stickers-fossdem.jpeg"
+author: bytehamster
+layout: blog
+guid: 30d40ae9-4447-45ac-a14e-2824c96a2688
+---
+
+For the [FOSDEM conference](https://fosdem.org/) in 2024, we wanted to share our love for AntennaPod. Who wouldn't love some AntennaPod stickers? That's why we asked for help from a designer, and Ryan from [Freehive](https://www.freehive.com/) volunteered to help us. In the end of 2023, over the course of several months, we had weekly meetings with him. Ryan designed a refreshed version of the app icon that we released early in 2024. Most importantly, he designed stickers! In addition to a sticker with our normal app logo, Ryan's colleague, Chris, had a bit of fun -- meet Mike!
+
+{% include image.html
+   alt="Mike"
+   loc="/assets/images/blog/2024"
+   file="mike-fossdem.jpeg"
+   max-width="400px"
+%}
+
+Our [poll](https://fosstodon.org/@AntennaPod/112819690779529744) on whether you want to have Mike in the app gave mixed results. Some users loved him while others were reminded of (and maybe traumatized by) [Clippy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant). So for now, it seems that Mike will mainly remain a sticker for AntennaPod enthusiasts. In addition, Ryan also designed a sticker specifically for contributors to show off their work on open-source software. For printing the stickers, we received some sponsoring from [Sticker Mule](https://www.stickermule.com/). Early this year, we then sent out 15 postcards to contributors with a bunch of stickers and a hand-written thank-you card. This was mainly organized by @keunes who also wrote all the postcards. They turned out great!
+
+{% include image.html
+   alt="Postcard"
+   loc="/assets/images/blog/2024"
+   file="contributor-letters.jpeg"
+   max-width="400px"
+%}
+
+We also got some nice feedback by the contributors when they received their letters.
+
+[<img alt="Feedback 1" src="/assets/images/blog/2024/stickers-feedback-1.png" style="max-width: 300px;" />](https://x.com/VishnuSanalT/status/1791010886356013392) [<img alt="Feedback 2" src="/assets/images/blog/2024/stickers-feedback-2.png" style="max-width: 300px;" />](https://fosstodon.org/@[email protected]/112455295516452871)
+
+At [FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/) 2024, we handed out a lot of the stickers as well. Here, Mike went away super quickly. Looks like users love having a bit of fun with the app. Check out this picture of the sticker table, where one could find gems like Mike.
+
+{% include image.html
+   alt="Sticker Table"
+   loc="/assets/images/blog/2024"
+   file="stickers-fossdem.jpeg"
+   max-width="400px"
+%}
+
+We have just ordered a [fresh batch of Mike stickers](https://forum.antennapod.org/t/more-mikes-well-stickers/5731), so we have a lot of them to share again. Do you want one? Find us at the [38th Chaos Commmunication Congress (38C3)](https://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2024/38c3-illegal-instructions) in Hamburg or at [FOSDEM 2025](https://fosdem.org/) in Brussels. While AntennaPod could not exist without contributors from all over the world, the conferences are a good chance to have a chat with core team members. If you are visiting one of the conferences, don't hesitate to ping us on [the forum](https://forum.antennapod.org/), so we can meet up.
+
+---
+
+Do you want some stickers as well? On December 10, we will start the second year of *AntennaPod Echo*, our yearly recap of your favorite podcasts. AntennaPod Echo is generated locally on your device because we respect your privacy. If you still want to share it, we would love to see your posts on Mastodon and X using the hashtag `#AntennaPodEcho`! We will send out a couple of stickers to some randomly selected users sharing their year 2024 in podcasts.