ADR-2689: sponsorship is recognition only, in four monthly tiers, with one source file for the list¶
- Status: Accepted
- Date: 2026-10-08
- Deciders: maintainer, agent
- Tags: docs, community, funding, fork-local
Context¶
The project's funding page listed only Ko-fi, and GOVERNANCE.md section 8 called GitHub Sponsors planned. The GitHub Sponsors listing is now live on the maintainer's personal account. A tier ladder, a statement of what sponsors receive, a currency policy and a funding goal had to be fixed before the listing could be published, and the repository needed one place that names sponsors. GitHub Sponsors takes US dollars only; a euro audience needs another route.
Decision¶
Sponsorship buys recognition only. There are four monthly tiers: Supporter ($5, name or handle in SPONSORS.md), Sustainer ($25, name and link in SPONSORS.md and on the documentation site), Company sponsor ($100, logo in the README and on the documentation site) and Lead sponsor ($500, top-placed logo plus thanks in every release note); one-time $10 and $50 amounts are thanked in SPONSORS.md for that month. There is no paid support, no feature voting and no paywall. GitHub Sponsors carries the dollar amounts, Ko-fi and a planned Patreon page the euro amounts (5, 25, 100 and 500 euros). The first funding goal is $250 a month for CI and cloud GPU test time; an AI workstation is the next goal. The repository root SPONSORS.md is the single source of the tier table and the sponsor list; the documentation page docs/support-vmafx.md includes both from it with pymdownx.snippets instead of repeating them. The Patreon page is linked and added to .github/FUNDING.yml only when it is live.
Alternatives considered¶
| Option | Pros | Cons | Why not chosen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recognition plus early access | Stronger incentive | Creates two classes of users; conflicts with open development | Recognition only keeps every release public at once |
| Recognition plus paid support | Revenue per company | Turns the maintainer into a vendor; obligations and response times | Not wanted; support stays the same for everyone |
| A $3 / $10 / $50 / $250 ladder | Lower entry | Low tiers cost the same effort to administer | The $5 / $25 / $100 / $500 ladder was chosen |
| Euro as the primary currency on GitHub | Matches the maintainer's currency | GitHub Sponsors takes USD only | Dollars on GitHub, euros on Ko-fi and Patreon |
| Copy the tier table into the docs page | Simple | Two lists drift apart | One source, included by snippet (HISS-19) |
Consequences¶
- Positive: one public statement of what sponsorship is and is not; one file to update when a sponsor joins; the docs page cannot disagree with it.
- Negative: the docs build now depends on
pymdownx.snippetsreading a file outsidedocs/; a renamed marker inSPONSORS.mdfails the strict build, which is the intended signal. - Neutral / follow-ups: add the Patreon link and
patreon:entry when the page is live; place logos by hand when a Company or Lead sponsor sends one.
References¶
- Maintainer decisions Q-278 (tier ladder), Q-279 (recognition only), Q-280 (Patreon page identity), Q-281 (who sets up the listing), Q-282 (currency), Q-283 (approval of the drafts), Q-284 (funding goal) and Q-285 (featured repositories), recorded in the maintainer's local decision log.
- GOVERNANCE.md section 8, SPONSORS.md, Support VMAFx.