gramps
7827d239e2
The commercial plan was spread over five documents written in five different weeks, and they contradicted each other: product.md sold the Store, decisions.md called the Store dead then re-opened, Distribution.md (736 lines) still described Polar as a download host, MARCOM.md quoted "no subscription" next to a paid tier, and README.md promised "free forever". An outsider could not tell what ships. docs/ai/commercial.md is now the only place money is decided: free = whole app at a 921,600 px / 30 fps output profile covering the recording as well as the stream; Pro = $10/mo or $400 lifetime through Polar, key bound to the buyer's YouTube channel ID via a claim page, 2 activations, 7–14 day lease with offline grace, fail closed, never downgrade a running stream; one portable zip + winget primary, Steam and the Store parked; Azure Trusted Signing (~$9.99/mo), no EV; Founding 200 promo; ~$135/yr costs; anti-piracy posture and what is permanently rejected. Everything else now points at it instead of restating it: - product.md — money sections replaced with pointers; packaging rewritten to winget-first, Store parked; signing updated to Trusted Signing. - decisions.md — graveyard with cause of death for free-forever, the Store ordering, the updater, and the 2026-10-30 reversal of the quality-ceiling rejection. - Distribution.md — rewritten to release mechanics only (artifact, GitHub Releases, winget manifest, signing, checklist, takedown): 736 → 120 lines. - TASKS.md — TASK 54 rewritten, TASK 48's route settled, TASK 10 superseded, five new rows (entitlement seam, output-profile gate, licence UI, system messages, packaging). - README.md — "free forever" replaced with the real split. - capture.md — obs-backgroundremoval is GPL-3.0 and so licence-INCOMPATIBLE since the proprietary EULA; the old "compatible" line was falsified by that change. - TASKS/task-10, task-48, task-51, task-54 — superseded-banner at the top of each, so none of them reads as current policy. - HANDOFF.md — rewritten: plan settled, next code unit is the entitlement seam. MARCOM.md and MONETIZATION.md (gitignored) were corrected in place: policy pointer at the top of each, the flash removed from every live claim, the Polar fee break-even corrected to ~$900/mo, and the projections flagged as written against a dead model.
69 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
# TASK 54 — Marcom round: free-forever positioning + merch (queued 2026-10-08)
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> ⛔ **THE FREE-FOREVER RULING IN THIS FILE IS SUPERSEDED — 2026-10-30.** The app is **freemium**:
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> every feature is still free, and a paid edition exists for higher output quality (free is capped
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> at a 921,600 px / 30 fps profile, stream **and** recording). Live policy:
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> [`docs/ai/commercial.md`](../docs/ai/commercial.md). Cause of death:
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> [`docs/ai/decisions.md`](../docs/ai/decisions.md) → Monetization. Read the rest of this file as
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> the 2026-10-08 record — the merch/gratuity half still stands, the "free forever, no paid tier"
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> half does not.
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> Catalog: [`TASKS.md`](../TASKS.md) — status and requirements live here.
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**Why:** the monetization decision changed. LlamaCasty launches **watermark-free and free as in beer,
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forever** — no paid tiers, no branding flash. The old watermark-paid-delta plan (TASK 10) is
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superseded. Money, if any, comes from **gratuity and branded merch**, never from gating the app.
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**History of the ruling (creator-led, 2026-10-08):** feature set is locked for v1; there are no new
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pricing tiers to build. The compensation decision: ship the app free and watermark-free, put a
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coffee jar / merch storefront in front of people, done. Assistant recommendation that was accepted:
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**print-on-demand merch** instead of a tip jar for the main channel, because a t-shirt the viewer
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wears is free advertising a donation is not.
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**Done so far:**
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- ✅ llamacasty.com stripped of ALL pricing (2026-10-08): plans ($0/$10/$400), the feature chart,
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the "made with LlamaCasty!" flash copy, and the `#pricing` section replaced with a **free-forever
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band**: "Free forever. Completely yours." — no watermark, no branding on stream, no subscription,
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no account. Nav + footer relinked to `#free`. Deployed + verified live (0 pricing refs).
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- ✅ Ruling recorded: no watermark, no branding-flash, app ships as-is.
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**Merch plan (accepted, corrected 2026-10-08):**
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- **Printful as the producer/fulfillment** (quality + creative control). **Storefront-layer facts
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(verified via websearch 2026-10-08 — there is NO free one-site tier that integrates Printful):**
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- Printful's built-in storefront ("Quick Stores") = US-seller/US-buyer only, no custom domain.
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- **Ecwid:** free Starter plan has **no third-party app integrations** — Printful's own doc states
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Printful requires Venture, Business, or Unlimited (Venture ≈ $29/mo annual). Dead on a free tier.
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- **PROVIDER DECISION (2026-10-08, after websearch of the POD market):** **Fourthwall**, not
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Printful. It eliminates the storefront-layer problem entirely:
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- Real free plan ($0/mo, not a trial), **built-in storefront**, connect own domain
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(`shop.llamacasty.com`) for free (Pro $19/mo adds .store domain, 0% digital fees).
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- Native creator integrations: **YouTube Merch Shelf, Twitch product gifting, TikTok Shop,
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Discord** — where the young audience buys.
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- Fulfillment incl. **Mexico** (US/UK/EU/CA/MX/AU/JP partners); Merchant of Record (tax/VAT
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handled); Fourthwall handles catalog-order customer support.
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- **No platform fee on physical products** — base cost + processing (2.9%+30¢ domestic) only;
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you keep 100% of markup. Quality-first curated partners (max-ink printing), not supplier lottery.
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- vs rivals: Printful/POD = production-only (storefront friction = the whole Square/BigCartel/
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Ecwid saga above); Printify = cheapest bases but needs third-party store + own tax/support.
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- **GO/NO-GO to verify at signup:** Fourthwall seller payout to a Mexico-based account (MX
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*shipping* is confirmed; seller payouts unverified).
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- Design assets (llama 816×1645 @300dpi PNG, back-URL text) port as-is; re-confirm the catalog
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picks (hoodie, tee, stickers, bottle) in Fourthwall's catalog.
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- **Small lineup: 3–5 items** to start (t-shirt, mug, sticker set — the llama logo is the obvious
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draw). Assets live in `llamacasty.web/assets/img/` (icon-512.png, logo.webp, gramps-480.webp).
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**In-app tasks bundled here (small, App-layer only):**
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- ☐ Branding-flash text becomes **"llamacasty.com"** (single small mention) instead of the
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"made with LlamaCasty!" overlay — pending the "no branding, completely yours" wording conflict:
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a streamer showing zero branding and a streamer showing "llamacasty.com" are different promises;
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creator to pick.
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- ☐ Add the merch/storefront links to the **About pop-up** so the store is reachable from inside
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the app at all times.
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**Marcom write-up:** capture this whole decision (positioning, competitor note — Meld Studio runs
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free core + paid AI tiers and a merch store; ArtCraft monetizes AI credits — the free-forever
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difference) into the dedicated **marcom.md** file once the creator creates it. This task file is the
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working copy until then. |