UPDATE: 9th January 2020
I’m really pleased to say that other people are starting to add #Treeware to their packages. I have started to curate a list here.
When Freek published “Our packages are now postcardware” I was intrigued to know what Postcardware was.
Postcardware, also called just cardware, is a style of software distribution similar to shareware, distributed by the author on the condition that users send the author a postcard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcardware
We use a number of Spatie packages and so I was determined to do my bit and “send the author a postcard”. You will notice that on all of Spatie packages in the README.md file there is a licence.
I live in Dubai and it’s tricky to send international post so I hand-delivered my postcard to Freek at Laracon and I was pleased to see it on their website soon after.
OK, so what’s Treeware
Before I start to explain what Treeware is I need to touch on one more thing. I have known Phil Sturgeon for a long time and he has been a source of much inspiration. Phil is currently on a bike somewhere and in between biking and working he likes to shout about how we can do our bit to look after this beautiful planet we live on.
He has worked on a website called awesom.earth and one of the services he has been supporting is Offset Earth.
We plant trees & fund the world’s best climate crisis solutions.
Offset Earth
I have seen a big uplift in people adding methods of accepting payments to their opensource packages. GitHub and others have recently released various methods to help maintainers do this. I get it and I think there is a place for this but it didn’t sit well for me and for the small packages I have released. I loved the idea of Postcardware but it still didn’t feel right for me. When Phil shared with me his img.shields.io badge for “buy me a tree” I knew this was exactly the right fit for me.
I have now added the badge to all my packages
As well as adding the simple badge with a link to my offset.earth profile I am also going to add a new section called “Treeware” and taking some inspiration from Spatie’s Postcardware text I am going to add the below to all my packages.
This package is Treeware. If you use it in production, then we ask that you buy the world a tree to thank us for our work. By contributing to the Treeware forest you’ll be creating employment for local families and restoring wildlife habitats.
You're free to use this package, but if it makes it to your production environment you are required to buy the world a tree.
It’s now common knowledge that one of the best tools to tackle the climate crisis and keep our temperatures from rising above 1.5C is to plant trees. If you support this package and contribute to the Treeware forest you’ll be creating employment for local families and restoring wildlife habitats.
You can buy trees here offset.earth/treeware
Read more about Treeware at treeware.earth
I would love to hear your feedback on this initiative and would love to see if anyone else likes the idea enough to follow!
You can find all my available packages listed here on Packagist