为什么赞助我们¶
¥Why sponsor us¶
Material for MkDocs 是一个开源项目，由一支小型团队开发和维护，团队成员都希望投入尽可能多的时间，使其每天都得到改进。我们需要依靠我们杰出的赞助商的资金支持，他们为我们争取到了开发的时间。
¥Material for MkDocs is an Open Source project that is developed and maintained by a small team of individuals who want to devote as much time as possible to make it better every day. We need to rely on the financial support of our awesome sponsors, who buy us the time to work on it.
我们是谁¶
¥Who we are¶
虽然该项目是由@squidfunk作为个人业余项目启动的，但该项目在 2020 年采用的Sponsorware模型使他能够在自己周围建立一支由优秀个人组成的小团队，这些人现在正在帮助他维护该项目以及不断增长的赞助商名单。
¥While the project was started by @squidfunk as a personal side project, the Sponsorware model that the project adopted in 2020 allowed him to build a small team of amazing individuals around him, who are now helping him to maintain the project, as well as the growing list of sponsors.
起源¶
¥How it started¶
2015 年，尽管@squidfunk已在开源行业摸爬滚打了 10 年，但他对开源仍然相当陌生。他刚刚完成了最新的开源项目，却发现这个项目过于复杂，无法用 GitHub 上一个简单的 README 文件来解释。他需要一个优秀的文档工具来辅助这个项目。
¥In 2015, albeit 10 years in the industry, @squidfunk was still quite new to Open Source. Having just finished his latest Open Source project, he realized that the project was too complex to be explained in a plain README on GitHub. He needed a good documentation tool for this project.
在评估了各种静态站点生成器，尤其是 Hugo、Sphinx 和 MkDocs 之后，他很快认定 MkDocs 是个不错的选择，因为它专门用于技术项目文档，而且易于使用。可惜的是，所有可用的主题看起来都过时了，而且由于@squidfunk非常注重视觉效果，他实在无法说服自己就此罢休。
¥After evaluating static site generators in general and Hugo, Sphinx and MkDocs in particular, he quickly decided that MkDocs seemed a good choice, as it was specifically aimed at technical project documentation and easy to use. Unfortunately, all of the available themes looked dated, and since @squidfunk is a very visual person, he just couldn't convince himself to call it a day.
他需要构建一个主题。
¥He needed to build a theme.
几个月后，即 2016 年 2 月，Material for MkDocs 的第一个版本发布。在接下来的几年里， @squidfunk作为唯一的维护者，实现了无数的功能请求并修复了错误，使该项目广受欢迎，到 2019 年底，它在 GitHub 上已获得近 3,000 颗星。迄今为止，它仍然是他最受欢迎的项目。
¥Months later, in February 2016, the first version of Material for MkDocs was released. Over the next years, @squidfunk being the sole maintainer, countless feature requests were implemented and bugs were fixed, allowing the project to gain popularity and reach almost 3,000 stars on GitHub by the end of 2019. It is still his most popular project to date.
随着项目的发展， @squidfunk开始实现一些功能请求，这些请求从总体上看是合理的，但对他个人而言却并非如此。正是从这时起，项目开始从个人项目转变为社区驱动的项目，并开始感觉像是一份副业。许多维护人员的主要工作是兼职，当他们的业余项目取得成功时，他们会感到精疲力竭，因此@squidfunk决定尝试“赞助软件”模式，将 MkDocs 的 Material 开发作为他的主要工作。事实证明，这取得了令人难以置信的成功。
¥As the project grew, @squidfunk started to implement feature requests that made sense from a general perspective, but not for his personal use. This was the point where the project started to shift from a personal project to a community-driven one, and began to feel like a secondary job. Having a primary job, many maintainers burn out when their side projects become successful, which is why @squidfunk decided to give the Sponsorware model a try and make Material for MkDocs his primary job. This turned out to be an incredible success.
赞助软件¶
¥Sponsorware¶
Sponsorware 模型很简单——作为赞助商，您可以作为Insiders的一部分，在其他人享受到 Material for MkDocs 的最新和最强大的功能之前，提前获得这些功能，因为您是通过财务贡献使这些功能成为可能的人。
¥The Sponsorware model is simple – as a sponsor, you get early access to the latest and greatest features of Material for MkDocs as part of Insiders before everyone else gets to enjoy them, as you are the one making them possible with your financial contributions.
Insiders 版中推出的每一项新功能都与一个特定金额的众筹目标挂钩。一旦达到该金额，所有符合该众筹目标的功能都将合并到社区版中，供所有人使用。就是这么简单。
¥Every new feature that lands in Insiders is linked to a funding goal with a specific amount. Once this amount is reached, all of the features that are part of this funding goal are merged into the community edition, making them available to everyone. It is that simple.
这种全新且仍处于实验阶段的方法不仅有助于保持项目的活力和前沿性，而且还确保它能够继续满足并超越您的期望。
¥This brand-new and still experimental approach not only helps keep the project vibrant and cutting-edge but also ensures it can continue to meet and exceed your expectations.
我们今天的处境¶
¥Where we are today¶
如今，Material for MkDocs 已发展成为一个蓬勃发展、由社区支持且资金充足的项目，拥有超过 500 名赞助商和一支规模虽小但不断壮大的团队，服务对象涵盖国际公司和组织。该项目的发展远超其最初的目标，它已不仅仅是一个主题，而是一个构建于 MkDocs 之上的强大文档框架。
¥Fast forward to today, Material for MkDocs is a thriving community-supported and well-funded project, with over 500 sponsors and a small but growing team, used by international companies and organizations. The project has outgrown its original purpose by far, as it has become so much more than just a theme – a powerful documentation framework built on top of MkDocs.
自 2020 年起，随着赞助软件 (Sponsorware)模式的出现，发布频率增加了一倍以上，平均每 1-2 周就会发布一个新版本。此外，我们的团队会尽快响应问题，从而将未解决的问题数量保持在较低水平。
¥Starting in 2020 with the advent of the Sponsorware model, the frequency of releases has more than doubled, with a new release seeing the light of day on average every 1-2 weeks. Moreover, our team responds to issues as fast as possible, keeping the number of open issues low.
我们的承诺¶
¥Our pledge¶
我们正在努力将 Material for MkDocs 打造成市面上最优秀的文档工具之一，功能强大，使用便捷，最重要的是，免费开源。感谢各位赞助商的慷慨解囊，让我们能够全力以赴。
¥We're working hard to make Material for MkDocs one of the best documentation tools out there, ridiculously powerful, a pleasure to use and most importantly – free and Open Source. It is the financial contributions of our awesome sponsors, that allow us to do our best work.
这是一个简单的等式：只要这个项目有资金，我们就可以继续改进它，修复错误并添加新功能。我们将继续为用户提供尽可能最好的支持，并确保 Material for MkDocs 仍然是您喜爱的工具。
¥It's a simple equation: as long as this project is funded, we can continue to improve it, fix bugs, and add new features. We will continue to provide the best possible support to our users and make sure that Material for MkDocs remains a tool that you love to use.
如果您赞助我们，您的贡献将帮助我们支付：
¥If you sponsor us, your contribution helps us to pay for:
税费：由于我们为赞助商提供服务，因此我们当然有法律义务缴纳销售税，并且我们乐意缴纳。此要求适用于所有赞助捐款，使我们与世界其他地区一样，遵守标准商业惯例。
赞助：我们很大一部分资金被转用于上游项目。这促进了合作，并支持了更广泛的开源生态系统。我们认为这些项目及其维护者对于 Material for MkDocs 的持久发展至关重要。
团队：我们的团队正在壮大！有了更多资金，我们可以聘请更多人员来帮助我们改进 Material for MkDocs。请注意，这涵盖了项目的各个方面，例如新功能的创建、错误解决、支持以及赞助商关系。
我们自力更生，无需投资者的帮助！如果您决定支持我们，就等于帮助我们保持独立，不受外界影响。这意味着我们可以专注于构建您喜爱的解决方案，并保持您对文档项目的所有权，而无需受制于任何供应商。
¥Taxes: Since we provide a service to our sponsors, we're of course legally obligated and happy to pay sales tax. This requirement applies to all sponsorship contributions, aligning us with standard business practices, as for the rest of the world.
¥Sponsorships: A significant portion of our funding is redirected to upstream projects. This cultivates collaboration and supports the broader Open Source ecosystem. We regard those projects and their maintainers as essential for the persistence of Material for MkDocs.