Let's Encrypt swag is here and I love it | Hacker News Reader

Let's Encrypt swag is here and I love it

letsencrypt.org

138 pointsdfern40 comments

Debatable whether it's worth posting this comment (but maybe it'll sway like-minded people)..

I went to the page and my 21st century brain ignored everything apart from immediately looking for swag photos and price tag...

Of course, I saw it and was blown away (I only spend £15/$25 on a t-shirt max) and in a split second ruled it out...

But a second went by and I actually realised saw donate button and then the big header about contributions to letsencrypt etc....

If I look back at the (I guess) 6 years of using them.. across maybe 60-80 personal domains across 8-10ish TLDs worth of certs... If letsencrypt hadn't been a thing, I'd have still been paying £50/domain or £150/wildcard root domain cert per year. Realistically, for my own personal projects, they've saved me close to $10K. Ignoring the fact that I don't need to renew tens/multiple-tens of certs a year and the hassle involved with that.

I definitely think I owe this to them and will definitely be buying something and hope others in the same boat do too :)

It's sort of wild to thing of a time now without being able to get a new project up-and-running by just sticking up a DNS entry and 3 seconds later having a valid SSL cert attached :)

Edit: Bought something :D

They’ve saved you even more by making the web secure. We used to type our credit card info into HTTP websites.

For what it’s worth your comment changed my mind and made me re-evaluate it. I also bought a couple of things.

I’ve been hosting my families websites for years and shudder to think of how much money LE has saved me between those sites and every project site I’ve used in that same time. I don’t miss buying SSL certs for every site.

Thanks for posting this comment, you've encouraged me to do the same.

> I'd have still been paying £50/domain or £150/wildcard root domain cert per year.

For vapourware. SSL certs should never have ever cost anything. They've always been a scam.

This is a bit of a tangent, but shouldn't this be retitled as "Let's Encrypt merch", since it's for sale/donation. Swag is always free.

Perhaps, but this is a pretty pedantic observation. I wasn't expecting to get even more for free from LetsEncrypt, considering their enormously useful core service is already provided free of charge!

> Perhaps, but this is a pretty pedantic observation.

Yeah, agreed, it was very pedantic. It just seems fitting as Let's Encrypt don't use the term swag anywhere on the page.

> I wasn't expecting to get even more for free from them, considering their enormously useful core service is already provided free of charge!

Also agreed. It swung me to donate (not for a shirt).

So this is like reverse swag?

Is it?

Technically this is also "a thank-you gift if you donate at a specific level", so maybe one could argue it's technically free :-)

I love on the checkout page that they explicitly tell you not to check the "please remember my information for next time" box, "for the sake of your own privacy" - very on brand :)

As per usual, fat asses like myself are left out. Was all set to buy one to support them.

I know, I know… “lose some damn weight, fatty”. I will, I’m trying, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to rock one of these in the meanwhile.

Put it in a plastic case and wear it like a medallion.

You prompted me to go look - interesting that there are different sizes available per item (even between the tshirts). Wonder if some are sold out and they're just not showing?

Yes, some are available up to 2XL and 3XL, which tends to be enormous sizes in the US.

I would snark that 2xl and 3xl would be considered regular sizes in the US, and enormous sizes in the rest of the world.

buy one and use it as a goal to fit into by X date?

I do have a “goal shirt” already… but maybe two would double my motivation?

Profattip Linus Tech tips clothing line has awesome fat people sizing and the stuff fits well too.

I so wish I could get XLT swag. It's impossible to find tall sizes in free nerd gear and that makes me sad.

`n`XL is for width. I need length, and without it, it's a belly shirt within two washes. My wife loves it though as she gets all my nerd swag.

Same! UnderArmor XLT shirts are so nice....

recently stumbled across some new tshirts at academy (sports store), their BCG brand new t-shirts are nice, price is great, and found that the XL and 2XL are longer (much better!) than the Hanes XLTs I've been getting, and just as good as the hanes black label ones that I've found to be a decent length.

I can only guess these are subsidized by the gov/bus investment initiatives in central Americas..

Id be happy donating cash and having rights to print the radiant on of these tees, and some of the WP designs actually - not sure what small run printing runs these days.

Same, but at least in my experience, it's equally hard to find T sizes even when paying. I'm pretty much restricted to a few brands, and they're rarely in stores, so relegated to the internet to gamble on buying shirts long enough.

I wish they'd add some books or something that I could more easily "justify" the company buying, since they get so much value from Let's Encrypt.

Maybe something like o'reilly's 'SSL Complete Guide 2021: HTTP to HTTPS' could bump up their price by $/£5-10 and give the difference to letsencrypt? :)

Or nostarch Serious Cryptography!

Either of those would be great for LE to just resell on their store.

Got the yellow hoodie last year and could not be happier. I wear it proudly even though 90% have no idea what it’s about. I guess that makes it even more special

Investment in networking if nothing else... If I see someone in Let's Encrypt swag on the street I'm probably going to give them a compliment!

Oh man I thought this post would be about https://docs.linuxserver.io/general/swag since it also lets you choose Let's Encrypt as a cert provider.

Once brought a laptop adorned with loads of techie stickers to a conference, and all people could ask me was the background story behind those stickers, aswell as asking specifically about the tech in question. 'Oh you have an EFF sticker, do you care about digital rights and freedom?'.

Turned me off adding stickers after that. Not that I don't like discussing them, it just perks people's interest at the worst moments, when I'm focused on preparing my next talk for example. (Or maybe I don't want to school people on digital rights)

If you are going to make swag, make it in black. I wouldn’t be caught dead in yellow or blue.

I think this is the first time I've ever heard someone say they wouldn't be caught dead wearing (navy) blue.

There is something to be said for getting to pick the color though, I'm particularly a fan of dark gray tees myself.

Hang out with more punks and goths, who trend more monochromatic. :-)

These actually look good, what a pleasant surprise.

Eh, my aesthetic sensibilities are kind of offended by 3 of the 4 apparel options. But maybe I am not the target audience.

Will probably buy one anyway just to support such a great organization.

If you don't think you'll wear it just donate $30 instead or something.

wish they still had the radiant thongs

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