Two lessons learned from the #InvokeAI acquisition announcement:
- You need to pause and think through both what you say, and how the public will react to it. Try to step outside your inner circle bubble and think about the greater community. Anticipate their questions and reactions and include that in the announcement -- don't just rush to the Discord #Announcements channel to show off how fat your bank account is going to be. A subsequent FAQ post in the hours after won't get nearly as much traction as the initial announcement. It's like a pebble being thrown into the wake of a motor boat.
- If you sell out, understand that WHO you sell out to will affect your reputation. Grudgingly, I accept that the desire for many is to make a thing and cash out, that being the 'win condition'. But #Adobe is rightly reviled in the modern era. The idea of them being anywhere near Invoke is a nightmare scenario. While the community edition may continue to be "open source and free", there's very little chance I'm going to want to contribute (in the wake of the core developer vacuum left by this) if it means my work is going downstream to help Adobe in any way. (Not everyone will feel that way, of course -- many happy PRs to you.)