++++
+categories = ["News"]
+tags = ["News"]
+title = "Introducing BookStack Support Services"
+image = "/images/blog-cover-images/dog-woods-jamie-street.jpg"
+author = "Dan Brown"
+slug = "bookstack-support-services"
+draft = false
+date = 2022-03-21T12:00:00Z
++++
+
+Today I'm happy to announce availability of official BookStack support services!
+These services are broken down into a couple of different plans, the detail
+of which can be found on our [new support page](/support/).
+
+### Purpose & Inception of These Services
+
+These services are primarily intended to service business BookStack users that need some level
+of guaranteed, and/or official, support offering to make BookStack viable in their environment.
+Our plans offer an outlet for the IT team of a company to contact directly with an assurance of official support.
+
+Over the last couple of years I have heard multiple accounts of management discounting BookStack due to it's
+lack of obvious income routes, skeptical the project may disappear at any moment.
+Upon that I have received an increasing amount of enquiries regarding provision of support, in addition to requests for deeper
+hands-on-help via video calls.
+Additionally, when using an open source project within a business it can be difficult to approve funding for a recurring donation
+whereas paying for a clearly described support service can slip through accounting with relative ease.
+It's due to these reasons I saw a demand for such support services.
+
+Thanks to [my wonderful sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/ssddanbrown), and to my supportive family, I found myself in
+a unique position where I can provide and grow these service offerings as a means to eventually cover
+my own costs to keep working on the project full time.
+
+### Existing Community Support
+
+The introduction of these services does not mean I'll stop providing/offering community support via
+our existing channels (GitHub, Discord, Reddit); In fact it should mean I can offer more support there.
+By offering these services I intend to cover my costs to keep working on the project as my primary
+career and therefore have more time to dedicate to those community channels.
+
+### Funding Long Term Sustainable Open Source Development
+
+With BookStack in its current state the amount of work required to keep the project
+maintained, with active community management (Discord/GitHub issues/Pull-request handling etc...), is fairly
+significant. Each feature addition or option supported adds to the weight, and I'm increasingly having to
+discount features due to their potential maintenance affect to keep the project sustainable.
+It's at a point where it's a challenge to work on much more than ongoing maintenance while being a side-project.
+
+While taking a career break since October last year I've enjoyed being able to spend more time on the project,
+with feature releases almost monthly, which has opened my eyes to envision this healthier rate of development longer
+term. These new support services are the next step for walking along that longer term sustainable journey.
+
+---
+
+<span style="font-size: 0.8em;opacity:0.8;">Header Image Credits: <span>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jamie452?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Jamie Street</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>
+ </span></span>
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