Add Sponsors recognition section and welcome-message copy

[StreamDemon]

Summary

• Adds a ## Sponsors recognition block to the README with the Ecosystem partner ($500/mo) logo/name placement convention and a "be the first" placeholder.
• Adds .github/SPONSOR_WELCOME.md with the reference welcome-message copy for all six published tiers and the recognition flow.

Why

The GitHub Sponsors tiers are now published (https://github.com/sponsors/StreamDemon). This wires the recognition half: a visible place for partner sponsors and a single source of truth for tier welcome copy.

Test plan

• README renders the Sponsors section above License
• No broken anchors (links to #sponsoring)
• cubic PR review

🤖 Generated with Hermes

Co-Authored-By: VIKI noreply@hermes-agent.local

---

Summary by cubic

Adds a Sponsors section to the README and a sponsor welcome/recognition guide. Fixes the Sponsors cross-link and clarifies the placeholder replacement for Ecosystem partners.

• New Features

  • README: new Sponsors block above License with a table and “Be the first” placeholder; Ecosystem partner sponsors are listed with name + logo and noted for a quarterly sync.
  • .github/SPONSOR_WELCOME.md: reference welcome messages for all six tiers and a short recognition flow for adding Ecosystem partner attribution.

• Bug Fixes

  • Updated the README tier reference to point to .github/SPONSOR_WELCOME.md.
  • Recognition flow now explicitly says to replace the “Be the first” placeholder row.

^{Written for commit 9e1dca7. Summary will update on new commits.}

[cubic-dev-ai]

All reported issues were addressed across 2 files

Architecture diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant V as Visitor (GitHub)
    participant R as README.md
    participant S as .github/SPONSOR_WELCOME.md
    participant GH as GitHub Sponsors Dashboard
    participant M as Maintainer

    Note over V,M: Sponsor Recognition Flow

    V->>R: View README
    R->>R: Display Sponsors section
    Note over R: Shows table with "Be the first" placeholder<br/>Links to sponsoring section & sponsor page

    alt No sponsors yet
        R-->>V: Show "Be the first" row + call to action
    else Sponsor exists
        Note over R: Ecosystem partner row with name/logo/link
    end

    V->>GH: Navigate to sponsors page
    GH-->>V: Display tier selection

    alt Visitor becomes Sponsor ($500/mo)
        V->>GH: Complete sponsorship at Ecosystem partner tier
        GH->>V: Send welcome email with attribution request
        V->>M: Reply with attribution (name/logo/link)
        M->>S: Consult SPONSOR_WELCOME.md
        Note over M,S: Reference recognition flow steps
        M->>M: Add sponsor row to README table
        M->>M: Optionally add logo to docs/assets/sponsors/
        M->>V: Send quarterly roadmap sync invite
        R-->>V: Updated README showing sponsor attribution
    end

    alt Other tiers ($5, $25, $100, $20 one-time, $250 one-time)
        V->>GH: Complete sponsorship
        GH->>V: Send tier-specific welcome message
        Note over GH,V: No README recognition for non-$500 tiers
    end

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<sub>Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix.

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[cubic-dev-ai]

0 issues found across 2 files (changes from recent commits).

Confidence score: 5/5

• Automated review surfaced no issues in the provided summaries.
• No files require special attention.

<sub>Auto-approved: Adds only documentation and sponsorship copy. No code, config, or behavior changes; no human-owned tradeoff to decide.

Re-trigger cubic</sub>