Announcement: Server move / New hoster

Netwatch
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Yo choom,

Got some big news to drop on you, and we’re eager to hear what you think about it.

Here’s the kicker: it’s all good vibes, baby!

We’ve got so much to spill that we had to write up a detailed post on our website. Just hit up this link to dive right in.

:link: OBEY THE SYSTEM - Announcement: server move / new hoster

Once you’ve soaked up all the deets, we want to hear your thoughts. Drop us a reply to this post, and let us know what’s on your mind.

Appreciate your support, choomba! Stay wired!

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Wow, good news all around, indeed!

I feel donations should remain open and it should be made clear that the costs outside of people’s time are minimal. That will allow people to decide if they want to donate here or not.

As for how to use them, I think it’d be fine to use them in any of the ways laid out in the blog post. Having said that, here are my opinions:

  1. Some to the team members who keep this place available and enjoyable. IMO, this includes moderators, server admins and the like.
  2. Developers of the open source projects that we rely on

Making donations to Totentanz to have that money be donated to another organization seems a little strange to me, but I can see a couple potential advantages (depending on implementation):

A. Privacy. Donors would be known to Totenanz, but not to the organization that is the final recipient.
B. Payment options. It’d be possible to accept digital currencies to Totentanz and that to be converted to something that the NGO can handle

In the end, as long as it’s clear what types of things the donations are going towards, I’m good. It we can arrive at a consensus amongst the community, even better.

So that’s donations. There’s also the merch store. I think it should stay open so people can get cool swag, independent of whatever decision is made about donations.

Profits from the store, if there are any, could be rolled into building some inventory (because buying in bulk really saves when it comes to stickers/magnets) and paying artists who design(ed) the artwork that makes the stickers/magnets/threads so cool.

I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking about sustainability and getting people paid for the work they do, and I :heart: that the team is activey soliciting input from the community and beyond. Every post I read on this forum makes me feel like I found the place I belong. ty

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I posted this somewhere else in shorter form but here are my extended thoughts here. I’d suggest uses for incoming donations as follows:

  1. Take care of all costs related to the #CICU instances such that it doesn’t cost anyone. This would include any “related” fees like:
  • DNS registration
  • Increased costs of storage, translation, etc.
  • legal fees
  • licensing for emojis
  • commissions for images related to the #CICU instances

  1. Compensate the admin and any mods for their time and dedication (if they want it - not a forced thing and some may not want to be paid in any capacity). I don’t know if there are any legal or tax obligations, so maybe this isn’t an option (see previous point under “legal fees”)

  2. Fund any #CICU merch designs and fees related to providing said merch

  3. Donate any leftover money to causes that are aligned with the #CICU ethos and culture, like:

  • LGBTQIA+ or any other organizations that works with marginalized or targeted people groups
  • Other fediverse instances with whom we may have formed relationships to help them out and keep them running
  • Donate to specific funding requests from folks to keep people housed, fed, and able to get necessary medications (Not sure of the legality here). Funding requests could be voted on by the mod team, perhaps.
  • Donate to FOSS software projects and apps that are used by the #CICU instances and also are aligned with the #CICU ethos and culture, or are determined to be useful to fund future Fediverse growth (easier Matrix installation, anyone? Perhaps something like Veilid?)

As stated in the announcement, making it clear where the donations go and allowing individual users to choose to donate or not should continue. That way people can decide if they want to contribute to all the things that the community as a whole wants to participate in, and should never be made to feel bad for deciding not to contribute.

Anyway, I agree with any of the suggestions in the announcement and just wanted to add some thoughts on those here. I also won’t be upset if some or all of these are not implemented or can’t be implemented for some reason.

I’m just happy to be here and want to support the #CICU however I can and am needed. :smiley:

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