Hey all
Today, I am thrilled to share two significant developments with you that will determine our shared future.
Firstly, the issue of donations. Since the inception of this instance, your most frequent request has been the ability to make contributions to support my initiative. While initially, I had never intended to accept donations, I’ve come to realize the value this brings in ensuring our platform’s sustainability. In response to your requests, within the next week, I will be introducing several options for those of you who wish to donate. I want to emphasize that these donations are entirely optional and will directly support our instance’s operational necessities - dedicated hardware, colocation fees, email services, and more.
The second announcement needs a full disclosure: it could be an extraordinary idea or potentially not so. Since the beginning of this instance, I’ve seen a number of insightful posts, recommendations, and ideas that the community has put forward, often superior to what I could have conceptualized myself. Even our instance’s name was born from one of your suggestions.
Frequently, I’m approached by users seeking clarity on our rules and guidelines or expressing their thoughts on existing rules. In reflecting upon this, it became clear to me that I’ve been attempting to determine what’s best for the community. But who am I to make these decisions? Just two weeks ago, I was a user among you all. Hence, I’m moving away from the traditional role of decision-making.
Instead, I want to hand over the reins of decision-making to you - the community. I’m excited to announce the creation of a community called agora where you can express your desires for the future of this instance. It’s up to you to come together, discuss, and reach a consensus. If you wish to add, remove, or modify a rule, make a post, garner support from other members, and I’ll implement the change. This invitation extends beyond our immediate community - I welcome input from everyone across the fediverse. Again to be clear, I gave an example of modifying rules but this applies to anything that I have the ability to do on this instance.
As the instance owner, I only have one caveat to add - any decisions made should not jeopardize the instance’s existence or result in legal complications. Aside from that, I’m eager to see where this new direction takes us.
Thank you for your ongoing support, creativity, and engagement.
It’s up to you to come together, discuss, and reach a consensus. If you wish to add, remove, or modify a rule, make a post, garner support from other members, and I’ll implement the change. This invitation extends beyond our immediate community - I welcome input from everyone across the fediverse. Again to be clear, I gave an example of modifying rules but this applies to anything that I have the ability to do on this instance.
@TheDude@sh.itjust.works what constitutes “consensus”? A majority, a supermajority? 100% buy-in on most important topics is simply not on the table, and setting a bar too high for action is tantamount to predetermining that action will not be taken.
(I have no problem with the tyranny of the admin, either, as long as it’s clear what direction the site is headed in so I know whether to stick around or not.)
Is it just me or is the overal vibe here on lemmy incredibly positive ?
The open-source/decentralization community is, by nature, made up of people who have the interests of community at heart. Those contributing to Lemmy with their presence and even their hardware are doing so because they WANT this kind of community. There’s nobody in charge but us, and so we have nothing to guide us but our morals and our dreams.
I think this is a well-intentioned but horrible idea. I’d much rather have a benevolent dictator who is willing to listen to suggestions than someone who is controlled by whatever majority of users is voting today.
Any updates on donations? I want to give you my money!!
I very much appreciate you guys keeping pushing me on this. There is more involved than I had originally anticipated in being able to accept donations. We are currently waiting for a fiscal host on opencollective.org to approve our application which was submitted in June. Once it’s been approved this instance will be accepting donations!
I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled about decision making by committee. I’d feel a lot more reassured if I knew the server in good and competent hands, rather than a “mob rules” system of governance. I’ll certainly prepare to move elsewhere if it becomes clear that the instance moves in a direction I’d feel uncomfortable with (such as overmoderation or willy-nilly defederation that’d rob me of content).
I’m pretty worried we will end up with more of an HOA then a democracy.
Not sure we can get the sort of voting going that will attract more then the local busy bodies.
I’ve seen that abbreviation around, - HOA. What does it mean? House Of Assholes? Hands Off Anarchy? Please advise
Home owners association.
Looking at the recent threads about defederating, you hit the nail on the head. It just ended up being a bunch of busybodies who want to manage what everyone else is doing
woooooooooooooooo
We’re going to end up with sexy John Oliver posts, aren’t we?
All kidding aside, I think this is a great idea. I would put in another caveat though, that only users from this instance can vote for rule changes. But we should definitely invite ideas from everyone across the fediverse.
Also, Part of why I joined this instance was of the chill direction if the mod admin team, I hope they continue that work and that this doesn’t result in a deterioration of user experience because they gave up and handed it over to all of us.
I expect most of us are here for the chill vibe. That should be reflected in the outcomes at the agora. Assuming it’s local only.
Removed by mod
Community-voted rules are a nice idea, but you need to have at least veto power, as bad actors may propose and vote-brigade intentionally exploitable rules or rules that marginalize vulnerable communities.
Use your best judgment to protect your community against those who desire bringing hatred and abuse. Just be prepared to explain the reasoning behind your decisions, and be prepared for vote-brigading (however unlikely it may be) when you veto.
Maybe we should create a constitution that all other rules are based on. This document should outline the core values of this instance and any rules created that would violate it would become void. The constitution would not be ruled but guidelines for rules.
I like this idea, we should as an instance write down core values, maybe about half a dozen, that we would like to abide by.
Out of curiosity, will you be pocketing the excess of donations over any running costs? Because I think we all understand that profit motives can introduce corruption (see how Reddit changed with VC profit motives). If I may offer a suggestion, would you be willing to donate any excess in your donations to other Lemmy instances for the health of the fediverse in general? Or perhaps distribute some of those donations to compensate moderators for key communities on your instance?
What is excess now may be needed later. I’d rather have it stashed away in case there are unexpected server expenses or something.
Excess should be used for bounties to get features we want implemented added to Lemmy.
A high enough bounty and they can hire a part-time developer to work on our selected improvement.
I think this a good addition to having coffers for a rainy day
I don’t agree with the assumption that providing an amount of donations above the running costs would inherently introduce corruption. I trust TheDude.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to redirect donations from our users to other servers.
Distributing some of the donations to compensate moderators of communities on this instance is something I could get behind.
Why would I want to donate to an instance that uses defederation to make my browsing experience worse? Fund your censorship yourself.
