When GreatAlbatross and I agreed to become Admins our guiding principle was that this couldn’t be a project run and funded by an individual and subjects to their waxing and waning interest. Instead, this had to be a social network run by and for the users. That meant that we needed as much as possible to be open and transparent with no single point of failure. This should ensure that feddit.uk would be around as long as people needed it, possibly even outlasting the both of us.
To this end, now the server move has been competed, we move on to the next step in securing the instance’s future - ensuring there are enough funds coming in to cover the cost of running the site.
Fortunately, the outgoings are pretty modest (£40/month) and so it will only take a few dozen people contributing a small amount each month to pay for everything.
With the ideas of openness and transparency in mind, and after listening to suggests from you, we have signed up with Open Collective. As we are using a fiscal host it doesn’t require any donated money to be held in a personal bank account, all banking and accounts are done by them (in return for a set-up fee and 5%) and the state of the finances can be viewed on the Open Collective website.
As well as a custom option (where you can pay what you like when you like), we have set a few contribution tiers:
- Regular subscription of £1 or £5 a month
- One-off donations of £5 or £10
This should meet the regular costs and, hopefully, build up enough of a surplus to increase storage as needed or upgrade the hosting if there is a sudden influx of Reddit refugees again. GA and I have also been funding things from our own pocket up to this point and, when there is enough of a war chest built up, we will repay those costs.
There will be regular updates (probably around this time every month as the invoice for the server goes out on the 4th and regular contributions are collected on the 1st) where we’ll explain the costs and summarise the fundraising efforts so far.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask below.
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I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Emperor for their efforts here.
They researched all the options available, then once we’d discussed and decided on a path/provider, took on all of the work arranging and attending the necessary rather official meetings to make it happen.
Amazing work to get us over the line on this.(For anyone wondering why I put a large donation in: Emperor has been shouldering a lot more of the financials so far, and I’m keen to get them balanced. It’s not a suggested amount, don’t worry!)
You should’ve made it possible to donate forty quid, then we can all take turns at paying for the server
WHOSE FACKIN ROUND IS IT?
Edit - ha ha you can, I just paid this month’s server. Somecunt else’s round next 😂
That’s very generous and we hadn’t thought of that. I don’t think it is possible to have one donation slot a month for the full round but I’ll look into it. It wouldn’t take many folks like yourself to get out war chest looking healthy.
“Cunt of the month” has a nice ring to it.
Something for the future, but a framed photo in the sidebar for a month might be fun when someone does it.“f.uker of the month”?
Actually laughed at this. It would definitely encourage people to try to get “cunt of the month” status, plus the added bonus of confusing the yanks as to why it’s so coveted 😂
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And just to clarify, there is custom option where people can pay what they want when they want. I’ve updated the post to make this clearer.
We set some fixed options to make it easier for folk in a rush and as a demonstration that we don’t need much to keep the plates spinning.
I’ll set up a regular payment later. I already contribute to my Mastodon instance, it’s the right thing to do. 😊
It’s clear this is the only way to keep the Fediverse going - if you like a service, drop a bit of cash in. After all:
If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.
Luckily, with the load shared across instances, the cost of running the sites means not everyone has to pay.
Thank you and I’m glad this is available now - I’ve set up a recurring payment to help cover costs.
Thanks mate :)
May your next cup of tea be full bodied and refreshing.
Regular subscription set up, thanks!
Brilliant, appreciate the ongoing support!
May your roast potatoes always come out perfect.
Thank you! I might throw in some money now and again :)
Absolutely, there is no obligation of course.
nice! i am now all paid up. feels gooood 🙂
thank you both for your hard work ❤️
and absolutely, don’t feel guilty at all for repaying both of your personal costs from the budget. the point of open collective is so that we can see that you are making payments within reason. in my opinion, that includes compensating yourself for the personal expenses prior to today, so that it retroactively restores the funding back to being equitable
if you could give us a rough idea of what that personal expense was, i’d appreciate that
and absolutely, don’t feel guilty at all for repaying both of your personal costs from the budget. the point of open collective is so that we can see that you are making payments within reason. in my opinion, that includes compensating yourself for the personal expenses prior to today, so that it retroactively restores the funding back to being equitable
Thanks for that. It can feel a little… unBritish to discuss money but it is important.
if you could give us a rough idea of what that personal expense was, i’d appreciate that
Yes indeed, I am drawing up a spreadsheet now. I was going to drop it into the financial update next month but I can drop it in here when it’s ready. As the server was on standby until the move the hosting was less, as you’ll see.
Thank you for the contribution :)
We’ll probably work things out in a few days, I would like to defer estimates to Emperor as they incurred the bulk of it! Probably £100 or so.
Thanks for setting this up, have contributed 🙂
Many thanks! We really appreciate contributions.
A warm fuzzy feeling is now inbound to your current location.
Appreciate all the work you’ve been doing. 🙇
And we appreciate your contributions to the site, both in posts and finance!
May your next bacon sandwich be delicious, and milliband-free.
Contribution set up, many thanks to Emperor, GA, Tom and everyone else involved in keeping this thing going. Pleased to donate!
Excellent idea, but is this the same organisation which Beehaw.org were using as a fiscal host for their instance?
Just that their US branch is closing down later this month.
https://beehaw.org/post/12131033
Hopefully the UK branch is staying in operation.
Thanks, I will look into it but it looks like this is the Open Collective Foundation a US-based fiscal host, not the Open Collective platform.
A fiscal host provides the bank account so none of the Admins actually have the money. It has a lot of advantages, for example, if I was hit by a bus and the money was in my account it would be inaccessible. They charge a percentage of the transaction and it’s surprising they can’t find a way to make it work.
The Open Collective platform presumably has less overheads and relies on people chipping in a bit extra when they donate (or not, it’s optional).
Our fiscal host is the Social Change Nest and is the biggest in the UK. I can ask them about it but it’s a completely different group.
I think your all good as my mastodon admin just explained the same thing, he uses the same service.
Thanks. I am confident that we’re good but I need to speak to them anyway so will just enquire.
Phew. Figured they were unlikely to have taken you on if they were closing, but still.
Well you never know, so organisations keep going right up to their collapse father than shutter things down gracefully. Luckily, I see no why reason Beehaw’s troubles impact us despite using the same platform.
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Well thanks to you and everyone else using the site, if it wasn’t for the interest and enthusiasm we’d have not got things this far. Now securing the financial future of the instance will be a big weight off and we can crack on with the important stuff like slagging off politicians and posting memes.
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request: can we get this open collective page link included in the feddit.uk sidebar?
currently, it says: “Contribution link coming soon to a wallet near you”
Done! Thank you for highlighting this.
Nice one.
£10 for the warchest and £1 a month chipped in for now!
I’ve set up my regular subscription. 👍 This was an important step towards the future sustainability of the platform, so I’m glad to see it happen. Thanks very much, @[email protected] and @[email protected] for your continued dedication.
