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.
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.
I would put in another caveat though, that only users from this instance can vote for rule changes.
Of course next up I’ll poll for creating a senate and then poll them to elect me Supreme Chancellor. /s
Hold up, HOLD UP. Do you love democracy?
r/prequelmemes has infected my brain.
I feel dirty.
Damn we gotta get a prequel memes community set up over here if there isn’t one already!
Thats sm i have been wondering. I was planning to make my own instance to make sure my account can exist independently and also not to burden other instances. But i don’t have the resources or time to maintain it beyond myself and maybe close relatives/friends.
I hope to become an active memeber in at least some communities without making an account on their instance. Should i not get a vote?
You may joke, but that can be a problem with approaches like this. I like the idea in general, but it relies on a community that is reasonable and forward thinking.
There should be some council or something which also mitigates the worst impulses of the community. They would provide some general direction.
There should be some council or something which also mitigates the worst impulses of the community. They would provide some general direction.
Wouldn’t this just be the admins of the instance?
Yes, that’s pretty much what I’m thinking. It may be what was intended and I didn’t understand it? I just think it would be bad to just hand over all decision making to the mob…
Yeah, that’s what Rome thought about the senate, what Britain thought about the House of Lords, and what the US thought about its Senate.
“Sober house of second thought.”
Fortunately in this case none of the members will be incredibly wealthy and it’s not a country, so you’re probably right.
But will Wyoming will have the same amount of representation as California in this upper chamber? Blast!
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.
Well put
Just cut your friggin grass already.
I’ve seen that abbreviation around, - HOA. What does it mean? House Of Assholes? Hands Off Anarchy? Please advise
Home owners association.
Thanks, makes sense!
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
and we don’t want bots pushing someones agenda
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.
It’s a really nice change of pace. Reddit can be such an unpleasant place outside of posts about cats or food or whatever. Silly stuff like that.
Until first of July 🙂😁
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.
I signed up like 39 seconds ago and this is the 2nd post I read and first comment I am making (in other i have no idea what I am doing here) but I tend to agree with this. On this type of platform I feel like this could easily result in policy being driven by a loud minority and not actually reflective of the community desires.
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.)
The dude abides. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that
Sometimes there is a man… Sometimes…
Agora (ἀγορά) is a great name for a community! I’m looking forward to seeing the posts in it.
I do have a question about the donations. Some projects/sites have a donation “goal” to keep a project going for a certain amount of time. Will you be doing something similar? Along the lines of a goal of X amount of $CAD to maintain the instance’s running costs for one year.
Yes this is a great idea. I will definitely be doing this.
This is a great step towards a sustainable future for the instance, amazing work.
That’s a phenomenal idea. We won’t let you down.
Interested to see how agora works out this is good stuff!
I haven’t been across a lot of the discussions, but if this continues to grow and donations increase, have there been talk of founding a non-profit?
I think the biggest reason in favour of doing so would be that this would provide oversight and accountability for donations. I for one don’t feel entirely comfortable donating when I don’t know how the funds will be used.
Another potential reason would be to have multiple levels of democratized power. For instance, guests of the Agora might have no decision-making power, users some decision-making power, and members (having paid a one-time membership fee) some more decision-making power. Of course, that kind of structure assumes a decently large scale of organization.
If it comes to incorporating as a not-for-profit, I’ve got some experience with not-for-profits, and would be open to helping incorporate.
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.
If you haven’t heard of it before, you should definitely check out backed.by. It’s a web 3 version of Patreon that’s privacy focused and has lower fees. The more we pull away from web 2 platforms like reddit and Patreon, the weaker that ecosystem will get
I agree with the spirit of this 100% and will support any way I can. I only hope the implementation is free of trolls, bots, and other bad actors.
This is a beautiful idea. I continue to be impressed with how you’re handling this place.
