I want to send my heartfelt thanks @karienbez @alshafei for their wisdom and emotional support during this crazy journey so far, to @codinghorror @biz for your visionary strategic & financial support without which this restructuring would not have been possible, and to the team of Paul Hastings for your pro-bono legal advice.
(9/13)
Post
Thanks @Gargron for allowing us to do this the pure non-profit and FOSS way by saying no to earlier offers, some of which would have given you more than 10x the payout. I have been inspired by your vision about this project from the moment I met you 5+ years ago. It takes a lot of courage and greatness to let this project go. Super excited for continuing to work with you!
(10/13)
But Mastodon wouldn’t be where it is without so many more people than Eugen. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to work with the best team we’ve ever had. Each one of you brings so much value to the Mastodon project and I want to thank you for making our mission your day job while you could certainly earn double or triple at one of our for-profit competitors.
(11/13)
We’re still an absolute skeleton crew of 14 people, competing with teams sometimes 100x as large as ours. To get to our humble team size was only possible through the less than 1% community members who donate to Mastodon, a handful larger donations, & EU grants, all of which we are forever grateful for. We still have a large funding need for 2026, so please consider making a donation before the year-end if you’d like us to continue building and improving Mastodon https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors#donate
(12/13)
@mellifluousbox how about stopping to increase the size of this server ?
but noo it prevent the dream of centralizing mastodon.
DO NOT DONATE TO THEM !! instead donate to the other server that struggle to grow.
@mellifluousbox IIRC instagram was 13 people when facebook bought it so 14 is not skeleton (and they had tens of millions of user)
@mellifluousbox @codeinabox would there be any possibility of tax deductible donations rolling out to other countries?
@mellifluousbox You probably know, but team 100x size is not 100x faster or better, rather a scam of growth for the same VC. Stay small :)
@mellifluousbox Heisser Tipp: schreib das auch auf Deutsch ;)
@mellifluousbox thank you for asking for Donations for Mastodon Development.
@digitalcourage , we have a good deal that I pay €1 per month for your hosting. Does this also include that @digitalcourage pays Mastodon devs?
How much would every user have to pay for hosting and development to make it sustainable?
I would prefer a simple model where I just pay my normal fee to my hoster and the hoster pays forward to the developers / maintainers.
I see the users and servers are currently divided into "you may donate but you can freeride" and "you must pay". I prefer a fair model where all users see the value of mastodon and thus are ok to share the cost and must pay. This distributes the cost amongst all users.
I've tried it several times and gave up everytime. I'd love to have just an IBAN to send money directly.
@mellifluousbox Hi Felix,
I'm hopeful about your/the board's appointment, BUT can we make something akin to a Bill of Rights for Mastodon users, so that we can create a lasting, binding, regularly reviewed structure to make sure that #enshittification doesn't gradually occur?
Having a Mastodon Bill of Rights that is durable and binding would be a GREAT selling point for Mastodon, and would help to cement the core beliefs of a healthy, durable culture for the site.
https://mastodon.social/@KraftTea/115571444527506544
@mellifluousbox what teams do you compete with?
@mellifluousbox One small idea for getting more donations—supporter badges: They reward donors and tell other that they can donate, too.
Another option may be Wikipedia-style donation campaigns for servers.
@mellifluousbox ???
[EDIT: It's working again, just donated!]
@mellifluousbox I never would have guessed to say that I'm happy to be part of the 1% 😉 have been donating €30 / monthly for about 1 year or so, possibly even longer.
Most importantly, thanks to everyone here, to the whole community. I promise to always put the humans here first and to keep this a safe space for you, no matter how you express yourself and where you come from. I will treat my new position with the most respect. Let’s make Mastodon and the Fediverse even more beautiful than it already is <3
(13/13)
@mellifluousbox
Congrats, wishing you the best! ❤
