A few quick notes on discussions the administrator team has had, since we’ve fielded a lot of questions in these particular fields. We’re posting this both for transparency and to help us limit the load of having to respond to each of you individually.

  • We would like to become an official nonprofit at some point, but there is a cost associated with this, we are not lawyers, and we might need to change where/how we collect donations to do so.
  • We’ve upgraded the server approximately 7 times now. We’re trying to balance fiscal responsibility with server costs. We are aware that digital ocean isn’t the cheapest server and we are trying to be conservative with estimates and give ourselves extra runtime at whatever tier we are on. We’re also hoping that the upcoming lemmy version will solve a lot of our CPU-bound issues.

We are aware of the following bugs:

  • the “report created” indicator flashes in the bottom left corner for some users randomly, even non-moderator users
  • sometimes, briefly or without a refresh, the username in the top corner will not be your own; as far as we can tell this is purely cosmetic and is not a security issue
  • sometimes the post you’re in changes to another post for no clear reason
  • SkepticElliptic@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I know most users here are against monetization, but I think that a simple Shopify storefront with behaw merch would go a long way to help entice more people to make a monitory donation. I would love a beehaw mug, stickers, and maybe even a shirt or a hat.

    • sarsaparilyptus@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Good monetization: giving people tote bags, pens, t-shirts, stickers, coffee mugs, or window clings “in exchange for a donation” like PBS does.
      Bad monetization: selling the ability to downvote posts, selling avatars, selling the ability to have your post stickied, and all the other ways shitty forums sell prestige

    • mitch@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I also really do not mind donating via Patreon or Ko-Fi or GoobGab or DinkleCoin or ScrungePay or whatever the hell people use that’s ethical now.

        • Sam Vimes@beehaw.orgEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          The approximate yearly budget and estimated annual budget are quite different, what are those two numbers representing? Unrelated: I really appreciate what you’re making happen here, and I really look forward to being a part of it.

          • Lionir [he/him]@beehaw.orgMEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Good question! I don’t quite know but here’s what I think.

            Estimated Annual Budget is

            1. All active monthly subscriptions. Multiply by 12.
            2. All active yearly subscriptions.
            3. All one-time subscriptions in the past year.
            4. All inactive monthly subscriptions that have contributed in the past year. https://docs.opencollective.com/help/collectives/budget#budget-calculations

            Approximate yearly budget is what they we’ll spend for the year based on past transactions and trends? Note that this month will definitely be quite a bit more expensive than all previous ones (Probably something like ~500$) so this approximation is most definitely wrong.

          • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgMEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            The approximate yearly budget and estimated annual budget are quite different, what are those two numbers representing?

            estimated annual we have no control over, i’d note in addition to the other reply, whereas i update approximate yearly with our hosting costs per month x12. we’ve had to upgrade a bunch this month so it’s a “best estimate of what our expenses would normally be” right now, though (and i just updated it to reflect more accurately where we’ll probably be when not needing to accommodate the big reddit surge)

    • ryanlovescooljeans@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I really like this idea, and I could even something that artists do on SoundCloud where an album costs $5 minimum but you can write in your own price above and beyond that initial $5.

      I’d happily pick up a sticker and tack on a donation.

    • Briongloid@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Merch is a great way to fund, paying a designer to create some graphics could be cost-efficient.

  • wildeaboutoskar@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Thanks for what you’re doing, we appreciate it.

    Incidentally, do you know why I would get a ‘language not allowed’ error when replying to a post that has no swearing/nsfw language?

    I’m thinking it must be an error because there wasn’t anything remotely offensive in there.

    Couldn’t see how to message a mod so apologies

    • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      There’s a select language button on the post. It’s still buggy but it allows you to filter out posts that are in other languages. Sometimes it’ll default to undefined or not let you post because it’s not selected

  • beeboopbeep@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I mean I have a 10gbps home connection with 1gbps backup and a server rack! No but really, I came from enterprise architecture and built some massive global pubsub networks (on the tune of 900m users/devices). Be happy to give a hand on the infra side if needed!

    • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      if you’d like to chip in please join the discord or matrix- as a general statement we are not looking to have people self host beehaw for us at this point in time

  • sky@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Thank you for all the tireless work. I can’t even imagine how slammed all of you must be right now.

  • EthicalAI@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    So if we are a non profit coop, can we get paid for code contributions and moderation via the donation pool?

  • Puttybrain@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Not to throw an unwanted suggestion but would an OVHCloud eco server work for this?

    I’m not an expert in any way but I’ve had no issues with my instance and it was a lot cheaper than anything else I could find.

  • LemmyAtem@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I set up a recurring donation today, it’s small but I hope it helps. I’m so glad I found this place, thanks for having me. You guys are amazing, the world is better for having people like you in it!