@eveiswurzig@strangeobject.space @tchambers @evan
let me be blunt: am never volunteering to FLOSS again after seeing cliques of developers walk away with millions while the rest of us got jack shit.
FLOSS IS UNPAID LABOR that usually benefits the OG coders and the rich patrons funding it. development is almost always geared to satisfy the needs of the biggest sponsors.
the legal & predatory landscape has changed dramatically since i went live with my first site in 1998
sites are now businesses. period.
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@eveiswurzig@strangeobject.space @tchambers @evan
it's the #1 reason why i've been hesitant about running an instance. I'VE DONE IT BEFORE. i ran my own identi.ca instance back in 2008. i made money as a blogger. i had my own community site.
and it bankrupted me.
and it almost broke me.
#1 thing i wished i had done differently? not incorporate but create a COOP. to actually include writers & users into the biz structure so the community persists in spite of me.
public goods need to be cooperative
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@eveiswurzig@strangeobject.space @tchambers @evan
ps: am going to get a lot of shit for saying this, but fuckit:
mastodon cannot become the next drupal. it just cannot.
if you want to be true to the fediverse; then you need to make ALL LABOR, not just coding, as consequential to the project.
FLOSS is more than software. it's community; but
volunteer labor outside of coding cores is often treated as inconsequential.
don't be like that
reject digital sharecropping
embrace the cooperative model
@blogdiva @eveiswurzig@strangeobject.space @tchambers @evan Hell yeah. I really believe we have this incredible chance to build something genuinely new here, and it can have implications for doing collective things beyond software.
@misc @blogdiva @eveiswurzig @tchambers @evan
I really appreciate the hard work my instance (Hachyderm) has done to figure out how to make a coop model work. The transparency and community orientation has been exemplary.
At the same time, it’s a cautionary tale: our founder quit the entire fediverse after a harassment campaign targeted her (unjustified imo) in retaliation for a moderation error. The demands placed on individuals in volunteer-based systems can so easily become untenable.
@inthehands @blogdiva @eveiswurzig@strangeobject.space @tchambers @evan Absolutely. And FWIW I don’t think it’s just about co-ops. Very familiar with their limitations - still sore a couple decades after I was pretty cruelly and unfairly kicked out of one during a depression crisis - but I digress.
What excites me even more is finding ways for non-coders to contribute to the design, features, and roadmap. Including, hopefully, a teaching component.
@misc @blogdiva @eveiswurzig @tchambers @evan
100%. I am very interested in any and all models for success that bring an ever wider circle of people into community structures where they find genuine support, in tech and in general.