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.
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.