4 ms·

If: 1 - Cooperatives excite you and 2 - You use social media you might want to look at the social.coop Mastodon instance (or cosocial.ca if you're Canadian).

If: 1 - Cooperatives excite you and 2 - You use social media you might want to look at the social.coop Mastodon instance (or cosocial.ca if you're Canadian). Not only has the community on both those sites been a breath of total fresh air for me, I am not worried about the server I'm on having decide between disappearing and selling ads, and I feel like I'm partaking in a social enterprise. Just recently social.coop had an open vote on how to donate some of our surplus to the open software we use and organizations that promote cooperation. It's been so nice to see and be apart of.

fragmede 2y ago
That's neat! How is it funded?
- SamWhited 2y ago
  By the members; we all pay a tiny bit into the co-op each month. Most people pay 1 USD or GBP per month, if you use some of the other services we offer through organizational memberships in other co-ops (ie. we're a member of meet.coop for video calls, May First Co-op for Nextcloud and email and what not, etc.) then some people pay a bit more (normally no more than 3 to 5 USD or GBP).
rglullis 2y ago
Beware of social washing to justify higher costs. cosocial.ca charges CA$50 for its annual membership. Omg.lol charges $20/year for Mastodon and a bunch of services and for $29/year, I can offer Mastodon, Lemmy, Matrix and Funkwhale, with 250GB of storage.
- jszymborski 2y ago
  It's not "social washing" if it's actually a working co-operative. We all collectively own the funds, and if we ever want to lower yearly rates or pay our members dividends from surpluses, members are free to put it to a vote. Part of the reason we run a surplus is to deal with any unexpected costs (they don't just scale with users, but also the popularity of users on our server), but FWIW I think we should open up a pay-what-you-can tier much like social.coop has. Thanks for reminding me, I'll send it to the coop for consideration.
  - rglullis 2y ago
    What would be the point of "paying dividends from surpluses", if the funds are getting in and out of the same (collective) pockets? And if "everyone" owns the coop, then why do you need to get the surplus in the first place? Seems to be it would be just fine to say "Every month we run a report of the total expenses, and every member pays an equal share".
    - eszed 2y ago
      It's easier (both psychologically and financially) for users to budget for $x per period - with an explicit or implied promise that it won't ever be more than that - and it's easier for the org to plan for y users at $x, than it would be for either to adjust to paying / chasing $z period. It's a fairly common pricing strategy, which offers stability to both clients and organizations surviving on shoestring budgets and good-will.
      - rglullis 2y ago
        If you want to be protected against unexpected costs, you buy insurance, you don't overpay "just in case". All I am saying is that the coop (at least cosocial.ca) is not more capital and resource efficient than any good old service provider. We are talking here at a 250% price difference for less functionality. How would you justify that for orgs on a shoestring?
        bagful 2y ago
        What is insurance if not “overpay[ing] ‘just in case’”? What does paying a middleman benefit you in this situation?
        rglullis 2y ago
        What I am saying is that part of entering a contract with a service provider is insurance, e.g, SLA. The middleman (in the case, the business providing hosting services) also has a vested interest in pricing risk properly and in reducing the costs of accidents.

fragmede 2y ago

That's neat! How is it funded?

SamWhited 2y ago
By the members; we all pay a tiny bit into the co-op each month. Most people pay 1 USD or GBP per month, if you use some of the other services we offer through organizational memberships in other co-ops (ie. we're a member of meet.coop for video calls, May First Co-op for Nextcloud and email and what not, etc.) then some people pay a bit more (normally no more than 3 to 5 USD or GBP).

rglullis 2y ago

Beware of social washing to justify higher costs. cosocial.ca charges CA$50 for its annual membership. Omg.lol charges $20/year for Mastodon and a bunch of services and for $29/year, I can offer Mastodon, Lemmy, Matrix and Funkwhale, with 250GB of storage.

jszymborski 2y ago
It's not "social washing" if it's actually a working co-operative. We all collectively own the funds, and if we ever want to lower yearly rates or pay our members dividends from surpluses, members are free to put it to a vote. Part of the reason we run a surplus is to deal with any unexpected costs (they don't just scale with users, but also the popularity of users on our server), but FWIW I think we should open up a pay-what-you-can tier much like social.coop has. Thanks for reminding me, I'll send it to the coop for consideration.
- rglullis 2y ago
  What would be the point of "paying dividends from surpluses", if the funds are getting in and out of the same (collective) pockets? And if "everyone" owns the coop, then why do you need to get the surplus in the first place? Seems to be it would be just fine to say "Every month we run a report of the total expenses, and every member pays an equal share".
  - eszed 2y ago
    It's easier (both psychologically and financially) for users to budget for $x per period - with an explicit or implied promise that it won't ever be more than that - and it's easier for the org to plan for y users at $x, than it would be for either to adjust to paying / chasing $z period. It's a fairly common pricing strategy, which offers stability to both clients and organizations surviving on shoestring budgets and good-will.
    - rglullis 2y ago
      If you want to be protected against unexpected costs, you buy insurance, you don't overpay "just in case". All I am saying is that the coop (at least cosocial.ca) is not more capital and resource efficient than any good old service provider. We are talking here at a 250% price difference for less functionality. How would you justify that for orgs on a shoestring?
      - bagful 2y ago
        What is insurance if not “overpay[ing] ‘just in case’”? What does paying a middleman benefit you in this situation?
        rglullis 2y ago
        What I am saying is that part of entering a contract with a service provider is insurance, e.g, SLA. The middleman (in the case, the business providing hosting services) also has a vested interest in pricing risk properly and in reducing the costs of accidents.