First up… this is not a call for donations.

Without going into the personal details as to why: I don’t have the energy to give this place the attention it needs, and I’m no longer willing to cover the majority of running costs.

I don’t have a fully fledged solution to this, and don’t have the energy to come up with one. The best I can come up with is I hand the reins over to Nath, and some sort of community funding is set up to cover costs.

If anyone knows of above board methods to establish a crowd funded piggy bank for something like this, I’m all ears.

  • CagedDingo@aussie.zone
    1·
    2 days ago

    I’m happy to cover funds through some kind of https://buymeacoffee.com/ like subscription.

    Also happy to help with administration if you don’t find any takers but I am also generally quite busy with various community groups so I don’t have the most amount of free time to devote to it.

  • Nath@aussie.zone
    631·
    18 days ago

    Hello everyone,

    First up, this site was Lodion’s baby. We are all here because of him. He decided a Lemmy instance for Australians needed to exist, mostly free of the dramas of the wider Internet. He set up the whole show and like the Field of Dreams, we all came. I was just a regular user sign-up. I didn’t know he had set any of this up, I was just a Reddit exile when they brought in their API changes that both killed third-party apps, and essentially began the whole “We’re going to sell all your comments to AI companies”. Lodion and I go way back more than 20 years, and when I spotted he was the admin, I volunteered to help out with running the site.

    It’s you. All of you. You all have made this community what it is. Take you guys away and it’s all just a bunch of files on a disk and an empty database. Together, we have all built the site that I still see as an oasis that connects to the globe, but you can dip in as little or as much as you like. Even in Lemmy space, Aussie.Zone is not a huge instance. We’ve never tried to be. I still don’t especially want us to be. I’d rather grow by 10 regulars per month who are all chill and easy to help out than see an influx of 20,000 people who would cause a whole pile of new problems that we just aren’t equipped to deal with. I’ve been the more visible of the two of us on the site, but in terms of “management”, my load is maybe 15 minutes per day. Which is great! Because I don’t always have much more than that to give on any given day. 90% of the time, I’m just a regular user with that little red “A” next to my name - nothing more.

    Lodion and I have been chatting about him stepping away for a while now. I’m willing to take on the stuff he’s been doing - but he’s been funding the site out of pocket to the tune of around $60ish per month (I haven’t seen the raw finances yet, but the last time Lodion mentioned it, the site was costing something in the ballpark of $100 per month to run) for about a year now - and I am not in a place where I can do that. For what this site is, $100/month is a bargain!

    So, I disagree with Lodion. This is going to end up being a call for donors. We (all of us) are going to need to find that money. I would say that personally, I easily get $5/month value from the site - and there’s 5% all by itself. I believe we can find 20 people who would chip in that much. Frankly, I reckon we could find twice that without getting whiny. Ads are off the table. I hate them. Users hate them. Our users are all smart enough to run adblocks anyway, so I’d only annoy prospective people who aren’t members. I have a couple of ideas for incentives for donors, to hopefully make donating more attractive.

    There are a couple of things I could use a hand with, and I might take a few of you up on these offers to help. Things like monitoring finances and reporting incoming/outgoing costs. The Molly project also needs help as well. Stuff I haven’t really had the chance to prioritise.

    Before Lodion fades away, I would love to see this thread turn into a bit of a love fest. Shit’s real in his world right now - and a bombardment of love from us all, telling him how much of a difference this site makes to us all, and how grateful we are to him for what he built is in order.

    Thank you, mate. I know very well that you don’t personally feel like you have done all that much to make this site what it is - and in some aspects, that is true. But it also wouldn’t be what it is without you. I have laughed, cried, but most importantly, I have found a community here that I love. This instance has been a daily part of my life for over three years now, and perhaps you didn’t make all that - but you made that possible. 100% you. Truly, thank you. ❤️

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
      16·
      17 days ago

      In terms of covering costs, Lemmy.nz has had to do this since earlier this year (we borrowed hosting before this). Making it visible is important, and people will donate if they are aware but as our LemmyNZ census questionaire shows every time, there are a significant chunk of people that don’t even know how to donate!

      I’ve been doing quarterly financial updates to make the costs and donations visible. Each post has led to a string of donations, not only from our users. One update had a $100 shortfall and there were hundreds donated in the following days!

      So I highly recommend doing some sort of regular post so everyone knows where you’re at financially and as a reminder to people who want to donate but forget.

    • spudsrus@aussie.zone
      5·
      16 days ago

      Big thanks Lodion for setting this place up and running it. I understand the mental and financial load it brings. No judgement for stepping away. I hope whatever is going on in your life is made easier by doing so ❤️

      This community is certainly a pleasant corner of the internet which is a true rarity.

      Nath, big thanks too for putting your hand up for running things. If it’s getting too much and you need a break or helping hand don’t keep quiet. Appreciate the way you’ve both done the post.

      I’ve got strong dislike for small monthly payments but if I can do a once off I’ll throw some dollarydoos at it and probably again in a year or two. Please announce when a suitable option is chosen.

    • Ringmasterincestuous@aussie.zoneEnglish
      4·
      16 days ago

      Hey hey, firstly, a huge thanks to you and Lodion for everything you’ve done with Aussie.Zone. I’d really love to see it continue.

      I’m more than happy to chip in financially, but I also have some time and would be keen to offer some practical help.

      I noticed you mentioned needing assistance with the finances and reporting. That’s something I could potentially help with, along with documenting the existing setup and working through what a sustainable operating model might look like.

      I’ve got experience with planning, governance and financial modelling, as well as a fair bit of hands-on experience with self-hosted services and infrastructure. I’m certainly not a Lemmy expert, but I’m comfortable working through the technical side.

      I wouldn’t want to create more work for you, particularly while you’re managing the transition, but if that sounds useful I’d be very happy to help.

      And Lodion, thank you for creating this place. It’s genuinely something special. ❤️

  • imoldgreeeg@aussie.zone
    161·
    18 days ago

    Firstly, massive thank you Lodian. This is such a safe haven on the internet and I have seen it actively help people and been helped by the kind souls here myself. That’s because you gave a shit and built a space. I really appreciate it staying free of ads.

    I don’t always have a ton of time but I do have tech skills to be a backup on bits and pieces and I am happy to offer skills on the tracking/mod/admin/group funding slide of things. Feel free to chuck me a DM Nath and I can see where I can help.

  • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zoneEnglish
    141·
    18 days ago

    Sorry to hear.

    I donate monthly, so will just redirect to whatever format ends up being chosen.

    Currently donate to Lemmy development as well. If money for the instance is a drama, I’ll redirect that too.

    (Somehow I’m in the top 10 on the leaderboard for both, which is actually kinda sad considering the small amount I’m ponying up)

      • MisterFrog@aussie.zone
        5·
        17 days ago

        With the traffic we get, ad revenue probably really wouldn’t make a dent. I think we could very comfortably afford no ads, provided calls for donations go out more regularly so we don’t forget.

          • MisterFrog@aussie.zone
            7·
            17 days ago

            Seems to work just fine for Wikipedia, one of the most used sites on the internet.

            I don’t agree with your gut feeling on this. Even a much much larger instance like .world doesn’t have ads.

            The whole idea of Lemmy is to be unenshittified Reddit. The second we puts ads on here, what even is the point?

            Donations is very sustainable for non-profit driven websites that aren’t too bandwidth or storage heavy, in my view. We just need to prompt users a little more, and create ways to easily have automatic regular transactions.

              • blind3rdeye@aussie.zone
                3·
                17 days ago

                Obviously all those examples are preferable to ads. So I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. They are asking for donations, yes, but they are surviving without having paid promotion of external products, and that’s the point.

      • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zoneEnglish
        3·
        17 days ago

        i have recommended ads on logged out users and no ads for logged in users

        Works for Whingepool!

        I doubt very much that aussie.zone receives enough visitors to make it viable though.

  • Demigodrick@lemmy.zip
    131·
    18 days ago

    Really sorry to hear that, best wishes to you.

    I would suggest opencollective, it’s worked really well for us.

  • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
    111·
    18 days ago

    Lodion, first, thank you. You’ve shown me a genuinely far healthier side of the internet. A side I never knew existed up until just over three years ago. Thanks to you setting up this instance, I’ve learned a lot more than I ever thought I would about the web and social media.

    Secondly, you’ve created a community here, i’ve always thought it’d be good to see you engage more socially, but understood you were very engaged in different ways and perhaps not interested in that side of things anyway, fair enough. But, for my piece at least, I hope you stick around and enjoy more of the social aspect of this community you’ve been so instrumental in creating. :)

    Nath, I hope the transition goes smoothly. I always understood funding was a quiet issue in the background, and I will be there to help with costs. Lets make the funding of this place a sustainable aspect that you don’t have to worry about.

    Any other help I can jump in to aupport you with, you know where to find me. :)

  • YeahToast@aussie.zone
    111·
    18 days ago

    I think I’ve donated once… as enjoyers of FOSS we really should be better at paying for what we previously expected corporations to front the bill for. Thanks for all of your work.

    • blind3rdeye@aussie.zone
      4·
      17 days ago

      I totally agree. Actually I think pretty much everyone agrees. It’s just a bit tricky, because it is not what most people are use to in their daily lives.

      I mean, in most cases people seek out the highest quality products at the lowest prices. Lower cost is basically always what people aim for, as long as the quality is high enough. But with FOSS and other free services, you get the product for free… so that’s a win right? Zero cost. What are you paying for? It needs a totally different mindset. We need to think of ourselves as part of a community working together and sharing resources - not a bunch of independent people only making trades for our own self-interest. For that, I think transparency about what funding is needed and where it is going is very helpful.

  • MisterFrog@aussie.zone
    101·
    18 days ago

    @lodion@aussie.zone mate, this community has been a godsend for me. Thank you so much for setting it up and keeping it running while you had the space for it in your life.

    It’s been such a joy to feel like I have an extra set of friends to shoot this shit with online, make jokes, make political arguments, nerd out with and generally have a gab.

    Wishing you all the best mate, and thanks again.

  • Briongloid@aussie.zone
    101·
    18 days ago

    Let us know about recurring donations, if we can see funding goals easily, we can decide how much we’d like to contribute to make sure running costs are met.

  • Soirhyle@aussie.zoneEnglish
    81·
    18 days ago

    Thank you so much for hosting this lovely place. It has been a peaceful place from all the louder places of the web and it still is.

  • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
    81·
    18 days ago

    @shlee@aus.social has been experimenting with a funding union, we could hook into that as the primary funding source. I’m not sure how developed it is.

    Shlee seems to have some experience with community funding, the link below is from a week ago at the GenerOZity raffle at PAXAUS 26.

    My GenerOZity Charity x PAXAus 26 outro. We raised for numerous charities over the weekend…. With $64k ish for Beyond Blue.

    Posters Union is the funding organisation shlee has been setting up to help cover server costs.

    We could talk more to shlee about the concept and join in, or use the example as inspiration.

    • blind3rdeye@aussie.zone
      3·
      17 days ago

      Yeah. Shlee is a bit of an expert on fundraising for community projects. He has taken on the funding and maintenance of a few smaller mastodon servers after their original admins were no longer able; and he is the chief fundraising guy for pixelfed, the fediverse alternative to instagram. I’m on aus.social, and I’ve donated to the Posters Union a couple of times. (Although I think it might be renaming to Posters Guild, due to some minor legal pushback when registering it as an official charity or something.) And as you (Gorgritch) point out, he is a real-life person who also does various charity fundraising in the physical world amongst real people outside of the internet.

      So yeah, probably it would be worth contacting him for ideas and suggestions.