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

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[–] SkepticElliptic 64 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] Penguincoder 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For only ~~$1/mo~~ $5/vote, I'll give your user the ability to downvote Comments in this thread only. Act now, time is limited!

[–] sarsaparilyptus 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can I pay you in the self-assessed cash value of my foot pic NFTs?

[–] Powderhorn 5 points 1 year ago

It's going to be a long wait before the flood of PM_ME_UR_ profiles covers that.

[–] msprout 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Lionir 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We do have an OpenCollective where you can donate and see our expenses: https://opencollective.com/beehaw

Though please don't donate if you need the money, we're doing fine financially.

[–] SamVimes 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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 10 points 1 year ago

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

Estimated Annual Budget is

All active monthly subscriptions. Multiply by 12.

All active yearly subscriptions.

All one-time subscriptions in the past year.

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 7 points 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 10 points 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.zone 6 points 1 year ago

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