Brendan Jones
I’ve noticed a lot of instances are using #patreon to collect instance fees and donations. Patreon is shareholder owned. When you make payments through Patreon, 7% of your payment goes to Patreon, which ultimately goes to Patreon shareholders.
That’s not a model that suits the #fediverse. Here’s an alternative: use https://opencollective.com/. It’s a co-op, and it only charges 2%, which ultimately gets used to fund new #coops. Now, that’s a more #decentralised, fediverse-style model, isn’t it!
Brendan Jones
Oh hey, it’s even open source, according to https://opencollective.com/how-it-works. Love to see it!
And the pricing is flexible, it seems: https://opencollective.com/pricing
For the record, I have no association with Open Collective, I just like to see co-op services forming to replace capitalist services.
Brendan Jones
https://liberapay.com/ looks to be another good option for taking payments on the fediverse. It's open source and run by a non-profit.
Petra van Cronenburg
@jefklak @Brendanjones they do have the choice between one-time and regular donations: https://docs.opencollective.com/help/product/comparison
Wouter
@Brendanjones I'd love to see them implement one-time donations so I can throw away my Ko-Fi and Paypal links on my site, but unfortunately, it's not supported (yet).
For me personally, recurring donations are a huge (mental) border, and I'm much more likely to donate one-time; even custom (larger than usual) amounts.
clacke
Derick Rethans
@Brendanjones I'm happy that my instance is indeed already using opencollective.
Petra van Cronenburg
@pratik @Brendanjones Look here: https://opencollective.com/mastodon
Pratik Mhatre
@Brendanjones Agree. We use Open Collective for the instance I co-moderate. I wish Mastodon’s own foundation that I contribute monthly to uses something other than Patreon. Open Collective is US-based though.
Brendan Jones
@Pratik true! On joinmastodon.org/sponsors the only options are to pay directly through Stripe, or through Patreon to also get benefits.
@Gargron it’d be great to replace Patreon there with a more Fediverse-aligned service such as comradery.co/.
Petra van Cronenburg
@Brendanjones @pratik @Gargron You have the choice. Many people prefer Patreon and if you need money, you have to give the service to your clients to choose their preferred way.
But Mastodon definitively USES open collective, too! https://opencollective.com/mastodon
Open Collective
@Brendanjones As a matter of fact, we're not a co-op at this point. However, we're currently working toward a similar goal, we name it "Exit to Community" #e2c https://opencollective.com/e2c
Open Collective
@Brendanjones As a platform, we're not charging Collectives and usually rely on voluntary tips ("Platform Tips").
However, most Collectives prefer to use the services of a Fiscal Host (or fiscal sponsor) which can usually charge anywhere from 2% to 10%.
By default, we claim a small portion of that percentage but also have custom relationships with some of the Fiscal Hosts.
Mark W. Alexander
ko-fi claims 0%. @trumpet on mas.to uses it and I'm happy donating through it.
Maybe he'll chime in.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.