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1. Embed this notice
   Kevin Beaumont (gossithedog@cyberplace.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:02:11 JST Kevin Beaumont

   • Eugen Rochko

   Huge kudos to @Gargron and friends here:

   "Simply, we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components (including name and copyrights, among other assets) to a new non-profit organization, affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."

   https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/

   People love to shit on Eugen, but he coulda sold this place to VCs many times over. He hasn't. He's took a financial hit working on here, for sure.

   • Embed this notice
     Kevin Beaumont (gossithedog@cyberplace.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:08:34 JST Kevin Beaumont

     in reply to

     Mastodon is one of the only orgs I know where every full time staff member (only 3 for 2024) earns more than the CEO.

     https://joinmastodon.org/reports/Mastodon%20Annual%20Report%202023.pdf

   • Embed this notice
     Kevin Beaumont (gossithedog@cyberplace.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:14:39 JST Kevin Beaumont

     in reply to

     People often ask me how they can donate to the cyberplace.social server. They can't, I can afford it.

     Please donate to Mastodon centrally instead if we can afford it - the donor base is down about 30% year-on-year https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors

   • Embed this notice
     Rocketman (slothrop@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:19:44 JST Rocketman

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Daniel Marks

     @profdc9 @GossiTheDog @Gargron Sure. But context matters.

     OpenAI is backed by venture capital to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The "nonprofit" label was always a deception.*

     *) except for the fact that OpenAI is very far from being profitabel, natch.

   • Embed this notice
     Daniel Marks (profdc9@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:19:45 JST Daniel Marks

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko

     @GossiTheDog @Gargron The devil is in the details here. OpenAI is a nonprofit as well. Non profit is a tax designation. The corporate charter determines how the nonprofit is run, for the public benefit or the directors' benefit.

   • Embed this notice
     Rocketman (slothrop@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:22:36 JST Rocketman

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko

     @GossiTheDog Yes, much respect to @Gargron here. It takes a special sort of person to found and build something, and then, at a certain point, step back and hand it over to others. Many founders never manage this, and certainly not gracefully.*

     I'm also not jealous at all of Eugen's task of sorting through non-profit rules in different EU countries. I've done that before. It wasn't fun.

     *) not thinking of anyone in particular here, no, not at all

   • Embed this notice
     Rocketman (slothrop@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:24:22 JST Rocketman

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Daniel Marks

     @profdc9 @GossiTheDog @Gargron In other words: If I had a valuable community project, and wanted to ensure that it remains independent and well-governed in the long term, then I would do it in exactly the same way.

   • Embed this notice
     Daniel Marks (profdc9@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:30:38 JST Daniel Marks

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Rocketman

     @slothrop @GossiTheDog @Gargron A non profit corporation is a legal entity and is not governed by sentiment. It is governed by its charter and applicable law. I want Mastodon to succeed but I know that non profit status is not some magic bullet that confers perpetual altruism on its governance. There are tons of nonprofits abused to serve the interests of directors and particular donors. Hopefully Mastodon does not become one of these.

     Rocketman repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Rocketman (slothrop@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:30:38 JST Rocketman

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Daniel Marks

     @profdc9 @GossiTheDog @Gargron Absolutely.

     A nonprofit org with a well-designed constitution and governance structure is just the start. You also need a community and a set of practices that fill it all with life.

     But the foundational structure needs to come first.

   • Embed this notice
     FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 22:43:35 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Rocketman
     • Daniel Marks

     @profdc9 @slothrop @GossiTheDog @Gargron
     I hear you & agree in general. I think context is important, though, & I think the really relevant context here isn't OpenAI - it's #Automattic & the #WordPress Foundation.

     So, yes, devil will be in the details - but I expect those details to be informed by the actions of a particular devil. Naturally we will have to see how it's all written out.

   • Embed this notice
     Kevin Beaumont (gossithedog@cyberplace.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:22:39 JST Kevin Beaumont

     in reply to

     • Michael Harrison

     @iguanaguy I don't know, it's the internet?

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Harrison (iguanaguy@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:22:40 JST Michael Harrison

     in reply to

     @GossiTheDog Trying out Mastodon again and since the feed showed your post as the first one I saw I thought I'd ask you...
     Why do people love to shit on Eugen?