By the way, I'm now actively blocking anyone coming here to argue about the merits of donating to the NON-PROFIT that builds Mastodon.

It's absolute dirtbag behaviour when Mastodon struggles so much under a #TwitterMigration of millions of users.

Now lets put things into perspective. Last month, Twitter was employing 6,500 people. Mastodon employs 1 person who's working 14 hour days -- and only compensates himself €36,000 a year.

How is one guy supposed to take build the app that replaces Twitter when Twitter pays hundreds of engineers well over $100,000 to do a fraction of the work?

Yeah, other people deserve donations too -- so donate! Be a hero to the person who's running your instance, as well as the person who builds whatever app your instance is running.

And lest you think that I don't bang the drums on donations for other devs, this is not the case.

Last week, I told everyone to donate to @dansup. A couple of days ago, I told everyone to donate to @Are0h who, by the way, is making another app that builds safety features for marginalized communities. And I'm banging the drum all the time on @[email protected] and his work with Calckey.

But right now, I'm urging people to help out with Mastodon!

So if you have it in your heart to donate to a very good cause -- the continued development and existence of Mastodon -- contribute to Mastodon's Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/mastodon
By the way, everyone who donates to @Gargron @Are0h @dansup and @[email protected], you're all superheroes!

I'm patting you on the back!
@atomicpoet I didn't realize Mastodon itself had a patreon! Thanks for sharing! I'll go ahead and donate and boost!

Chris please don't block me. I've only been on  for two days and had been thinking about donating. The only thing holding me back is the issue of transparency. Transparency about what the money is used for, who gets paid, how much, and who doesn't. This seems in keeping with the spirit of  and would really set it apart from competing platforms with their billionaire owners and opaque accounting.

What do you think?

@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h

While transparency is important, what's equally important is track record. @Gargron has consistently built Mastodon since 2016, released as an open source project compatible with the AGPL.

Further, Mastodon is a registered non-profit. If you want to delve deeper, you can look through their website for info.
@atomicpoet @Gargron @sheardyweirdy FOund it - visit https://joinmastodon.org/about and open the PDF file in the Reports section. The accounting is there.
@gunchleoc @atomicpoet @Gargron @sheardyweirdy it breaks finances out into 2 sections, personal and servers. Not really a full accounting.
@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h
People complaining. . . Doesn't surprise me. Been out looking for funds too, and Mastodon is top on the list to share with.
@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h just became a patreon due to this post 👏
@atomicpoet I've donated to the Mastodon Patreon. How do I go about donating to my particular instance?
@msatoz Contact your instance admin.

@msatoz On most instances, if you go to the page of your instance (mastodon.social in your case), you can find a funding/donations section with info on how to support.

But mastodon.social is the instance run by the masto-devs themselves so supporting their patreon already supports rhat instance. This is also all listed on the patreon page. 😉

@Glatorius Yes, thank you! I was considering moving to another instance, since @mastodon.social has become rather crowded; I joined a few months ago but haven't been particularly active, and I don't feel attached to this instance. It's supposed to help if we disperse, and I'm sure there's probably a Canadian instance by now...
@Glatorius How many times can you say "instance" in one paragraph? 😂🤣
@msatoz Yeah, being clear iwas more important than writing pretty there. 😌

@msatoz I think so too, that there are canadian instances now. Check https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/map , it's a handy page where you can list servers by stats or location.

It seems like there are 8 canadian instances. 😉

@msatoz @atomicpoet you are on a instance hosted by the developer of mastodon himself. So by donating to the project, you've also donated to your server

@atomicpoet “Mastodon employs 1 person who's working 14 hour days”

Thats because eugen fired all the previous moderators that he underpaid. Some who were awfully treated by him. The new report system for instance admins are absolutely god awful and its designed by eugen. He intentionally exclude important features like unlisted posting on the official app. I will never donate to him.

@foervraengd @atomicpoet maybe this whole #social thing would be better if we just all met at the local bar/café down the road 🙃 what is going on ?? #Mastodon #newhere and not ready for all this drama
@Koritsi if you are super new here, follow and listen to what your own instance admin has to say first and foremost.
@Koritsi @foervraengd @atomicpoet you joined a tumultuous migration, I would've fully expected drama.
@foervraengd @atomicpoet could you link some sources for that? have not followed mastodon internals in the past...
@velonous There is a thread from someone who used to work for eugen, but the trauma they associate with him is really bad so i wanna ask them first if its ok for me to share it.
maloki, writes things (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image · Content warning: Mastodon meta / lightly touching my own experiences. (trauma)

Write Out
@atomicpoet You're doing good work here, let people be mad. I had no idea about Mastodon's funding structure until I found your posts so that's one new Patron you got 'em (and I'll see about tipping my instance's admin too when my next paycheque comes through).

@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h The app works the same way for one user or one thousand. You're sponsoring him to add features, not cope with new users.

Mastodon copes with new users by starting new servers / instances / websites. (To generalise massively.)

Donate to whoever you want. But.

@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h It's his decision to work 14 hours a day. He doesn't need to.

@atomicpoet
This sounds very reasonable- question: is this Patreon thingy for Mastadon in general or a specific instance?

@dansup @Are0h @sgtnasty

@renordquist @atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h not an official answer, but I believe this is for the development and hosting on mastodon.social - each instance will need support to pay for server maintenance costs
@sgtnasty @atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h
Thanks, I see similar answers now that I either missed before or that have come up since then- clearly sitll learning the ropes here!
@atomicpoet I guess I also owe you a small apology after reading this  

I did not see your other posts for the other projects as well. So I am sorry for that. Also it seems like masto got a boost on patreon. Though I still think masto is likely doing fine by itself.
@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h thanks for the explanation....didn't realize it was literally 1 guy! Fair play to him! I'll figure out how to donate to my instance for sure!
@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h @SteveGarfield Agreed. I set up our patreon to help. This place is not ad supported and from what I can tell is not making money off our data like Twitter was. Even so, all your reasons are spot on - support the place we ran to.
@atomicpoet @dansup @[email protected] Thank you for clarifying an important point for me. I donated to the entity running my SERVER but it hadn't occurred to me to actually donate to the people building Mastodon. They are two different entities.
@atomicpoet @dansup @Are0h
I support that policy. Anyone who doesn’t think volunteers should be supported are def dirtbags and not worth your / our attention. 👍🏻