An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:
Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto
If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name "Luigi".
Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.
Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can't go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.
Can I donate only to Dessalines and not you? Cause fuck transphobes
Nutomic is transphobe?
I realize that it was a mistake to post that. The transgender topic is much more complex and more controversial than I knew at the time. So I will refrain from commenting on it in the future. In any case I'm happy that there are so many transgender people on Lemmy.
Did you also unban and apologize to the person that posted that?
Also, transgender people are people, not a topic. Imagine describing something as "the black topic".
beaver@lemmy.ca deleted their account so it can't be unbanned but have many, many unbanned alts like sunshine@lemmy.ca who is not banned
I just found out about this and honestly this is a disappointing response. Apparently this happened a while ago from what I gather, but your response right now is to say it is a complex and controversial topic? No one is born knowing, but this is something you as communist should be well informed about. The fact that Hexbear has a ton of transgender users alone should be enough to reevaluate such position. Please go about doing proper research and asking trans people for resources they can provide for debunking your transphobic views. Do not refrain from talking about in the future, you need to genuinely engage in this to be able to change such views. If you're truly willing to learn and change, you need to demonstrate that. I doubt any trans communist, specially on Hexbear, wouldn't be willing to help you come around on your views.
I'm gonna be candid with you this is what your comment reads like (to me):
But not to think it.
The controversy is between the oppressed and oppressors. It's "complex" because you don't stand in solidarity with the oppressed.
But continue to think like that and act accordingly in silent
Since it keeps them out of sports?
Okay the last one was a joke because it feels like such an empty phrase after the non-apology preceding it. I've been putting off reading this for a long time, but will pledge to do so now starting today. Join me.
This response itself belies a chauvanism which is not befitting of a communist. Socialism requires the liberation of all, and queer workers face super-oppression due to their status as being queer or trans.
A solid stance on queer liberation is critical for socialists to have because queer people are one of the many groups in society that due to their super-oppression can act as lightning rods for conflict against the bourgeois state.
I recommend this article on Leslie Feinberg and hir life. It's critical as communists to have the right stance on this much in the same way as supporting AES and National Liberation, and dismissive attitudes such as your initial reaction here betray a chauvanism that other revolutionaries or oppressed people will likely find sickening. I don't say this to demean the possibility of your growth, but instead to say that I want to see your growth on this issue and to take the right stance.
this is a half-assed non-apology and basically a promise not to grow or learn anything about trans people (people, not a "topic"; frankly dehumanising). are you a marxist or not?
Do you also think that eg when corporations celebrate Black History Month that the bourgeoisie is also pro-Black? Capitalism has a vested interest in neutering and subsuming liberation movements so that they cannot pose a threat to capital itself, and also of course, as groups such as LGBTQ+ people become less socially stigmatised, it becomes worth it profit-wise to market towards these demographics specifically as the financial hit from bigots becomes less. We can see this reverse in real time in the US as it becomes more profitable to appeal to social reactionaries, showing that any appeals to "pride" were, as queer people have been saying all along, a marketing campaign and nothing deeper.
I don't think this comment at all suffices. If you're going to be a communist, then you need to put the effort in to engaging with all struggles for emancipation, and that includes trans people's struggles. You shouldn't "refrain from commenting on" liberation struggles; you should be supporting them.
This motherfucker actually fell for rainbow capitalism
First I've heard of it, I'd like to find a source first though
Nutomic has also stated that donations for Lemmy development also go towards server costs for .ml… Yeah, no thanks.
Donations are the Devs income stream, so they are in fact paying for .ml out of their own pocket. "funding development" doesn't actually mean anything beyond "paying the developer's wages" for Lemmy, so once you've paid them you don't get a choice in how they spend their income.
So when are you donating?
Really wish Nutomic would apologize for it, it's depressing.
https://lemmy.ml/post/29579005/18404108
Are we to assume you think this is an apology?
Page not found.
Just scroll down 👇
There is nothing to scroll, it just says
That sounds like a your app problem. Try using a browser.
Not click and scroll, just scroll, the link is to a comment on this page.
not an apology. wish you were still banned.
Can you please just apologize to those who were offended and promise to be more sensitive moving forward? That's the sure-fire way to defuse the allegations accusing you of being a transphobe and put everybody at ease.
Refraining to comment further on the topic is smart until you learn more about the dynamics at hand. Transgender individuals face an unprecedented amount of discrimination and vitriol.
If anything, the bourgeoisie are generally polarizing people against each other, particularly pitting people against others who are different or who are in vulnerable positions.