Mastodon/Finances
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For the moment, until we decide on a different model, neuromatch bears the costs of the instance. Though we trust neuromatch to not abuse that power, one question we should answer as a community is whether we want to move to a fully cooperative model where the members of the instance support its costs so it is truly member-owned and operated. That would likely look like some sliding scale model where members are encouraged to pay what they can, a rough guideline based on nothing but vibes might be: - $0/mo for students/people making <$50k annually - $1/mo for postdocs/people making <$75k annually - $5/mo for PIs/people making >$75k annually though this would be something we would determine based on how many members we have and how much the instance costs to run. If we were to do this, then we would use opencollective to make our finances transparent.
We could also do a hybrid model where neuromatch kicks in some defined contribution and the members donate the rest, or if we establish a financial working group we could collectively apply for grants with neuromatch as a fiscal sponsor.
Another benefit is that by having some financial surplus we would be able to pay stipends to people who volunteer for mod duty/being on call for tech emergencies.
In the meantime though, mostly so the <#1049184335514828860> knows what it's working with: what kind of costs is neuromatch willing to bear? eg. upgrading to a 16GB ram node with 8 dedicated CPUs would be $120/month but would probably be as much scale as we need for the indefinite future. Currently we are going to upgrade to an 8GB ram node at $60/month, which is already $720 annually (just for the instance, we are also running another node that will host the wiki and loomio) <@215274946560131074> Mastodon/Finances