Somnius @somnius@merveilles.town

#introductions

Hey there! I'm Somnius, a white tiger living in SF. I code websites, play indie & rhythm games, love all kinds of music, and turned vegan in the middle of this year.

Things I advocate for: furries, non-monogamy, sex positivity, gender identity, LGBT+ rights, democratic socialism.

All of you here inspire me so much with the amazing things you create. I have so much to learn!

#theGalley Not gonna lie, I'm really loving how tasty Chemex pourovers can be!

Welcome to Merveilles, @kyle! :3

Welcome, @dom! :D

Welcome, @hugo :D

Welcome, @james! :D

Total Cost for January: -USD$36.86

January Subtotal: +USD$78.14

Total Remaining funds: +USD$216.40

Still definitely doing well :3

Oh whoops, my mistake! Our S3 costs were $12.86 this past month, let me update the actual cost.

When it comes to blocks like this, please also keep in mind that just because I set them, this is not set in stone. It's a living document. If anyone has a question or sees something that is off, please do let me know about it!

I updated the blocklist, including several new instances, using the blocklist from snouts.online as a reference. Cheers to them, that was super helpful!

I checked every single URL to verify before blocking each domain. Some of them have pretty nasty names and content inside, so if you look yourself, please be aware.

If there are any that I missed, be sure to let me know. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out! #MastoAdmin

https://github.com/merveilles/The-Town/blob/master/docs/DOMAIN_BLOCKS.md

For number 3, I'll keep you all updated on what the schedule for this will be! I'll give at least a week's notice in advance and schedule a specific time to upgrade so that you all are fully aware of when that will happen.

I'm a little worried about what the upgrade process will be like—I have a feeling I'm going to be using a lot of obscure git commands to get that working. If anyone has any upgrade guides, I'd love to see them! #MastoAdmin

Some ideas I'm bouncing around to make this an even cooler space:

1. Create a better way for reccuring payments, such as Patreon, LiberaPay, or Open Collective
2. Have our own Matrix server for decentralized chat
3. Upgrade the instance to 2.7.0 to have the latest features

I'm still thinking about other ways I can better manage the financials for this instance, too. Ideally, I'd love to set up an entirely separate account from my own PayPal/Ko-Fi/Stripe for better transparency and accountability.

I saw some recommendations for managing this more like a co-op, and that's a very interesting idea. I'll keep you all posted! :3

One thing I didn't realize is, while Sparkpost offers a free 15,000 emails for the first month, the following months are limited to 500 sends per month.

If the limit is hit, I'll need to upgrade the Sparkpost subscription (USD$9.00/mo cost, not too bad) but since we have so much left in our funds thanks to some very generous donations, this should definitely be manageable.

Itemized January Costs:

DigitalOcean: -USD$24.00
Amazon S3: -USD$5.48
Sparkpost: USD$0.00 (but approaching limit, may need to upgrade soon)

Left over from last month:
+USD$138.26

Total January Costs:
-USD$29.48

Total January Donations:
+USD$115.00

January Subtotal:
+USD$85.52

Total Remaining Funds:
+USD$223.78

Breakdown in thread!

Hey there all! January is over, so expect a post later today about instance costs & donations. Hope you all are having a fantastic day! :3

And welcome to you too, @focus404! :D

Welcome, @0xdustin! :3