Yeah, like I said, I understand that they are not the same and that online communities bring up challenges that irl ones don't, but I think we should still try to apply as many of the same principals to online communities as we would to irl ones as possible.
That said, I absolutely recognise that not everyone has the funds or energy to be seen, which is why I want to provide other ways for recognition to happen.
Cool, that's basically the point I was aiming at with far too many words lol and just to reiterate, none of it was criticism or doubt of your admining, just wanting to highlight potential pitfalls.
Re flairs and tags, thanks for clarifying! It's completely understandable that it isn't a top priority, it isn't one for me as a user either, though I do like the idea of a personal strike system for milder offenders before resorting to blocking lol but also to highlight friendlies, since I'm terrible with names 😂I'll have to keep an eye out for interesting extensions..
Well if someone cannot donate and cannot be seen contributing in any way, there’s very few ways to validate they’re a contributing member in the comm
Change online "comm" to real life "community" and that becomes pretty problematic (we should not be relating levels of contribution to levels of rights and power/say).
I'm genuinely not trying to give you a hard time, and I understand that the two are not the same, and that running an online community has its unique challenges (anonymity, trolls, sock accounts, vote manipulation, and on and on), but I also think it's really important to keep the framing of things in mind because it can be so fucking easy to default, even without wanting or meaning to, to the hierarchal constructs we are familiar and surrounded with.
I've never run any community or organisation online or irl, not even modded a community (was only appointed as one on my previous shitjustworks account as a backup), so I don't claim to fully understand the challenges you face in implementing this, or have a magic solution to offer, but I think these points are fundamental and worth highlighting, so I am.
As for the tagging, just to clarify, because I think I misunderstood what a tag or flair is, are they the same? I assumed a flair was the emoji looking things, and those it makes sense that only you can add, in my mind a tag would be like some of the apps have, where you can tag a user as say "troll" rather than blocking, but is that not a thing that is happening here? (sorry, I'm only just waking and baking lol)
Initial plan is that every subscriber should be allowed to vote, but only subscribers who fund a lot can open new votes for mandates.
I feel like this puts the poorest people in the community who may not be able to afford to donate as much or at all at a significant disadvantage and creates an unnecessary hierarchy (as well as, like you say, room for manipulation, someone who can afford to donate more having more power is icky), as do the different tiers for level of donation.
I can understand why you want to limit voting to people who are an active part of the community (though again, there becomes a hierarchy, like what about people who mostly lurk and only comment rarely? Do we start questioning why someone doesn't participate as much as others? Neurodiversity and other health issues can play a huge part, as can poor education and access to information so someone might not feel confident enough to be very active, but are they then lesser members of the community? What about people who don't have regular access to a device or reliable internet?), and I agree that there should be some way to tell who is a member in good faith and who isn't, but I really don't think that basing it on monetary value and stakeholders (which feels far too close in concept to shareholders), or ranking users in general is the way to go.
In any case, I think the fact that you want to make the instance's running more communal is fantastic, and I think the idea itself is good, but parts of it might still need a little more cooking lol
As for the tags, can we as users tag other users? Will they see the tag, or that we tagged them? Will you, as a sysadmin?
It's a nice thought, but sadly we will never get to find out..
It's one of the reasons they maintain a poverty class, and invest in providing free (or heavily subsidised) education, housing, meals, and healthcare for soldiers (not to mention the massive and imperialist propaganda machine) - can't feed the meat grinder if no one is desperate to enlist just to survive.
The sad truth is that the NHS has slowly and steadily been defunded in to uselessness, to justify and enable large chunks of it to be sold off to (mostly) American insurers under the guise of "increasing efficiency" or whatever, in the very deliberate process of tuning our system in to one more like yours.
This means private insurance has become a flourishing business here, but all that does is syphon trained professionals, facilities, and resources from the NHS, and hands them over to those who can pay to skip the queue, and the profits to a bunch of already rich bastards, resulting in staff and bed shortages which lead to months and even years long waiting lists for not only simply seeing a doctor, but also getting treatment, even for time sensitive conditions like cancer.
The same thing is happening in Canada and other places where there is socialised healthcare, because making money is more important to our capitalist, and at best neoliberal, governments and those who fund them, than our lives are.
I saw NHS covers dental and eye exams.
Maybe in the distant past, but definitely not anymore. The rules in other countries in the UK differ, but from a quick look in England eye tests are free only for under 16 (or 18 and in education) or over 60, people on income related benefits, and or have certain conditions or predisposition to them.
Dental is charged in tiers, from £26.80 for simple work to £319.10 for more complex work, however these reset every 2 months, so if you have to go back to complete complex work after longer (which is likely due to lack of availability) you gave to pay again. Kids, pregnant and postnatal people, and or those on income related benefits get treated for free. However there are hardly any NHS dentists left, they've almost all gone private, where they charge much more, and while private clinics are required to provide NHS services, the wait times and availability as I already mentioned, are terrible.
The only way to stop them is to abolish the systems and institutions that enable their existence in the first place, and ~~eating~~ removing them from society (unless they agree to give up their ill gotten power and resources, of course. As if).
Anything else is a distraction created by those maintaining said systems and institutions (which includes the governing bodies of all nation states, as well as organisations like the EU*, as noble as the idea is in theory, and in practice in the minds of those who created it, but it is after all an economic treaty, which is upholding an economy system and the status quo) all to buy themselves more time to pillage, hoard, and manipulate society for their personal gain.
*As a brit I feel compelled to say that I'm pro EU under our current system, since our shitty government(s) must have someone to answer to (because it sure doesn't answer to the people), but I'm fully aware that it is at the end of the day a neoliberal institution that is there to maintain the status quo, not change anything fundamental to better society.
ID: A black and white photo of George Orwell speaking in to an old style BBC table microphone, around his image is his quote: "War is not meant to be won, it is meant to continuous. Hierarchal society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance... The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or east Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."
Fuck this bootlicking noise
I'm expecting the DWP to instantly adopt whatever AI it is that that insurance company that recently lost its CEO uses to deny claims. And all I can do is hope that they, and those enabling them, get a similar response (though who am I kidding, if the general public gave two shits about poor and especially disabled people being deliberately and systemically denied support and left to die, we'd have seen a reaction a decade ago).
whereas lots of European countries have universal healthcare.
Almost none of which include dental care.
They're called luxury bones for a reason..
Good on you!