Social.coop Status Check!
What is social.coop? Who are it's members? How do members contribute?
In this thread we will post one question every two weeks that will help us to get to know each other as members, with the objective of using this understanding of each other, our motivations and expectations to launch the next phase of social.coop.
How do you use/participate in social.coop?
poll by emi do Closed Thu 8 Aug 2019 4:03AM
Social.coop is an experiment in user-controlled social media. It is a community hub for people interested in co-ops and development of free/libre social media - these define the common core field of discussion, though they are far from the only things discussed. We currently run and maintain a Mastodon instance that is funded by user contributions via OpenCollective. Social.coop is governed by its users on Loomio, a governance platform developed by a worker co-op. Contributing through OpenCollective is a condition of membership.
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| post and read toots about co-operatives | 16 | 18 | ||||
| connect with other Mastadon instance users | 14 | 16 | ||||
| post and read toots about free/libre software development | 11 | 13 | ||||
| explore solidarity economy & P2P-commons | 11 | 12 | ||||
| Contribute financially to social.coop | 10 | 11 | ||||
| Post and read toots in the Mastodon federated community. | 10 | 11 | ||||
| engage in discussions on loomio | 8 | 9 | ||||
| practice running a democratic organization online | 8 | 9 | ||||
| participate in a working group | 5 | 6 | ||||
| post about daily life and respond to such toots | 4 | 5 | ||||
| participate in reading group discussions | 2 | 2 | ||||
| contribute to git | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Not voted | 77 |
Do you have any role(s) in the co-op movement? (all that apply)
poll by emi do Closed Sun 29 Sep 2019 11:02PM
Our second question in our series to help us to understand who we are at social.coop. What kinds of co-op enthusiasts/practitioners/scholars reside among us?
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Co-op Member | 28 | 21 | ||||
| General Co-op Fan | 27 | 20 | ||||
| Co-op Board Member | 9 | 7 | ||||
| Non-Profit Co-op Developer | 8 | 6 | ||||
| Academic | 7 | 5 | ||||
| Co-op Non-Executive Staff | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Student | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Co-op Union Member | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Co-op Executive Staff | 3 | 2 | ||||
| P2P organiser, no special coop orientation | 3 | 2 | ||||
| For-Profit Co-op Developer | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Lawyer | 1 | 1 | ||||
| P2P Co-op Developer | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Not voted | 71 |
co-op movement activist (federation or council member)
I'm a lot of these at the same time. I included unionized co-op member even though that's still in process, and not yet official.
I'm only a member of consumer coops, really, unless you include social.coop
"I would be a bigger social.coop fan if..." (in 500 characters or less)
opt-in by emi do Closed Sat 26 Oct 2019 1:01AM
What would make social.coop work better for you? Or are you already a social.coop evangelist? Why? (Please write responses as a comment on your 'check')
Results
| Results | Option | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 15 | ||||
| No | 1 | ||||
| Not voted | 83 |
There was more co-op content from co-op practitioners doing awesome co-op stuff around the world!
the co-operative identity and the co-operative spirit of co-operation are stronger. There was more sharing of ideas that can solve current social issues.
Similar to some of the other answers. More co-op, (maybe) less social. Maybe add some co-op specific features, eg voting in social.coop instead here in Loomio. Or features for cooperation between cooperatives. A little bit of that has happened with appeals to help from particular co-ops, but maybe more directly, mediated via social.coop. And ongoing resource sharing and trades between co-ops. I'm not pushing any particular features, and I know it's just work to add anything, but it's possible.
I feel that I don't really know people at S.C. I would appreciate either stream... ways to meet people (who are into cooperatives) and ways to dialogue about cooperatives (with people who are into cooperatives).
If there would be more people asking and sharing advice about coops. Hope this could become a "24/7" stream that any coop person who has an idea, needs help, wants to make an announcement, etc. could jump in quickly and get responses quickly. We are not far from that! Could reach out more to coops and make membership more quick to get (perhaps move to a system where every new member is approved automatically, and removing requires decision, instead of approving requiring decision).
Social.coop seems to have gone to the extreme of not being so democratic after what happened in the summer of 2018, after being extremely democratic before. Needs to get out of its stasis before I can recommend it to people again.
Also the version of Mastodon its running is still too old to support even polls. It needs to be upgraded.
I would be more excited if social.coop offered more of an alternative to the dominant platforms. Could we somehow incorporate "Mobilizons" the forthcoming Framasoft answer to FB events and MeetUp? I would also like to see us experiment with various forms of interaction: online gatherings, workshops, interviews... I think we could also benefit from becoming a formal cooperative with a flat structure, with aspirations to become something like a spokescouncil.
We continue to try to encourage greater participation and engagement of and between the folks of social coop.
Initiatives like this, with a low barrier to participation feel likes good way to begin to increase member participation
Although three generations of my family have been involved in the co-op movement, I don't see social.coop as somewhere only to discuss co-ops but rather as a co-operatively owned and run social network which gives control back to the users. That was certainly the spirit I understood when I joined and I'd like to think we can continue to develop along these lines.
I’d be happy to see social.coop continue to grow and demonstrate the validity of the co-op model in the Fediverse. I’d be super-delighted it we were more diverse and inclusive
I do already love social.coop, but I would be a bigger fan if it were a place to learn about all coop happenings across the world, whether it be platform coop or otherwise. I think there's (understandably) more content/users engaged with the platform coop movement, so it would be great to do some active recruitment in other coop scenes.
I'd like it if we could get our software up to date, and generally up our game on the tech side, e.g. posting automated toots about new Loomio threads - pie in the sky I'd like us to get onto a masto fork with local-only posts. I'm curious about trying to run more group events? Whether it's collaborative on the timeline, in matrix, or a video chat. Either skillshare/learning things or more casual/social things. And I'd like to see us share some of our funds to co-op causes in need.
I would love to see us experimenting with more ways of building out this community -- different kinds of gatherings, events, interactions.
I also dream of a way in which we can build out social.coop to be a true alternative to the dominant corporate social media platforms; something that a mainstream social media user would seriously consider using.
I wish it was easier to invite people. Trying to convince someone to try out this crazy thing called Mastodon but first they have to fill out an application and wait for review seems like a lot
It would be lovely to see another Mastodon version upgrade soon; the latest release is 3.0.1. The version we're running is from 2018.
I'd use social.coop a lot more if I could easily post to social.coop and Twitter simultaneously or choose where to post using a single app.
Sorry, missed the deadline for this poll. Not sure what some of the options presented actually mean, so maybe not such a bad thing.