Sources of Revenue
Thomas Beckett PublicSeen by 6How does this effort pay for itself?
Such small payments are going to be a problem with any paypal-based system. Gratipay accumulates them before processing. Glad you're talking with Seedbloom, that could be great if it works.
Nice thing about opencollective, two, is that the use of funds is transparent as well. Also, it handles incorporation for you. So it may be worth the cost.
I also think we could charge more. $1/month, plus the option for redeemable investment shares.
@ntnsndr after a bit more reading on open-collective, it's something that we could start by using their hosted service until we reach a scale where we need to internalize that function, at which point we could host our own opencollective instance connected to whatever legal entity we come up with in the long term. I'm liking that possibility...
To pricing, yes, I think we need to align pricing to the business plan that comes out of this work, so we need to get a sense of the contours of the supply capacity and demand level of the "co-op nerd" market. ;) I do like the idea of sliding scale based on self-reported income, so as to not exclude the participation of cooperators in the Global South/marginalized community.
I like the sliding scale too.
I think US$1.00/mo is too low for most USAns and many Europeans, but agree with the sliding scale concept. I have no problem with ten cents a month in appropriate circumstances.
Handling micro-payments is always issue (unless we go a cryptocurrency route) so paying for membership per-year would make sense
I know Gratipay handles small payments by delaying them until they reach a certain level. Not sure if OpenCollective does that.
Shall we start setting up an OpenCollective instance to test? I'd be happy to do that if y'all like.
And another question: Can members create more than one account?
@ntnsndr that would be great if you set up an OpenCollective instance. I feel like we should aim to get a call together once it is set up to discuss it and the initial operational model.
Okay, just set it up! https://opencollective.com/socialcoop
Hello all. Thats my first message.
Reading about the legal and payments needs and suggestions I suggest to try also with Freedomcoop.eu Which can cover the legal part and can offer the Open collaborative platform (OCP) for the management of the money received and value distribution.
And of course I think that Faircoin is a good way to go for the microtransactions which are planned. Everyone could get an online wallet for free using fairpay (launch next tuesday). Since june fairpay will be integrated in bankofthecommons.coop and more facilities for the banking needs of platform coops will be added progressively.
Thanks, Enric! We'll definitely consider this.
Okay, OpenCollective is now set up. I just contributed a $50 donation, along with a $5 monthly contribution.
Preliminary text for contributions
proposal by Nathan Schneider Closed Wed 3 May 2017 8:04PM
Based on this discussion, I've just updated the OpenCollective text as follows: "To become an account-holding member, fill out this form and contribute at least $1 per month as a backer. We recommend contributing what you can on a sliding scale between $1 and $10 per month, though in cases of need or lack, we'll welcome you for less as well."
On the OpenCollective.com/socialcoop page, I've posted the following text:
"To become an account-holding member, contribute at least $1 per month. We recommend contributing what you can on a sliding scale between $1 and $10 per month."
Is that cool?
Results
| Results | Option | Votes | % of votes cast | % of eligible voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agree | 3 | 100 | 75 | | |
| Abstain | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Disagree | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Block | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Not voted | 1 | 25 | |
Sounds good. Shouldn't we add something about allowances may be made upon request for people unable to contribute (could be due to financial hardship, living in a place where $1 is a lot, or they are unbanked / don't have a CC).
Yup, I think that makes sense for the moment, though would ultimately like to see the minimum closer to $0.25 eventually, as we scale up. I donated $23 and set myself up for $2/mo recurring.
Cool :) Just made a donation as well to try it out.
Wonder if this question should be posed to the full project, after the working group votes on it?
Agreed. This is just a preliminary discussion for the group. And I'd love to see language added like what @mayel suggests for hardship.
This is the basic toot-length proposal (with #'s pulled out of the air) that I posted to Mastodon a little while back:
@ntnsndr noted that Gratipay does not currently identify donors, which could be an issue, and suggested we look into OpenCollective, which could work, though the fees are high. Definitely open to other options as well...
Ultimately, as we'll almost certainly want a legal entity which can have a bank account (unless someone want to get all fancy DAO), so I'll be talking to Victor of Seedbloom next Friday about both the possibility of a campaign on their equity crowdfunding platform (which hosted the Resonate campaign) and their thoughts on the optimal location to incorporate a platform co-op.