Is there any mechanism for buying guest memberships for Social coop, and if not should there be?
Jules Bristow (afewbugs) PublicSeen by 230Given that it requires a donation through Open Collective to join Social Coop, I wondered whether there was any mechanism for members to invite people and pay their membership for them? If not is that something we should look at having?
The onboarding process for joining the Fediverse and picking an instance is notoriously complicated, and most people without techie backgrounds tend to start out on Mastodon.social which is poorly moderated and as a result restricted by a lot of other instances, so they don't get the best experience right from the outset. However they are then reluctant to pay for something they haven't enjoyed.
Given *gestures at the world right now* I'm sure we all know some people who we'd like to see moving over here. I wondered whether there was any mechanism for existing members to invite them and pay their first year's membership for them or something?
I love this proposal!
+1 👍
This reminds me, also, that we don't have a clear statement about the cost structure on our about page, wiki, or application page.
Is there a specific current policy stated anywhere?
My recollection is that the sliding scale goes to 0, if that's what people need.
Could I reopen this please? I'd like to pay the financial contribution of someone who wants to join but can't afford it, and I suspect I'm not the only one who would find it useful if we had an official mechanism for this
This could use a policy update. Our finances are strong enough to support new members who don’t have the means or a method to contribute.
current barrier: a link to an Open Collective profile is required on the registration form (last updated in Dec. 2022)
Our current policy is that a financial contribution (of any level) is encouraged but not required. However, members do have to set up a free account on Open Collective. To donate on someone's behalf, you can just increase your donation. Does this work @Jules Bristow (afewbugs) ?
@mattnoyes - that policy isn't represented on the current registration form, which reads: "Contributing through Open Collective is a condition of membership", which I would interpret as "a non-zero regular financial contribution is required". Does the registration form need to be updated?
Also, on the welcome email it says "The fee is sliding scale $1-10/month"
+1 :)