Polymaths.social
@Polymaths.social

Polymaths.social is—or, more accurately, will be—a Fediverse instance focused on helping people share their passions with others. Things are very much still in development, but I (Benjamin Hollon) am very happy to answer any questions you have if you message my Mastodon account.

Status of the Project

Polymaths.social is still in development. At this point in time, I am focusing on developing supporting resources such as training for the moderation team, writing a solid Code of Conduct, and compiling observations of what other servers are and aren't doing well.

I currently expect Polymaths.social to launch in early 2024 with a low user cap—as my confidence grows, I will increase the user cap, helping ensure I never bite off more than I and anyone else I bring onto the team can chew. (Donations here also help—I want the security to be able to scale up the server before I allow more signups.)

I'm expecting to create a waitlist in the time before the initial launch, from which the initial membership will be selected.

Use of Funds

All purchases I make related to Polymaths.social will be published on the website for full transparency.

That said—any funds that come to me, whether donated to my personal Liberapay profile or through this instance one, will be considered personal gifts and enter my personal bank account (this is largely for tax and legal reasons). I will then pay costs for the instance out of this personal bank account. Of course, my budget for the instance will be determined by how much is being donated through here, but I do not consider myself to be legally obligated to use all funds donated here specifically for Polymaths.social.

I present the above to you purely in the interests of full transparency. I do want to reassure you that donations do help the instance, and if more funds are available, I will use them to help make Polymaths.social even better. Donations are very welcome—I am a university student and have very little disposable income to fund the instance from. A little bit regularly—no matter how small—helps enormously.

If you have any concerns about this model for how I use donations, please contact me and we can discuss it.

Some things I would like to use donations for, if funds allow (roughly in order of priority):

• Cover hosting and domain name costs
• Cover other upkeep-related costs (registering a DMCA Designated Agent, for example)
• Donate a portion to fund the upstream GoToSocial project's development
• Offer some form of compensation for the moderation team and staff (including myself)