February update
Published on March 7, 2024 by Patrick Dersjant
Thank you again for reading another of my monthly updates.
This month started with two security updates in rapid succession. Luckily the installs went smoothly, but the third update (not security critical) released this month has not been installed yet. I'll possibly do another upgrade later this month.
The month seemed to progress quietly, but some more spam waves shook the Fediverse. Our never sleeping mods and our system of blocklists should mean you didn't see a lot of that - only one or two reports were filed.
Then, the news the Opencollective Foundation will shutdown at the end of the year struck. And as the Drum collects its donations via Opencollective, some questions reached me on what this means for the Drum.
As explained here, the OpenCollective platform is run by a for-profit entity, OpenCollective Inc. The founders also founded OpenCollectie Foundation 501c3, which is shutting down at the end of the year. It acts as an umbrella organization so you don't have to deal with taxes, accounting etc.
I decided when opening the Mended Drum account to not use one of these umbrella's. Which means that I do have to worry about taxes, accounting, etc. - hence the rule that you may not donate over a certain amount. It also means we are not affected by the shutdown. The Drum acts as a separate 'fiscal host', which in laymans terms means you give me money personally and trust me to spend it well ;).
For that reason, I do try to give an update on the financial situation every month, and without formatting, here it is for February:
Financials:
Income:
Donations: € 108,90
Expenses:
Hosting: €42.72
Payment costs: €20.16
This month started with two security updates in rapid succession. Luckily the installs went smoothly, but the third update (not security critical) released this month has not been installed yet. I'll possibly do another upgrade later this month.
The month seemed to progress quietly, but some more spam waves shook the Fediverse. Our never sleeping mods and our system of blocklists should mean you didn't see a lot of that - only one or two reports were filed.
Then, the news the Opencollective Foundation will shutdown at the end of the year struck. And as the Drum collects its donations via Opencollective, some questions reached me on what this means for the Drum.
As explained here, the OpenCollective platform is run by a for-profit entity, OpenCollective Inc. The founders also founded OpenCollectie Foundation 501c3, which is shutting down at the end of the year. It acts as an umbrella organization so you don't have to deal with taxes, accounting etc.
I decided when opening the Mended Drum account to not use one of these umbrella's. Which means that I do have to worry about taxes, accounting, etc. - hence the rule that you may not donate over a certain amount. It also means we are not affected by the shutdown. The Drum acts as a separate 'fiscal host', which in laymans terms means you give me money personally and trust me to spend it well ;).
For that reason, I do try to give an update on the financial situation every month, and without formatting, here it is for February:
Financials:
Income:
Donations: € 108,90
Expenses:
Hosting: €42.72
Payment costs: €20.16
Buffer: €671.67