In prior months, I set an arbitrary fund raising goal.
New plan/experiment/goal to achieve sustainability (break-even):
Donations will directly reduce the posting fee, such that the forecast is donations + posting fees - monthly rent = 0. The "forecast" will just use the prior month's post-count.
Zaps to this comment, will count towards donations for June. Please make a comment in a reply if you contribute something material.
I expect this to still lose money in the short term, even after post-revenue, as posting fees climb and post count drops. We'll update the policy, if we find equilibrium.
If it works...
a) donations should shrink over time, posting fee will predictably drop over time, and content should go up. Unclear what will happen to quality. Fingers crossed.
b) donors are directly, kindof, buying more content for the month ahead (lower fees = more posts/content, see analysis below).
c) frequent-posters who stack-more-by-posting-more can optionally do some math to see if it's rational for them to donate.
Example:
Assume there is 60K sats from donations today. Given last month, that there were 380 posts, I would say "Assuming 380 posts in ~June, I'd have to charge 40K / 380 = 105 sats per post, to break even.
Example 2:
If nobody donates today, then the fee would rise to 263 today (100K / 380), and then probably rise again the month after, because post count would likely drop again.
It's kindof fun, to run a mini-economic policy update based on inputs like the above.
Accounting Notes
Crowd Funded Contributions for May 2024 - thank-you!
Fundraising Target was 55K, so considering this a deficit, I'll pick up the difference. Treasury was 41K at end of May. I guess this means I should be drawing on the treasury. Seems fair. TBD on the Treasury / Cashflow update; easy to sort that out. Import thing is to capture notes above.
People consider the fee difference before posting. 5x the fee, didn't 5x the revenue.
Territory Change Log
2024/05/04 - Raise the posting fee to 100. Apologies for not being transparent about this. In hindsight, I suppose I should have alerted folks. Will do better on this front. Maybe thats a feature @k00b could add. Warn the users if the posting fee has changed since the last time they posted.
Owner's Pledge
If this territory ever runs a cumulative net profit, I'll find a way to do right by the earliest contributors. There is no guarantee of that scenario. Most likely, it'll take the form of "pay-it-forward"-style BTC-adoption/effort/charity.
Disclaimer
Do not donate with the expectation of receiving a share of future profits. This is not a security offering.
In line with the plan to achieve sustainability (break-even), donations will directly reduce the posting fee, such that donations + forecasted posting fees - monthly rent = 0. The "forecast" will just use the prior month's post-count.
The next Fee Operation Management Committee will announce new posting fees according to the following schedule:
Block 851691 ~2024/07/11 13h00 UTC
Block 856011 ~2024/08/10 13h00 UTC
Block 860330 ~2024/09/09 13h00 UTC
See the prior month's post for more details. #566281
Accounting Notes
June Crowd Funding
Crowd Funded Contributions for June 2024 - thank-you!
Note that this is the first month without a rake being taken off of the donations.
Posting Notes
of Actual Posts in June = 331
of Forecasted Posts Posts in June = 380
of Forecasted Posts in July = 331
Shortfall of ~49 posts vs forecast. We probably saw posts drop off a bit due to the higher cost.
Treasury was 41K at end of May. I haven't yet decided if I want-to/should-be dipping into the treasury to cover shortfalls or not. Goes without saying, I'm cover the balance each month unless the Treasury does. I'm leaning towards a half-life concept applied to the Treasury, where up to half of the existing treasury can be spent in any given month. I don't know why, but I think I like the idea of a capped burn rate and setting a precedence while I'm the only person with spending-authority, so that hopefully when there are more, the entire treasury can't be spent in any given month. Feedback welcome. I still need to do that cumulative YTD analysis.
2024/06/05 - Lowered the posting fee to 136. See #568328
Owner's Pledge
If this territory ever runs a cumulative net profit, I'll find a way to do right by the earliest contributors. There is no guarantee of that scenario. Most likely, it'll take the form of "pay-it-forward"-style BTC-adoption/effort/charity.
Disclaimer
Do not donate with the expectation of receiving a share of future profits. This is not a security offering.
Prior Updates
June 2024 #566281
May 2024 #526847
April 2024 #493332
March 2024 #448054
There's been a site-wide downturn in activity, so it may not be related to the higher posting fee. Of course, posting fees have risen site-wide, so maybe that's exactly the right attribution. Still, I think we may just be seeing a seasonal effect, as activity dipped last summer, too.
Kindof sucks that I know the visibility will be much lower on this post, compared to past donations. I'd expect anon donations to be way lower this month. The nature of the tagging, also makes it as if I'm bugging the past donors, and virtually never asking new contributors.
Given 48.2K in (pre-SN-fee?) donations, and rent at 100K, and 380 posts in May, the "forecasted revenue" for June required to break even would translate to 136 sats per post.
🙏 Please Donate for June 2024
donations + posting fees - monthly rent = 0. The "forecast" will just use the prior month's post-count.Accounting Notes
Crowd Funded Contributions for May 2024 - thank-you!
Short Term Priorities & Goals
Operational Metrics / Quick & Dirty Fee Change Analysis
Territory Change Log
Owner's Pledge
Disclaimer
Prior Updates
🙏 Please Donate for July 2024
Accounting Notes
June Crowd Funding
June Revenue
Posting Notes
of Actual Posts in June = 331
of Forecasted Posts Posts in June = 380
of Forecasted Posts in July = 331
Short Term Priorities & Goals
Operational Metrics / Quick & Dirty Fee Change Analysis
All-Time
Territory Change Log
Owner's Pledge
Disclaimer
Prior Updates
# of ...getting rendered as a title. Whoops. Only realized after edit window expired.June 2024 Fee Update