Hello All!
As of this month, we are officially short of the amount of money we need in order to cover hosting costs and pay our mods. Our total monthly expenses are about $120 ($50 for each of our two mods and $20 for managed hosting services). Before Open Collective Foundation (our previous fiscal host) went under earlier this year, we had these expenses completely covered. Since we had to transition to self-hosting, we have never hit that mark again.

Over the previous months as we have been using Ko-Fi, I have been working behind the scenes to get us to be able to use Open Collective again because of how many different types of donations they accept (we have only been using PayPal with Ko-Fi which is...not ideal).

And as of today, I am happy to announce that we can once again accept payments through Open Collective at https://opencollective.com/blackqueerlife

For the first time, you will be able to make donations through Stripe, PayPal, or direct bank transfer. Our hope is that we can once again have our costs covered fully by donations.

I can't tell you how many times in the past year and change that I have been running this server that I have thought about giving up and moving off of the fediverse. Our mod team constantly has to deal with white supremacist harassment, transmisia, transmisogynoir, ableism, etc from other users and instances. We are making it work, but I'd be lying if I said it was not taking a toll. And with fascism on the rise globally, things are only going to get worse in that department.

So if you don't agree with that and want to help support us in maintaining a space on this network, any amount helps. Seriously.

-eva

@blackfedi #BlackMastodon #BlackFediverse #MutualAid #BlackFedi #BlackQueerLife #QTPOC

Like, when western folks talk about population reduction, it's always latent in their words which populations they are planning to target for reduction. Just imagine if we started with billionaires and worked our way down the ladder from there, how much more of an impact it would have! Imagine if their vast fortunes and properties were deeded back to the public rather than disseminated to their fucking kids bc they won't be allowed to have them.

Oh, that seems unfair or over the top? Huh. Interesting. But it's okay for poor people. Right.

LB:

Earth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance, say climate experts

Record emissions, temperatures and population mean more scientists are looking into possibility of societal collapse, report says

the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)

Love how they slipped in a little eugenics into their recommendations there, thanks scientists (and the Guardian for reprinting them). This is one of the major issues with Western science, it's so easy for them to slide into eugenics rather than properly center capitalism and white supremacy in their analysis. They even mention taking more from the Earth than it can give as well as highlighting how suffering will hit the global south especially hard but notice how they fail to mention WHO is doing most of the taking

@hyphen here's the thing, and I'm going to put it very simply because my reasoning is very straightforward.

Until someone has an alternative tool that protects Black fedizens just as well or better than fediblock, TBS, allowlist, etc I don't care how they feel about them.

Instance level blocks and curated blocklists are a non negotiable for us to exist on this network and they still aren't enough. BQL would not have lasted a week without them and yet despite these tools look at all the abuse I've had to endure over the past year and change. I don't care how many nonblack people get upset about it because I know the alternative is no Black folks being here.

So until you've got something that actually protects us and allows us to exist here with zero harassment, miss me with the complaints. I don't care.

Regular reminder that getting up in arms about someone else's boundaries is a pretty good sign that someone is engaging in abusive behavior.

And yes, being upset about allowlist only, FediBlock, or TBS are all examples of this.

Never have I seen a group of people more determined to continue harassment after being muted/blocked/banned than those who lost their minds when we started openly collectivizing our boundaries to keep each other safe. As has always been the case, reactionary behavior means we're doing something right.

Following the repeated harassment waves that white supremacists have been sending our way, we've been hard at work putting together an alternative option/model for Black folks to engage with the fediverse. And I am very happy to now be able to announce publicly that we are open for signups!

This new instance is called NiggasAndFriends (shout-out to Kid Fury for the name inspiration ) and will be open to any Black folks on the fediverse. We will have very limited federation, with us predominantly (but not exclusively) being connected to BIPOC-run instances.

When I started BlackQueerLife, I was hoping that with robust moderation, we could have a space that had open federation and was relatively sheltered from white supremacy. I now believe that given the stranglehold whiteness has on this network (particularly on Mastodon), that just isn't possible. It reminds me of what MLK once said about integrating his people into a burning house. That’s a very apt metaphor for this space imo. It's also very clear that the current state of affairs is just how most fedizens want it. I can yell at folks for being antiblack until I'm blue in the face, but as Pharrell once said, “They're gonna do it anyway.”

So, we will continue to do what Black folks have always done: build something for ourselves. If you're interested in making an account with us, DM me and I can send you the signup instructions. Thanks for reading!

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackFediverse @blackfedi