this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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..:: tchncs ::..

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Your friendly https://tchncs.de/ community! Discuss whats happening in the tchncs world and/or just use it as a community forum.

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If you are looking for a way to support tchncs, please check out https://tchncs.de/donate


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Quick note that tchncs.de is powered by donations - because i am struggling time wise and with properly prioritizing my tasks. With the current "main" mix of tchncs.de, clients and midijob among other distractions from #life and other small stuff, I have reached (or crossed) a limit of what i can handle in that regard. The recent addition of a minijob failed and has me reflecting and reconsidering on how and why i got here and what to do about it. Some of you might already have noticed that i might answer late or even never (without an additional ping from you) for some requests, which for sure is nothing personal nor on purpose.

Until now was simply happy with costs being covered with even some additional amount of cash arriving, which by itself is quite amazing! But since i cannot furtherly increase my workload to earn more, a small increase of donating users (please not increasing donations by already donating users) would already be quite impactful for a more stable and secure income-stream. It would have me less worried and stressed about other sources of income that could break away due to me being unable to live up to expectations or because a bigger client would go away for internal reasons.

If tchncs serves you well, is part of your life for a while now and only if you can afford and really want it, please consider doing a monthly microdonation. I try to be most transparent so you can properly decide whether if or how much you want to throw into the hat, at ➡️ https://tchncs.de/donate

If you are donating already, thank you so much! Without you, tchncs.de could not have gotten this far, not even close to where its at now. ❤️

...also thanks @cronenthal, for your previous post

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[–] maxmalrichtig@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thank you Milan for all the work you put into your services and the administration. You are an awesome guy and that's why I increased my donation a bit. You are worth every penny. 💚

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Thanks for your support and kind words!

[–] squirrel@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I actually use your donation page as an example for good donation transparency sometimes. Thanks for all your work. Sending some funds your way right now.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Thank you! I was actually quite insecure about the effect such a detailed page could have, but it didn't actually seem to make any negative impact, which is awesome. It's fun to figure out how to to generate the stuff on there automated. :)

[–] AllrightImmaHeadOut@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I know you explicitly said I shouldn't do that, but just to spite you, I redoubled my donation. Thank you for all your hard work!

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Thank you very much! Don't overdo it ;)

[–] lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thank you, I've thrown 10€/month into the pool. Thanks for running this instance (and keeping ApocalypticArt alive, after feddit.de failed 🥰).

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Thank you! I will for sure do my best to provide a reliable service for years to come! In the unlikely event of discontinuation, there will be multiple months or more for users to find a new home - as long as the event does not take that power away from me ;)

[–] whome@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thx for the reminder, I did a one time donation in the past but just setup a Dauerauftrag. Not a huge amount but what I can handle at the moment.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Thanks a ton! And don't worry, the magic is in the amount of people donating - it doesn't have to be much per donation :)

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I am sometimes considering launching a proper commercial instance, where membership requires a monthly fee. For me, having a well maintained instance is easily worth a few euros per month and it would be an interesting experiment. But I'd much rather have enthusiasts like Milan do their thing and be able to get by.

Consider this: do you want to go back to ad-financed corporate social media? Because that's what you'll get when you want your services "for free". Enthusiasm scales only so far.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

https://cosocial.ca/about does this for their mastodon, it's an interesting concept and one I think worth considering.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Indeed an interesting approach that i think about from time to time, not sure if it would gain much traction at this point tho, because there are so many servers to chose from.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reminder! I just set up a recurring donation on Liberapay. But since it's yearly (to minimize fees) I don't know if you can consider it regular.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Oh well technically it is, it's just harder to "feel it" for the monthly transaction count and to show it in the current statistics on the donation page. Thanks a ton!

[–] exocortex@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reminder. Just added a standing order. It should be executed late in the month. I started low, but i could slightly increase it. It would be nice to read an update on the situation maybe ins 1-3 months?

I think it would also be a good idea if you don't shoulder everything alone ... Single point of failure and all that. You could think about which tasks ypu could (partially) delegate to other people in order to have less workload.

It would make sense to setup a roadmap for ypu maybe? I don't think it's healthy to have administrating take up so much space that you cannot work another job.

Let us know where you might need support :-)

And thank ypu very much! I quite like it here!

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Thank you very much! I will try to update if there is anything notable happening - usually a post like this from me or by users, causes a spike in donations that goes away quickly again. It would be amazing if this one was an exception. :)

I totally agree with the busfactor part. The thing is tho that I do not have real life contacts that are skilled and trusted enough to help. However there is @thomas@metalhead.club (even tho we sadly don't know each other in real life yet), who actually has emergency access to some of the tchncs servers already. We really need to complete this. However one reason why i struggle to prioritize this, is that bad things already happened in the past when i granted admin access to a supposedly trustworthy person.

My issue is not tchncs in particular, at least i'd like to think that.. i am trying to figure that out, however, tchncs is something that happened organically over the course of more than 10 years at this point. It's the result of me discovering Linux and selfhosting and is practically my self-teaching journey. Everything like the remaining part time job and clients, all that came after or/and due to tchncs. It truely is part of my identity and i couldn't give that up easily.

[–] exocortex@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah i din't think of complete (=admin) access. Maybe that's a good thing to keep to oneself. There could be an inheritor which would gain access if ypu would abandon the project.

But regarding lower level administration (blocking stuff, checking that rules are followed and all that - things that take up most of the time of an administrator working in social media) could ve delegated maybe? Similar to reddit moderators of subreddits. It would be nice to have transparancy of which moderator moderates which other communities.

Maybe you could think of a way of finding some people in real life that could be a promising candidate.

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

LiberaPay yearly donation also online, thank you for the reminder and for your awesome work Milan, you are a pillar of the Fediverse 🫡

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Thanks for your support!

[–] thoralf@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reminder. Was planning to donate some for quite some time already but forgot.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago

Thank you for considering to donate :)

[–] rettetdemdativ@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just set up recurring donations on Liberapay. Thanks for your hard work and all the best for the future!

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago
[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Thank you for keeping tchncs running! I joined on Patreon for now. I was wondering tho, which of the available options have the lowest processing fees? After direct bank transfer obviously.

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Thank you! PayPal is not a very likeable platform and i would prefer not to offer it at all for weird events in the past. But at least right now, that account is not marked as a business account. If you send as friend, (assumingly) via the linked PayPal donationpage and not via Liberapay, no fees should take place. Via Liberapay counts as a business transaction, still. I am not 100% certain as to whether there are gotchas from other countries tho.

[–] 4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Good point, I should set up something permanent. I have only ever done PayPal or bank transfer one-offs. Can I find an overview of the Liberapay, Patreon and so forth to see who they are, what cut they take and why I would pick one over the other?

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

LiberaPay doesn't take a cut, they are financed directly by supporters on their own LiberaPay page, and you can donate the amount you choose.

Paypal takes 3-5% I don't know the exact rate, Patreon takes 10% as from August this year (5% until 2019, currently 8%)

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Actually, Stripe as well as PayPal via Liberapay take a fee, still. ;) Those are the providers that Liberapay uses. Still a nice platform - thanks for considering to donate regularily and thanks for the previous donations! :)

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 days ago

ack thank you for clarifying that! hard to escape payment provider fees, i should actually switch back to the permanent SEPA wire transfers, i switched bank and forgot to restore it ;_;

Thanks! This makes LiveraPay sound pretty neat!

[–] Jean_le_Flambeur@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Im in dispo, but what does 1€ more or less every month matter now. And if every user thinks that way, it will matter to you. Will setup a dauerauftrag when I get home today

[–] milan@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thank you, but please don't donate if it hurts, even if its only slightly uncomfortable to you!

1€ im Monat macht den braten auch nicht fett ;)