Our code of conduct may be reviewed here.
We envision building, owning and controlling our own technology as a community, in order to achieve collective liberation and care for the intricate world of which we are a part.
Social.coop is a cooperative node of the 'fediverse' social network, pioneering an open approach to co-owning and co-operating our online platforms.
Social.coop is a user-owned cooperative, operated through group decision-making and open management of monetary, labor, and service contributions.
Decisions regarding Social.coop are made via Loomio, a group discussion and decision-making platform, at https://socialcoop.loomio.org
.Members may operate on their own initiative based on pre-established policy (areas of activity, scope of working groups, terms of service, codes of conduct, moderation policies, etc.), but any new issue that affects other members should be brought before the appropriate working group, and any policy changes must be brought before the full group before implementation. Working groups are encouraged to make proposals among themselves to determine consensus and operate within their scope of responsibility, but only proposals passed by the full group may be considered binding for Social.coop. Any member may make a proposal to the full group, though it is encouraged to first discuss matters within the appropriate working group.
The criteria for passing a proposal (within a working group, or in the full group) is as follows:
Abstain votes allow members to register opinions or concerns without being counted.
A Block vote represents a fundamental disagreement—a belief that the proposal violates Social.coop's core principles. Proposals with Block require at least 9 times more Agree votes than Disagree and Block votes in order to pass.
Social.coop is open to all people who consider themselves committed to fostering the cooperative movement (as defined by the International Co-operative Alliance) and who commit to adhering to the Social.coop Code of Conduct.
The path to membership is as follows:
Every quarter, all non-paying members receive an email checking in about their status that contains the per-user cost of the previous quarter’s operation. The email asks them to set up contributions if their financial situation has changed, or to renew their membership for the next three months, until the next quarterly email.
The membership working group may freeze the account of a member in the case of:
Any appeals of application denials or frozen accounts will be taken up by the general group on Loomio.
Social.coop is run through a system of open contributions. There are no employees, but the cooperative strives for fair and sustainable remuneration for its contributors.
The procedure for paying contributors and expenses is as follows:
While general budgeting decisions are expected to be passed in the full group, all members are invited to monitor the finance group, and to join if they wish to participate in maintaining accountability.
Social.coop is a global community that values a high degree of diversity among its users, including but not limited to gender/gender identity, nationality, religious background, ethnic and racial identity, sexual orientation, economic status, and disability status. Social.coop strives to reflect this value in its user community through the following measures:
These bylaws may be modified at any time through a proposal passing in the full group under the same rules as stated above, except requiring a 10-day period of participation, at least 3 times as many Agree votes as Disagree votes, and, if there is a Block, least 9.5 times more Agree votes than Disagree and Block votes.
social.coop is a cooperatively-run corner of the Fediverse. The instance is democratically governed by its members, who generally share an interest in the co-op model, but topics of discussion range widely.
If you are interested in joining our community, please review our Bylaws and Code of Conduct. If you agree with them, you may apply for membership on our instance via this link
Our instance is supported by sliding scale contributions of $1-10/mo made via Open Collective. You must have an active Open Collective account to apply for membership; you may set one up here