Imposing paid plans on pre-existing Loomio.org groups

Mastodon and SSB are starting to have polls. We're working on one and planning another decentralized social-economic network and both will have proposals and polls plus discussions.

So that is what will happen. The more casual and unfunded groups will go elsewhere, and the more professional and funded groups will stay here.

I assume the Loomio crew understands and is ok with that. Some of them watched and maybe even helped with SSB polls.

Given voluntary and community groups can continue to pay just $10/year (well $1/ year per user but minimum $10/year) I personally don't see this as a huge issue.

Good point, @Josef Davies-Coates. We're 200 members in this group/community, so we're looking at $200/year of funds that will directly sustain Loomio's existence. I'm herewith putting my hand up to contribute $25/year. Also happy to coordinate this on e.g. opencollective.org.

Anyone else? $175 to go…

Edit: just found https://www.loomio.org/d/echHNIyP/gold-account-sponsorship, probably best to continue there?

Full disclosure of interest: I've lent money to Loomio, and I am serving on the board of directors. I'm in this group not as a representative of Loomio though, and I don't speak for the company. I've been a member of the open-source scene for 27 years (and a Debian developer for 23 of those). Now I build teams around open standards and protocols. I have not yet found an answer to the question of how users can help pay rent and food for those who make it all happen, and as much as I love to think back on twenties, families don't operate just off love, idealism, water and air, unfortunately.

This group has been paying loomio, since we can and we want to support open source projects we use. And I think wanted the sub-group feature? Anyhow, people have been contributing, and your $25 of course would be welcome, although I think we are paid up atm. Here is the thread: https://www.loomio.org/d/echHNIyP/gold-account-sponsorship?p=1

I agree with @Strypey on this one, grandfathering older groups in would be the least one could expect. All those older groups helped loomio grow to where it can charge more. Also noting that some groups (like OAE, although we pay voluntarily) are large (hundreds?) and loose, with many people participating hardly ever, but perhaps wanting to follow along. So loomio has discouraged the ability to work with broad network effects here, which contribute to building the "movement" in addition to having the ability to coordinate smaller more focused groups. Disappointing direction, I will stop recommending loomio.

Hey @Lynn Foster, could you please elaborate on what you'd expect "grandfathering older groups" would entail beyond specifically inviting them to reach out to the team, so that a solution may be found for the individual case, when $10/year is still too much?

Hi @martin ➬ , for 'grandfathering older groups', I meant letting the groups who have had the free community deal to just keep it. Maintain the good will, save the loomio team time negotiating.

Beautifully put Lynn. See my comment today in the Loomio Community thread laying out the case for this in more detail.

We're ~ 230 🎉

https://www.loomio.org/g/exAKrBUp/stats`

but the thing is, like most "communities" only ~5% of people contribute - the rest lurk or have moved on... and what use is that? Doesn't this imply we should rethink our strategies for collaboration in some way...?