Funding
Running a full featured, highly available and performant Mastodon server costs money. We don't have investors, run ads, or sell your data. vmst.io is funded by the membership of the server. Without you, we don't exist.
While access to your account does not require a paid subscription, for those that can afford it we have options to help cover the cost our operations:
Monthly subscriptions are preferred through Ko-Fi or Patreon.
Fund with Ko-FiSubscriptions through Patreon have higher fees than our other options, but are still welcomed.
Fund with PatreonYou can also make one-time contributions directly through Stripe.
Fund with StripeMerch
We have some stylish merchandise available through Cotton Bureau, featuring our "Toots In / Toots Out" logo. T-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops, starting at $25.
Style via Cotton BureauSubscription Tiers
| Tier | Monthly | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Red | $2 | First time shout-out plus profile badge and Discord access |
| Blue | $4 | First time & recurring shout-outs plus profile badge and Discord access |
| Purple | $8 | First time & recurring shout-outs plus profile badge and Discord access |
For folks who would like to go beyond $8 please contact us about the Chartreuse and Tartan tiers, which feature the immense gratitude of the server team.
Contribution Benefits
Keeping vmst.io online costs on average about $1.25 per active member. The ideal situation would be for every active user to be a Red subscriber, but we recognize that's not always possible. The real difference between the tiers is how much you feel your usage of the platform is worth.
Everyone who helps fund our operations gets their first contribution posted by our @funding. bot.
- All tiers get "Subscriber" badge on the user profile visible to other vmst.io members.
- All tiers get access to our backend Discord channel.
- Those who sign up for Blue tier or higher will always be included in a recurring shoutout post by @vmstan.
Members who provide financial support are still subject to the same rules of the road that all members must follow.
Subscriber Badge
The vmst.io Subscriber badge is only visible to other vmst.io users through the Mastodon Web interface, Elk, Phanpy or other third-party clients that may support viewing badges. Non-vmst.io users will not see your status reguardless of their client choice (unless they view your account profile directly from our servers) as these badges are not federated to other servers.
The process of adding the Subscriber badge to account profiles is currently not automated, so please allow us a couple days after your activate your subscription to add the profile badge. We make an attempt to identify the subscriber based on the name and e-mail address provided by the subscription platforms. If we cannot positively identify your account we may contact you via the relevant payment platform.
If you've not seen your subscription appear within a reasonable amount of time, reach out privately to @vmstan.
Discord Access
In order to gain access to the subscriber Discord, you must link your Discord account with either your Ko-Fi or Patreon accounts. This process should be fully automated between the subscription platforms, and Discord. For assistance please see the relevant Ko-fi or Patreon documentation.
Subscribers who have unexpired terms through Open Collective will not have access to Discord, and will need to migrate their subscription to a different platform to obtain access.