Blog

It’s surprising how time has flown since the first idea of setting up a Mastodon server for the community came up, to now having our server up for nearly a year and a half! I want to thank all the members of the Zeal Center for supporting decentralized digital spaces and I hope you are getting meaningful connections in the Fediverse.

I also want to remind everyone that we have a Mobilizon instance for the members of the Zeal Center at https://meet.zeal.center. This is a platform that allows members to create groups, plan and discuss events. It is also federated, which means anyone on the Fediverse can follow and interact with the groups and events. If you would like access to it, contact me.

Instance Funding

The Zeal Center wallet currently holds 0.58682605 ZEC, so is time to organize another fundraiser, our previous fundraiser was very successful and covered our costs for nearly 6 months.

If you have found meaningful conversations and new connections on the Fediverse, please consider donating what you can. Every zat counts and it would take about 15 ZEC at current prices to fund the server for the entire year of 2024.

Another great way to support the Zeal Center is to tell your friends about us and ask them to create an account for Mastodon, Mobilizon, or both! They can learn the basics of using a Zcash wallet and join the Fediverse and support decentralized platforms.

As a thank you, the Zeal Center members donating 1 ZEC or more during the fundraiser get their very own custom emoji¹! This fundraising campaign will be open until 2024-05-07. You can scan the QR code below with your Zcash wallet to donate:

I want to thank all the members of the Zeal Center for their support of our little corner of the Fediverse. Our Winter Solstice fundraiser was very successful and has covered the costs of the instance all the way through 2024-05-07! It is heartening to see this small community going into its second year and I look forward to watch it grow further in 2024.

As always, contact me with any feedback, ideas, or comments.

Instance Funding

The Zeal Center wallet currently holds 0.58682605 ZEC. After closing our fundraiser and covering the server costs, the financials are:

Income Statement 2022-11-07..2024-01-12

                  || 2022-11-07..2024-01-12
==================++========================
 Revenues         ||
------------------++------------------------
 income:donations ||        17.35312605 ZEC
------------------++------------------------
                  ||        17.35312605 ZEC
==================++========================
 Expenses         ||
------------------++------------------------
 expenses:fees    ||         0.00096000 ZEC
 expenses:servers ||        16.76534000 ZEC
------------------++------------------------
                  ||        16.76630000 ZEC
==================++========================
 Net:             ||         0.58682605 ZEC

To quote a Mastodon user, “if you ran a social media platform in 2023 and didn’t loose hundreds of millions of dollars, you did better than Twitter”. Congratulations, Zeal! Our Mastodon instance is alive and well, and the costs are paid through 2024-02-07.

We also recently implemented a Mobilizon instance for the members of the Zeal Center at https://meet.zeal.center. This is a platform that allows members to create groups, plan and discuss events. It is also federated, which means anyone on the Fediverse can follow and interact with the groups and events. If you would like access to it, contact me.

Instance Funding

The Zeal Center wallet currently holds 0.69807605 ZEC, so is time to organize another fundraiser, in time for the December solstice. Our previous fundraiser was very successful and covered our costs for nearly 9 months.

If you have found meaningful conversations and new connections on the Fediverse, please consider donating what you can. Every zat counts and it would take about 17 ZEC at current prices to fund the server for the entire year of 2024.

Another great way to support the Zeal Center is to tell your friends about us and ask them to create an account for Mastodon, Mobilizon, or both! They can learn the basics of using a Zcash wallet and join the Fediverse and support decentralized platforms.

As a thank you, the Zeal Center members donating more than 0.5 ZEC during the fundraiser get their very own custom emoji¹! This fundraising campaign will be open until 2024-01-07. You can scan the QR code below with your Zcash wallet to donate: