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Is anyone here interested in hosting an Ovarit clone made with the same Throat software that powers Ovarit? : https://gitlab.com/feminist-conspiracy/throat
It would look just like Ovarit!
Grandma can help us make an Ovarit clone if someone is interested in hosting it! :)
Here is an example of another site powered by the same software that powers Ovarit... : https://phuks.co/
More info on the Ovarit software : https://ovarit.com/o/Ovarit/159688/ovarit-runs-on-open-source-software-interested-in-contributing
I've toyed with the idea, but I just don't see it being a one person job (god knows how girl_undone managed these past few years). I feel like if there's going to be a replacement, it would be a good idea to have at least a handful of people involved in the day to day aspects. One person shouldn't be responsible for the costs, maintenance, fielding threats/legal notices, etc, or we just end up in the same situation.
Edit: that being said, if there are other women interested, I'm certainly willing to devote money and time to the project (I WFH so have more time to devote online).
I don't have the know-how to be involved in the day-to-day running of a site. And since I'm old and have health problems I wouldn't be reliable anyways. But I am willing, able and ready to provide funding now and in the future.
I don’t know anything about operating a website and couldn’t help with that, but I’d donate too!
I don't know anything about running or hosting a web forum, but I have been the sole unpaid horse pulling a non-profit organization and it also took me just about 5 years to burn out. Even if I had the resources or skills, I'd hesitate to take something like this on. How can a new site be planned so responsibility and financial liability are spread across enough backs to make it sustainable? That would mean people really being on the hook, so everyone can't bail and leave one woman carrying the thing (not saying that's what happened this time, but it is a very common outcome in this type of situation).
Having said that, I think this is amazing! And I really hope there's a way to make it work. I'm happy to help if I can, though not sure any of my skills would be useful (aside from non-profit experience).
That's the rub, you need to start donations from the jump. One site that does yearly donations and keeps itself afloat is ao3, it would need to be some kind of money too, to cover costs and make it worthwhile for anyone doing it. It should be a payed job. Maybe selling some products too, like stickers, pins and mugs type deal. Or maybe online products like a newsletter.
Ooh I’d buy stickers and pins to support a site like this!!
Yeah those would be fun, also I did like an award system, or giving an online sticker. Seems cute in the right space.
This is exactly what I think too. Don’t want to be a Debbie downer with all the enthusiasm of users who want to make a new site, but there’s a reason they keep shutting down over and over again.
I think it would be helpful to look into how others have done this successfully. What are some comparable forums that face similar potential legal and political hurdles? What is their legal structure (LLC? Non-profit organization?), what people do they have involved, and what are their skills? How are these people invested and what is the process for stepping down/replacing tired horses?
I am not aware of any site like this that has been done successfully. The only slightly comparable ones are like…kiwi farms, saidit, and they are shitholes run by men.
Keeping us deprived of time and money is not just a symptom but also an aim of how women are oppressed worldwide. That makes it almost impossible for us to succeed on very large and demanding projects like this. Some women manage to succeed if there is male support for what they are doing—this is why we see so many prominent Republican women and some successful businesswomen.
For a truly feminist project, there is only male (and a decent amount of female) opposition. What support there is is from a minority of a notoriously economically and temporally deprived demographic.
And the onslaught is often brutal. I highly recommend listening to the FDS podcast about why they stopped moderating the subreddit. Reddit didn’t have to take it down because the harassment was so extreme and demoralizing that eventually the admins couldn’t keep up.
I think the future may not be a public website. I think it may be private Facebook groups, some occasional subreddits, the comments of a Substack, but I’m hoping that the site closing may be the push for some of us to begin meeting in person. There is perhaps even more danger there, but I think also the potential for more impactful action, and the harassment will be more visible for normies to see and notice because it will be physical and in person.
I so badly want to connect with rad feminist women where I live but every single time I test the waters it's a solid no. There's no one! It is so pathetic and demoralizing I almost can't stand it. No, there will not be more in person action in my life, just an empty space where all of you on ovarit were.
I’ve met like 2 rad women in person (actually one of them I haven’t managed to meet in person yet but I probably will) and for various reasons it has gone pretty much nowhere. It’s not even about action but about sanity irl. I can’t imagine meeting enough rad women irl that we could somehow organize. Usually that seems to involve traveling across the country for something like a WDI conference.
Meeting in person is dangerous for those of us in countries where women are not permitted to exclude men from anywhere except our own homes, eg Australia.
And tbh I don't want to attend in-person meetings. Internet reading and snark is more my style.
That's absolutely it, a lot of these orgs and non profits get money because men run them or they heavily censor themselves. Women would never get support without changing absolutely everything to not piss of men,and what would be the point then. That's why it's hard to succeed, any effort will not see support and is usually is in opposition to the status quo, you don't just do unpaid work, but have to defend yourself against nutcases.
All this is so intentional, it's sickening how they've kept us from grouping together without them in the online sphere. It really shows how little power we have sometimes, how easy it is for them to push us out and close us in.
Good points all, proudcatlady. I've been thinking of posting to invite Ovarettes from my region to join an fb group I set up for the purpose, but have been hesitating because I want to be sure I have thought it all through well enough.
It will always depress me how badly women want men's love and approval and how ready many are to throw their sisters under the bus for a false promise they'll get it.
I don't know anything about hosting, but we could/should do a final crowdfunding to help with the expenses (perhaps some of it could cover any loss that girl_undone faces. I think she's still uncertain whether all her expenses will be covered)
we could/should do a final crowdfunding
Is there already a crowdfunder? If so, please give the details so interested parties can donate. TYA.
Oh sorry, not final like that, just meant that it's still possible to donate to the monthly donation. I don't know of any other
I think we should build a group of to be volunteers and what task is everyone able to do. Maybe a discord group or otherwise could work. For example, I have no experience building websides but I am willing to learn and help with specific tasks. Computers I quite understand.
How much per month?
I cannot do it, but this info might be useful for anyone considering it. last fall, when the last monthly stats update was posted, it said that the site cost about $34 a day to run. this is $1020 per month and $12410 per year.
I don't know if costs stayed consistent from the outset, or if the site's growth meant that it cost more to run by that time than it did at the beginning. I also don't know anything about how the operating costs broke down, like what portion of money is needed for what.
I can't do donations, unfortunately. I'm on unemployment benefit and likely to stay so until I get the age pension. Plus those are US dollars - it would be way higher in Australian dollars.
And I don’t believe that counted their upfront investment
if this were to work, one would have to fundraise for that upfront investment first - then launch the site.
I hope someone will post realistic estimates of the upfront costs - and the ongoing costs too - so that we can all be on the same page, so to speak, about how much money would be needed overall. Even if I tried, there's no way I could ever come up with even the the most generalized ballpark figures on my own because I know absolutely nothing about making and maintaining websites.
agreed. I have no idea about the upfront costs either, and the ongoing costs I mentioned in my other comments are just based on a small amount of information that I don't really know further context about.
additionally, are there any possible ways that one could reduce the costs of running a new site, compared to what this existing one costs? I have no idea, maybe this one is already running as frugally as possible.
I wonder how many individual donors it took to reach the monthly 1,500 funding goal . I myself minimum donate $100 every month or every other month , but that might be too much for others.
So we have to figure out What is the minimum number of donors needed and the minimum donation amount to be sustainable for all donors
there were some fundraising stats in that post too. it was a mega-post for stats of multiple months, and it looks like the bulk of donations came from subscribers, around 70 subscribers each month. there were between 11 to 6 one-time donations depending on the month, and about 4 donations from susbtack each month.
It doesn't specify how much was raised via each type of donation though. here's a hypothetical calculation using the 70 subscribers number, $1020 / 70 = about $15 per person.
based on what I know about organizations that solicit donations, it's preferred to donate monthly in a smaller amount (i.e. subscribe) rather than just once or twice in a large amount. it's because the monthly donations are reliable and recurring, but one-time donations are irregular and the organization doesn't know if they'll get that money again in the future from you or anyone else.
using my hypothetical calculation again, that means a $15 monthly subscriber recurring donation would be preferred over a $180 donation once a year, even though it's the same amount of money.
ETA: link to the monthly stats post I'm referring to https://ovarit.com/o/Ovarit/619349/traffic-and-fundraising-stats-super-update-for-may-june-july-august-and-septembe
I don't really know how to go about hosting something like this (although I do know people who could probably help) but I would be happy to help in any way I can (time, resources etc.)!
I've donated as I'm able to, but would have no problem with committing to a subscription to keep the community intact. I totally understand girl_undone needing to step away, but this is one of the very best places for women on the Internet and I hope we can bring that into a new generation of the website, somehow.