1) Are any of you capable and would any of you be willing to admin...

Yes.

So you have Linux skills, etc? Do you have any experience, preferences, etc? Have you worked in Qubes containers? Have you set up platforms, forums, wikis, domains, backups, archives, etc? Can you im/port databases? Can you build bridges and/or code new features?

When the wiki gets online it won't be pretty, but it will be a place to organize and prioritize our wish lists.

2) Would you draft up some "bureaucracy" that defines your group...

That part is not difficult

I agree, yet it is a huge task, but I don't think it's a huge ask. I stopped trying to get M7 to share his future plans. For 2 months I've been asking Larry for his. We started a wiki exclusively for projects, whatever they may be, big or small, articles, lists, blogs, albums, manifestos, essays, production management, etc. Until it's fixed again and finally online I can only talk about it. One of the projects I'd like to organize on it is all of this forum bureaucracy stuff.

Old Reddit with the RES features IMO is the ideal format. If you have that as a starting point the rest of it is just microadjustments.

That's a clear solid benchmark. Saved.

3) Would your sub-communities be willing to collaborate with other communities [...]?

I don't really know. As long as all the control rests with mods in individual subs than collaboration with other communities is just fine.

I asked this direct question because some folks seem completely intolerant to other viewpoints, yet, perhaps ironically, all views exist on SaidIt, so they're already coexisting on common ground. Any community that can do that is good for me and can therefor collaborate on the ground rules.

Any community that can't is still welcome to develop their own project, perhaps in parallel and maybe even with collaborative help and brainstorming up until the sites become functional, and hopefully even after.

With FLOSS decentralized platforms other servers can pick and choose which forums they also wish to co-host.

I'm not really sure how this looks in real life so can't say whether or not I think this is a good idea. [...]

Yes, we need to see Lenny in action before I make any grand guarantees, including for individual subs, mod powers, etc. With a strong community I'm hoping we can get strong coders to help out in taking on the features wish list on the wiki that can be openly discussed and prioritized on the forum.

I've also stated several times that I'd like to see 4 user levels in all things: plug-n-play, basic beginner, advanced, and expert. I'd like to see this applied to users, mods, admins, GUIs, etc.

I think we should just have a donation button to raise funds. Maybe badge type award for good comments that donates to the site would also be useful.

Yes, a prominent donate button and a progress bar. WikiSpooks added one and he just announced that they're finally covering expenses monthly. I don't understand M7's lack of trying harder on this and other fronts. With success grows success and with money grows opportunity to have code bounties for features or to hire folks.

all documented with 100% transparency on a wiki with an open history for verification?

Makes sense but funding is a lot more complicated than that. Maybe someone with experience in these field can come in and give us guidance.

I'm certainly open to input. I figure that an open ledger with simple in and out columns like a bank account should be pretty simple and transparent. It need not get complex until it needs to. Furthermore I would never want to set myself up to be screwed over by random accusations that I couldn't defend with verification. Critically, I'm not hiding behind an alias that can be dropped like someone might if they wanted to run away with the mother load.

5)What questions or ideas do you think I've forgotten to bring up?

You and all the initial admins and subverse mods are going to have to be incredibly patient. [...] Make a structure, make it stable and let other people play with the structure.

1000%. People will also have to be patient with us. We'll all need to learn how to tweak the extant systems, learn the limitations, learn how to hack them, and learn how to evolve and code new things - within an overall plan with specific goals and directions. That's just on the technical side. The social management side will also require fine tuning, ideally through template-sets. And I want to make more simple graphic guides like the Pyramid of Debate. Further, others in the federation can quickly pick and choose how they want to set up their instances with template-sets too. Perhaps there may be several federations with overlapping commonality sets (and I can make Venn diagrams for that).

I also think you need to figure out your approach to porn, cartoon porn, JB porn, and edgy porn discussion.

Took me a bit to figure out what JB porn was. Not sure about the edgy discussion but it seems to me that SaidIt's anti-smut rule seems best. We don't need to be all things to all people. Further, if folks want to set up their own instances for that they can do that. We aim to offer tutorials and help in /s/Decentralize4Dummies.

In the political realm you're going to get groups WAY more politically edgy then we are (from both the left and right).

Take it back to the fundamentals. My server = ultimate veto. Same for every single instance out there. Personally on my instance "my rules" will be established with my trusted-team. We will develop and refine as we go, openly, include and exclude who we like as we go, from trusted-team members to groups to individuals, and we will always refer to our fundamentals in our manifesto-constitution. I have no interest in being political edgy, unless you consider free-thought, alternative economics, voluntaryism, solutions, exposing corruption of authority, and counter-propaganda edgy. Everything else should be pretty safe. The rest should be safe.

You're going to get shit tons of bad faith mods that create sites just to make the project look terrible.

I might like there to be no subs at all and have multiple meta-tags for better sorting and searching. I don't code so that may be a dream.

_If you only allow what's legal in the US you're going to have a shit load of disgusting and degenerate content.

Canadian C-10 law is looming over our Internet here. Among our top priorities after getting some platforms online is to get them on TOR, ZeroNet, IPFS, I2P, etc. I don't expect to have to go underground right away but we need to get ready well before it becomes urgent.

Get ready because you're also going to get criticized for being against free speech if you don't allow 'age play' subs and gross shit like that.

I don't give a fuck about retarded criticisms, but we'll be happy to seriously consider all borderline and reasonable criticisms that will ultimately go through the trusted-team. I expect my veto power to be used very rarely, if ever at all.

You're list of things to brace for are certainly worth noting and can be dealt with easily. We can make up black lists of things we don't allow and of course white lists if necessary. These lists can sub-categories and sub-sub-cateogories, etc etc etc. It could even go in a dedicated wiki.

You can't have a truly open site and avoid those types of trolls that will make subs just to get the project put on a watchlist.

All of my platform instances will be invite or by request only. I will never be open to unknown-anons. Unknown-anons may prove themselves on SaidIt or other instances or platforms first. By recommendation, by request to join, or by invitation they will be admitted as anon-with-identities. The community will watch each other and problems will easily be rooted out.

Maybe you could create some very very clear labels and give people well built options that let them filter certain categories of subs.

Yes! I want to have clear labels (meta-tags) on the different types of subs, content, users, and have filters. The filters may be a dream for now, but ideally with strong filters in place and people tagging responsibly (we'd need measures for this), there should be no need to censor anything but the illegal stuff. Even ads and spam could just be labelled and filtered as such.

Maybe that's what you are talking about with the 'FLOSS'?

/s/FLOSS = Free Libré Open Source Software.

Are you going to have little mini federation within the project?

It seems necessary, unless there are other Lenny or Lemmy projects worth joining. Lemmy code is decentralized but they are SJWs and censor words. "F-word" means "fuck" and everyone knows it, yet some idiots get offended by one and not the other. I don't know what words they do or do not censor and I don't care. On the other hand Lenny has their complicated embedded censorship (not just a bad words list) removed.

Just as Mastodon instances have fractured into SJWs vs degenerate Nazis, I expect something like it could happen in any federation. Since Lemmy is already for SJWs, I figure we can see how the Lenny federation evolves. I honestly wouldn't mind overlapping with Lemmy if they aren't intolerable, but if they're all like socks then I don't need it. I also don't have time to waste on Chipit or Nazis or commies - or dunce normies. Bring on normies that are intelligent free-thought truth-seeking folks willing to learn with their minds open but not letting their brains fall out.