Supporter benefits
tl;dr
Why should I support this?
- Aether tries to create a new, modern Usenet, but on a peer-to-peer network — a method of mass communication as ubiquitous as email that relies on no provider in particular. We also build tools and structures to enable these communities to self-govern.
How would I support?
- We have the Aether Pro, which is a private, team-based version of Aether as a collaboration tool, like Slack. If you are part of a PM, engineering or design team, give it a shot, it's a pretty useful tool. This is something we host and provide as a service, and it's also based on Aether.
Since Aether Pro pays for Aether P2P, this is the same as donating on Patreon, except instead of a unique name, you get your own team instance of Aether Pro.
- If you'd like to support directly, there is a Patreon below.
What do I get in return?
- Registering your unique username before anyone else, but mostly the warm-fuzzy feeling of helping someone actually try to make our mass media slightly less awful.
Patreon benefits
- A unique username for yourself that identifies you as a supporter. This is similar to a domain registration — this name is exclusively yours so long as you remain a supporter.
Your name on the supporters list, on the website and on the Github repo.
If you’re a company, your logo on the website, and on the Github repo.
Reasons you should fund Aether
You consider yourself relatively well-off and you’re thinking about how your money can do the most good in the world, and you’re interested enough that you’ve read this far. I’d offer this as a pretty good bet for that.
You want to support development of a product that tries to fix major, structural problems in our public discourse. Privacy is a basic human right. ‘If you want your privacy, you should not use online mass communication’ is akin to ‘If you don’t want to get lead poisoning, don’t drink water’. Technically true, but not tenable in the real world. It’s on us to build a mass communication method that doesn’t come with a side dish of being monetised down to your gut flora.
Reasons you shouldn’t fund Aether
You’re a student, a new graduate, or on a budget — keep your money, use it for yourself and use your money for good whenever you can. You have my thanks for the consideration. 🙂
You want everything to be perfect and work all the time every time. Aether is a work in progress. It will break. You’re not purchasing a unique username, you are supporting me so that I can build Aether for all of us, and username is just a side benefit.
Ways to support
Sign up for Aether Pro
You can take a look at Aether Pro here. If this is something you or your team would be able to benefit from, this might be two birds in one stone.
We also have an article that might help you decide if it’s a good fit for you or your team.
Aether Pro is also useful when you want to use Aether, but only within your group of friends. It gives you a whole private installation of Aether that is invite only, and within it you can create your communities.
Support via Patreon
The best way to support Aether is through recurring funding — this is super helpful, because that means I can focus less next month’s budget, and more on product design, development and engineering.
If you’re a company
If you’re interested in sponsoring / providing grants for Aether, you can use Patreon (check the sponsor tiers) or, reach out from here.
