Ashten
@ashten

The Final Boss of the Platypus Sandbox: Capitalism (Donate Please!)

Hi Cuties! :3

Hanna and I have always want to make a healthy, loving environment for the people around us. In recent months, we've had huge opportunities to nurture and support communities where our friendos can strive and grow along with us! Currently, we run three different communities on our servers:

• The Platypus Sandbox (Encouraging diverse people to interact!)
• Rainbow Lewds (Supporting the LGBT community to explore their sexuality in a safe environment!)
• The Sincerity Alliance (Encouraging Queer-Friendly Instances to work together across the Fediverse!)

Starting back in 2016, I started Platypus Sandbox on a small Digital Ocean VPS, initially hosting just Email and Nextcloud services. Since then, the community has grown, and the servers have along with it. In 2019, I began hosting it on my own hardware, but in 2021, after a four-day-long power outage, followed by a week long internet outage a year later, I decided to transfer most of our services to a dedicated server in a datacenter. Together, Hanna and I pay about $200 a month in server fees. This doesn't account for the amount of catgirl-hours that we put into these servers every night to ensure a seamless experience and a well-moderated community. :3

To give you some insight into our personal lives: Hanna works as a community moderator for Discord, earning minimum wage. I make about $23/hr working as a full stack developer at Intel. Both positions are underpaid for the amount of work and stress we put into our jobs. Our bills are also incredibly high, currently at $3,000 a month for just our mortgage because of the high cost of housing in Portland.

The last few months, we've made up for the shortcomings with my savings, but seeing that trickle down, and watching the potential to use that savings for bottom surgery vanish has been pretty detrimental on my mental health.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I grew up in a household where asking for money was considered a shameful thing to do. I've feel like I've been hiding my financial situation for quite some time now, and I'm not sure what to do at this point. I've had people ask if they can donate when they find out my financial situation, and I always say no. But... Hanna's finally talked me into setting up a donation page, so here I am!

Some other ways you can support us:

• Let me know if you know of a better paying job who might be interested in hiring me!
• We have an empty bedroom! We've been trying to find someone in the LGBT community to rent it for $700 a month! (Portland, OR)

Anyways, that's all I have! No matter what happens, Hanna and I will try to always be around for all you cuties! <3

Meow, Ashten