Mutual aid for a better, gayer microblogging site.

Hi! I'm Sofie! I'm a disabled, neurodiverse trans woman trapped in Florida. The situation is as bad as it sounds- I am currently facing extreme hardship and prejudice and am reaching out to the community for mutual aid.

I'm also a web dev and Linux admin! I'm starting this fundraiser to bootstrap the radically pro-queer, antifascist twitter alternative I've been building. If I hit my funding goal I can buy a domain and cover the initial hosting costs.

A little more about me and the site I'm building: I've been a full stack engineer for over a decade, working with e-commerce, accounting and ERP/CRM systems. As a self-taught visible minority, I've had to work extremely hard to prove myself- and its that trial by fire that I feel has given me a uniquely broad and deep understanding of the technology behind websites.

I started building this framework in 2018 with the goal of making something that

I'm using an accessibility-first design philosophy- everyone should be able to use every feature- even with javascript disabled.

Over the last year or so, its gone through several major revisions and I am ready to start testing it at scale.

I'm calling this a "twitter clone" because "shortposting" (can't call it 'tweeting') will be the first feature available. I also think there is room for longer format blogs and I'd even like to explore mixing in reddit-style discussion threads- but those are ideas for much later on.

So why don't I open source it? I want to. I'm really proud of what I've built so far. I think its feature set is unique among WAFs and I think open sourcing it would be a boon to the disenshitification of the internet at large. But I'm simply too vulnerable and too poor to just give this away right now.

Some more about me, personally: I'm a nature lover. I'm super into plants, bugs and microbiology. I spent the lockdown year volunteering with Americorps' Civilian Conservation Corps- doing invasive plant removal and habitat restoration here in South Florida. I also love ducks, dogs, and trains.

You can also support me by buying my partner and I some food at the link below:

https://www.walmart.com/registry/ER/b3d83a6c-9c1c-452f-8e4b-a81cd575e185

You can reach me at sofie_gold on twitter and discord. comms open.

Thanks for stopping by!