You can find Smutlandia at http://smutlandia.com/
Personal Reflection after Two (and a half) Months as a Mastodon Admin
This update is a little later than I intended. That isn’t because I’ve been avoiding the server. Quite the opposite. I will likely go into it more for reflecting in the next update, but December and January have presented good milestones including what I think are classic Internet community moments.
I’ve blocked nazis, nazi servers, and a stalker of a Smutlandia user
I’ve tried and fell on my face trying to update the server to the latest Mastodon software (I only got partway there but I’m not done yet!)
I’ve started experimenting with weekly writing prompts from the Admin account (@monster_mistress@smutlandia.com) for fun and to encourage engagement.
I’m exploring other ways to improve the Smutlandia experience for users to share their writing.
I launched a Kofi to begin addressing expenses, which is located at https://ko-fi.com/smutlandia
I’ve submitted paperwork for an LLC to house Smutlandia under for legal and financial reasons.
What Is next?
Update this server’s software!
The biggest blocker is that underlying code for the most updated version of Mastodon uses updated versions of libraries that keep the process from being as simple as clicking “update.” This doesn’t make things impossible. Just more tedious. I admit that I’m wrangling in my spouse who I sometimes call The Yeti on my different blogging platforms for help. Data science and project management are my day job but his is web app development. So I’ve made him my sorta consultant on this task so it can be done as best as I can with the resources I’ve got.
Keep Up any more necessary social curation
This may be the most diplomatic way to describe continuous banning of nazis and other hate groups and creeps. No drama. Just the ban hammer.
Continue experiments for helping writers write and readers read
This is especially new so I don’t have a solid vision to share yet. With Mastodon there’s a growing population and the ability to make one’s own rules (like more smut and no nazis), but Mastodon is a protocol meant for microblogging. At some point writers inevitably has to switch from microblog to long form writing and back again. Is there a way to do that without having to constantly switch apps? A good answer to that question would be nice. Maybe https://writefreely.org can help? Stay tuned and feel free to send me suggestions!
In the meantime, I’m going to keep up the weekly prompts and maybe even more conversational ones to get to know the server’s community better. I hope to simply continue to cultivate a sense of community with fellow readers and writers.
Finish setting up a LLC
As Smutlandia grows, it will become wise for me as an American resident to house the website under a media LLC. This gives me a legal buffer to work with for worse case situations because the Internet can be a terrible place and anyone can get caught up in messes. Having a LLC also qualifies me for tax write-offs as an American small business, which should be helpful as well.
I also intend to house my blogging and podcast efforts under this same LLC with the hopes of growing those efforts more as well.
For the curious and who want to know more
If you’d like to learn more about Mastodon and the “Fediverse”, here is information from people who know more about this stuff than me. My apologies, but some of this gets pretty technical.
General Fediverse and Mastodon Tips:
https://fedi.tips/
A pretty in-depth explanation about Mastodon: https://medium.com/whither-news/on-joining-mastodon-d539eed5e41a
A REALLY in-depth explanation about Mastodon: https://blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2022-11-03_what-i-know-about-mastodon/
BLUF
During the December 2022 month of the Mastodon server, Smutlandia continued to experience growth. Costs almost doubled due to server experimentations. Such costs shouldn’t be a common phenomenon.
The Numbers
About Smutlandia
Smutlandia was installed as a platform that uses the Mastodon protocol by the romance book reviewer, EJ, who runs the blog called “Monster Romance Reviews”. Their concern was whether there would be a reasonably safe refuge for members of the erotic romance (smut) community to communicate using a microblogging format.
Mastodon is a protocol that connects hundreds of websites like Smutlandia together around the world. Smutlandia is a server with explicit content. Its specific rules and policies can be found on the website (https://smutlandia.com/about/more).
Basic Facts and Numbers (for December 2022)
People
Total Users 104 (about 31.65% increase from November 2022)
Technology
Item SMTP and URL Management
Price $10.99
Additional Notes Pro-rated monthly expense for Dreamhost Unlimited plan, which includes email hosting for Smutlandia
Item Media storage for data such as images
Price $6.02
Additional Notes Housed on the Google Cloud Platform
Item Server Hosting
Price $96.58
Additional Notes Housed in Digital Ocean using the Mastodon Server Droplet (https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/mastodon). Higher costs during December were due to trial and error while updating the server.
Total $113.59