So I was thinking a bit and want to get some input... As you all know QOTO is for anyone in STEM as a professional or with a passion for the topic.
I just had an idea of starting a sister-server, one based on the same principle as QOTO but oriented specifically for students and amateurs as seperate from QOTO, which will remain open to everyone.
This separation can have a few advantages. For starters a new server that will have a new reputation in the fediverse so will have much larger initial reach . But more importantly we can use the main server as sort of a source for mentorship for those on the younger server. I'd like to setup extracurricular servers that might be good to facilitate this and provide learning resources as well as publish more advanced content. Maybe even start a scientific journal or organize a shared blog where all our members can post to as a collective...
I'd love some thoughts.
Our generally considerate talk-it-out moderation style that is very fair handed is a big part of it for most people.
The fediverse has a tendency to pile-on with people. this will cause many moderators to ban users just for being unpopular even when they do nothing wrong. Many of our members feel pretty safe. As long as they act reasonably decently and dont go being a literal Nazi or a racist or something then you are probably ok here.