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.

@trinsec @khird #QOTO

@freemo @trinsec @khird

1) My role is the STEM amateur enthusiast, not even a student, nevermind in the professional line. If I were starting fresh, I would gravitate towards that.

2) My enthusiasm for changing to a "sibling server" ranks up there with my interest in changing my email address. Again. Which is to say, "not very," and for the same reasons. I'm not clear I can alter my handle on the Birdsite without losing any means to have my fediverse address in there at all.

3) My wife and the very few friends that started accounts on qoto do not appear to be using this much if at all. "Moving" would for them would sound an awful lot like, "forget you bothered with Mastodon."

4) I'm highly confident any ties between you and any other server will bring on the Ultra Self-Righteous crowd that got qoto on the naughty list, and a new site would be on that list faster than word could get out the site exists.

@Romaq

If I setup a second server no one would be obligated to move... but im not sure there is much of an argument for the effort when we can all just be here.

@trinsec @khird

@freemo
If Qoto itself would be like 100k+ active members, you might have a bit more of a call. But right now.. we just need to improve Qoto first imo.

@Romaq @khird

@trinsec

Agreed.. thankfully now that I quit i have the time to invest for a bit.

@Romaq @khird

@freemo @trinsec @Romaq @khird

I have to say I agree with trinsec and romaq about not splitting the instance, but I love the remaining ideas.

How about an index site/page/feed that people can post their blogs to that allows interested parties to rapidly search the index? That way each person can manage their own static site blog, but any content tagged specifically for QOTO (e.g. tutorial, etc) gets crawled and added to the index?

I 10000% think that having a set of learning resources and tutorials would be excellent, but I also think there are lots of benefits to individual site maintainers to keep their sites that way, rather than needing to interface with some alternative posting strategy.

Finally, *inhales* I WANT THE ACADEMIC JOURNAL IDEA TO BE REAL AND I HAVE IDEAS FOR THIS THAT I'VE BEEN SITTING ON, PLEASE CAN WE DISCUSS THIS? *exhales* I've wanted to help set up a journal and data store for AGES. I even have ideas on how to manage membership structuring/fees, journal requirements including replicability/code review, peer review, grant/funding opportunities (if that's a future option under consideration and we get big enough) etc. please let me help or at least chat with y'all about it 🥺

@johnabs
We *kind of* have this in the form of the QOTOJournal hasthag (the link in the menu here is still to the misspelled QOTOJornal one even though I reported it ages ago *glares at a certain admin* :P

Though I do like the idea of a shared resources thing. Idly wondering: Wordpress for groups with a fediverse plugin? Just randomly thinking.

@freemo @Romaq @khird