Do you wish there was a BookWyrm instance for your number one niche sub-genre, for readers in your language, or a space just for you and your friends? But you don't want to do all the technical work of running and maintaining an instance? Well, hello, this post is for you.

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You can now get your own BookWyrm instance with the new "Insider Bookclub" Patreon tier. The instance is yours to customize and curate, for up to 50 users.

The technical side of hosting and updating the instance is all handled by me (Mouse Reeve, hello), and the social side is all yours. 

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This is new territory for me and for the project, but I'm excited about expanding BookWyrm into more small, independent instances. This also makes the benefits of a small instance accessible to people without the time, energy, or technical expertise to do it themselves. 

It's too early for there to be frequently asked questions, so instead, let me try to guess some questions you might have in advance:

❓ How much does it cost?

The tier is at $40 a month -- the cost covers the expense and effort of running the instance, and also contributes to BookWyrm's ongoing development. 

If this isn't workable for you but you'd really like to participate, please reach out!

❓ Who is in charge of moderation and community management?

That's you! You and your users will get to decide the norms and rules in your community, and handle conflict in a way that feels good to you. Moderation will be in your hands, and I can support with technical questions.

The big obvious caveat is that I have zero tolerance for hate speech, harassment, and any other kind of dangerous or illegal behavior that puts the broader community at risk.

❓ What if I stop paying?

If you're not able to keep paying for your instance, talk to me and let's try and figure something out! But barring that, I will give users a month's notice that the instance will be taken offline, and I will save a backup of the instance for sixth months after that.

❓ Is this Patreon-only?

For now, yes! I'm doing it in this way to start in order to keep the logistics manageable for me. If you're excited about this and unable to use Patreon for whatever reason, please reach out to me and we can talk further.

📚 That's the gist!

If you have other questions or would like to talk further, please reach out! You can message me here or use whichever of the following methods works best for you:

Email: [email protected]
Mastodon:  @[email protected] or @[email protected]
Twitter: @BookWyrmSocial