Delegating fraud/spam reviews

[Changaco]

Liberapay's development has been hindered for years by the necessity for me to regularly review how and by whom Liberapay is being used in order to detect and mitigate abuses. I think it's time to try to find someone to take this off my plate, and possibly other tasks such as interactions with users (#11 and #29). We don't have a lot of spare income (https://liberapay.com/Liberapay/income/), but I can lower my take, and I'm hoping the community will chip in once we explain the situation.

[trebmuh]

How many hours a day or a week do you currently spend on these tasks?

[Changaco]

I lose at least one day per week on reviews. I guess someone better suited for that job could probably do it in less than an hour per day on average. For me it's a chore that has a negative effect on my state of mind.

[Changaco]

https://mastodon.cloud/@Changaco/113941939663443670

Today is the 8th anniversary of @Liberapay's launch. Coincidentally, I have an announcement to make.

I'm looking for someone to open a new chapter in the project's history by becoming its second maintainer. That doesn't mean it's a programming job, although help in that area is always welcome. You can find a bit more information in #661 and ask any questions you have there or in private.

Please boost 🙂

[DeclanChidlow]

I'd be interested in such a position, as well as potentially taking on some of the other aforementioned tasks/roles.

Where am I best to contact you? You can find me at https://vale.rocks/contact

[Changaco]

So far @DeclanChidlow and one other person have reached out. The Mastodon post is still being boosted, albeit much more slowly than at the beginning. It has more than 150 boosts as I'm writing this, including more than 20 on Bluesky.

Since there are multiple people interested, we have to figure out what makes the most sense for everyone. I suppose there could be two people screening for fake accounts, or one person doing that and the other handling communications with users, but one person taking as much as they can off my plate and being implicated enough in the project to be considered a maintainer might be better overall and is more what I had in mind.

Thinking about all this, it occurs to me that anyone who is granted admin privileges should either become a codirector of the nonprofit or sign a contract with it, as otherwise there isn't really a legal basis for them having access to user data. Information about becoming a codirector can be found in liberapay/liberapay.org#55, and pretty much everything else in https://github.com/liberapay/liberapay.org/issues is also relevant.

I think the next step should be a video call with each applicant still interested.

[DeclanChidlow]

I sent in a follow-up email a few days ago but figured I'd just mirror that here. Happy to move forward onto the next steps.

[Changaco]

Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I still have a couple of things to do to prepare for the video calls. I should be able to get them done today, but at this point it's probably better to schedule the calls for next week. I don't usually do video calls, much less schedule them with people in distant timezones, so I don't know if we should use a tool to facilitate finding a good time slot. For the actual call I have Matrix and Signal. By the way, Liberapay has a public Matrix room, though it hasn't been very active. A new private room might be a good way to coordinate anti-fraud work, since we can't do that in public.

[Changaco]

This week turned out to be less than ideal for video calls on my side, partly because there was renovation work going on in the house. The next two weeks should be more quiet. Again I apologize for the delay.

[DeclanChidlow]

No stress at all. I ended up having a decently busy week myself.

[Changaco]

One of the video calls is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

@DeclanChidlow It looks like you didn't see the message I sent you via Matrix.

[Changaco]

For the record, the two video calls are done.

[Changaco]

As part of this, the private repository https://github.com/liberapay/backroom has been created and all codirectors have been given admin access to it. There's also a private Matrix room with the same name.