1.The Purpose
Aceship exists to provide a safe, private, and welcoming online home for the asexual community — a place where members can find genuine connection, build community, seek partners and companionship, share what they know, and creatively grow together, free from depersonalization, surveillance, and exploitation.
The platform's reason for existing is the wellbeing of its members and the health of the community they form. Profit is welcome, but it must serve the community first. Every other commitment in this document follows from that single purpose.
2.The Core Commitments
These are the promises the structure exists to keep — permanently, regardless of who is running the platform at any given time.
The platform will prioritize the safety and wellbeing of its members over growth, engagement metrics, or revenue. Where these come into conflict, safety wins. Trust-and-safety functions (moderation, protection from harassment, protection from unsolicited explicit content) are to be treated as essential operations, never as costs to be minimized away.
The platform will not surveil members, build behavioral profiles of them, or sell, rent, or trade their personal data or attention to third parties. Revenue is raised by serving members, never by monetizing them. Any advertising permitted must be contextual (not based on tracking individuals), opt-in, and from vetted sources appropriate to the community.
Member information is private unless the member actively chooses to share it. The platform will practice data minimization — collecting only what is necessary, keeping it only as long as necessary, and protecting it appropriately. The separation between a member's verified identity and their public presence is to be preserved.
The platform will not be designed to maximize time-on-site through addictive or outrage-amplifying mechanics. It will not adopt design patterns whose purpose is to compromise members' wellbeing or attention for the platform's gain.
The people who build, run, and safeguard the platform are to be compensated fairly for that work — a fair salary is a legitimate operating cost, not a violation of the mission, and the founder and staff are entitled to earn a proper living from the labor of keeping this place safe and open. What remains after fair compensation and operating costs is reinvested into the platform's purpose: keeping the community safe, keeping access open to those who cannot pay, improving the platform for members, and supporting the broader asexual community.
The platform may not be sold, transferred, or restructured in any way that would subordinate the purpose above to private financial gain. Control is to remain with people committed to the mission.
3.Access and Funding
The platform is intended to be free to belong, so that the community can reach and sustain the critical mass that makes it meaningful. It is sustained by:
- members who choose to support it financially (a modest annual supporter contribution);
- founding and patron supporters who help fund its creation and growth;
- optional, opt-in, privacy-respecting contextual advertising whose revenue flows into the commons;
- a modest, tiered platform fee on creator commerce that takes place on Aceship.
No member is ever required to pay to participate in the core community, and no member is monetized without their consent. The funding model exists to secure access and safety, not to gate them.
Creator fees — tiered, never extractive
When members earn from their contributions on Aceship, the platform's cut is set by the nature of the transaction, not by a single blanket rate. The governing rule is that members earn from what people genuinely valued or chose to support — never from capturing attention. No payouts are tied to views, likes, or virality.
- Tips and voluntary support — 0% platform fee. Payment processing only. A gift of gratitude should stay a gift, not become a transaction with a middleman.
- Community-funded projects — 0% (or near it). When the commons pool backs a member's creative project, the platform does not skim from that support.
- Sales — approximately 12% (range 10–15%). Applies to the marketplace, paid courses and workshops, ticketed events, and creator subscriptions — genuine commercial transactions where the platform provides hosting, discovery, billing, and safety infrastructure.
Payment processing fees are separate and passed through. Every platform fee collected flows into the same commons pool as supporter contributions and ad revenue — funding safety and moderation, fair operating costs and salaries, and reinvestment into the community. It is never a personal cut, and it is never extracted as private profit.
The full split is shown transparently at the point of sale: creators and buyers always see exactly what the creator earns, what the fee is, and where it goes. Earning is strictly opt-in; the free core experience remains whole for members who never monetize.
4.Members and Governance
The community is not merely served by the platform; it is meant to help steward it. To the extent the legal structure allows, members should have a genuine, formal voice in the platform's direction.
The intent is that Aceship becomes a community members tend as stewards, not a platform merely provided to them.
5.The Stewards
Those entrusted with governing the platform (however the legal structure names them) hold their role in service of the purpose in Section 1. They are responsible for protecting the Mission Lock commitments in Section 2. Their role passes to successors who are likewise committed to the mission. There should be an independent check capable of holding the stewards accountable if they depart from the purpose.
People who do the work to maintain and grow the community — whether as stewards, moderators, designers, mentors, or in any other role — are entitled to fair compensation for that work. A fair salary is a legitimate operating cost, not a violation of the mission, and those who keep this place safe and open are entitled to earn a proper living from that labor. Serving the mission and being paid fairly are not in conflict; they reinforce each other.
6.Perpetuity
This purpose is intended to endure indefinitely — beyond the involvement, and the lifetime, of the founder. The structure is chosen precisely so that the mission outlives any individual and cannot be quietly converted into something that betrays it.