Virtual address and contact methods #57

songtech-0912 commented 2026年05月29日 05:43:59 +02:00

For Project Elara to be a registered nonprofit (see #8) we will need a legal address and organizational email/phone. This means:

• We will likely need to register for a virtual address as we do not have a physical office at the moment
• We will also need to set up an legal organizational phone number. Our current number uses a Google voice number, which forwards to my personal phone number, but obviously this is a poor idea for our long-term longevity. Getting a custom number for the organization is much preferred (it can be linked to the same Google voice number).
• Lastly, we need a legal organizational email - preferably using our organizational domain (e.g. something like organization@elaraproject.org) with custom sub-emails like contact@elaraproject.org for contact/outreach purposes

For Project Elara to be a registered nonprofit (see https://codeberg.org/elaraproject/project-issues/issues/8) we will need a legal address and organizational email/phone. This means: - We will likely need to register for a virtual address as we do not have a physical office at the moment - We will also need to set up an legal organizational phone number. Our current number uses a Google voice number, which forwards to my personal phone number, but obviously this is a poor idea for our long-term longevity. Getting a custom number for the organization is much preferred (it can be linked to the same Google voice number). - Lastly, we need a legal organizational email - preferably using our organizational domain (e.g. something like <organization@elaraproject.org>) with custom sub-emails like <contact@elaraproject.org> for contact/outreach purposes

songtech-0912 commented 2026年05月29日 06:18:28 +02:00

For the email we will need to self-host with a cloud provider. After a general analysis it seems like Ubisoft is probably the best choice, since it's open-source and that alone is much more transparency than a lot of other companies. DigitalOcean is very meh on sustainability, as is Cloudflare. Oracle and IBM are better but closed-source. Google, Amazon AWS and Microsoft have...well, their own problems in addition to being closed-source.

In any case, we'll also need to setup the email server. We can do that with Modoboa which should be much easier than setting it all up manually. Then we'll need to add the emails we need.

For the phone number it is probably easiest to get a call-only phone plan (e.g. phone plan with no data) like this one from T-mobile (but ideally cheaper), then use Google voice to forward it, so we can keep our Google voice number (518-285-0528).

For the email we will need to self-host with a cloud provider. After a general analysis it seems like [Ubisoft](https://www.ubicloud.com/) is probably the best choice, since it's open-source and that alone is much more transparency than a lot of other companies. [DigitalOcean](https://ditchcarbon.com/organizations/digitalocean) is very meh on sustainability, as is [Cloudflare](https://ditchcarbon.com/organizations/cloudflare). [Oracle](https://ditchcarbon.com/organizations/oracle) and [IBM](https://ditchcarbon.com/organizations/ibm) are better but closed-source. Google, Amazon AWS and Microsoft have...well, their own problems in addition to being closed-source. In any case, we'll also need to setup the email server. We can do that with [Modoboa](https://modoboa.org/) which should be much easier than [setting it all up manually](https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/how-to-host-your-own-email-server). Then we'll need to add the emails we need. For the phone number it is probably easiest to get a call-only phone plan (e.g. phone plan with no data) like [this one from T-mobile](https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/talk-text-only-plan) (but ideally cheaper), then use Google voice to forward it, so we can keep our Google voice number (518-285-0528).

songtech-0912 commented 2026年07月02日 00:03:51 +02:00

Update: I have set up a custom email server at https://mail.elaraproject.org/, as well as two addresses organization@elaraproject.org as our official email (for legal purposes) and contact@elaraproject.org as our contact email.

Update: I have set up a custom email server at https://mail.elaraproject.org/, as well as two addresses <organization@elaraproject.org> as our official email (for legal purposes) and <contact@elaraproject.org> as our contact email.