Charter

IWhy we exist

1. A platform that hosts a person's work owes that person a reason before it takes the work away. Our founder's account on Patreon was closed without warning, without a message and without a stated violation, and so were the accounts of many other creators. LotusMake exists so that this does not happen here, to anyone, for any reason that was not written down in advance.

IIWhat we are

2. LotusMake is a freedom space for builders and makers: people who publish their work as it happens and are paid by the people who want it to continue. We host the work. We do not edit it or review it before it goes live. Where a list is ordered, the order is a plain fact, published on the transparency page one tap from the list: newest first, most supported, most funded through this site, or the fields you chose. The founder's page, projects and posts are placed ahead, as stated there. There is no hidden score. The room itself is the Freedom Forge: the workshop where the work is published as it happens, and the open software this site runs on, which anyone may host. We hold four things to be true, and the place is built around them.

3. Sovereignty. You decide what to build, how to build it, and what becomes of it. We never hold your work or your money without naming the rule, and when you leave you take everything with you.

4. Access to intelligence. The tools of thought, the models, the compute and the knowledge of how they work, belong within reach of anyone who wants to learn. We make room for the people opening them up, and we make it easy for a supporter to buy a maker the GPU hour that runs the next experiment.

5. Expression. You may say what you think and show what you made, in your own words and in your own voice. Viewpoint is never a rule here. Only the numbered rules are, and every one of them names a law or a concrete harm.

6. Good. The work worth doing serves a need that somebody has. We built this place for that kind of work, and we say so plainly, while the rules stay the same for everyone who builds here.

7. We are the host, not the speaker. Each maker speaks on their own page in their own voice, and the platform speaks only about its mission, how it works and its rules. The Aeon Forge, the first maker here, keeps its programs, its essays and its symbols on its own pages, where they belong.

8. Language is code. The hieroglyph, the alphabet, the equation and the program are one invention: a way to make a thought run on another mind, and the oldest tool a civilization has. Everything on this site is made with it, by people and by the agents they direct, and a maker answers for both as their own voice.

9. A forge is a plain building with its door open, and the Freedom Forge is no different. Nothing in it is secret: the fee is printed, the rules are numbered, and the record of every action is public.

IIIThe rules

10. We host what the law allows. We remove content or close an account only under a numbered rule on the rules page, and every rule there names a law or a concrete harm. Nothing else is a reason to act.

11. The law lets a platform remove whatever it finds objectionable. We choose not to use that power beyond the rules on that page. That choice is a promise about how we behave, not an endorsement of anything that appears here.

12. Viewpoint is not a rule. A political position, a religion or its absence, lawful adult themes in text, profanity, criticism of this platform or its owner, an unpopular opinion, lawful security research and uncensored model weights are none of them reasons for action.

13. We can only move money for what our payment processor allows. Stripe forbids payment for some lawful subjects, which the rules page lists and marks as processor rules. Where the two lists differ, the post stays up and the paid tier does not.

14. The rules change only in the open. Every change is dated and announced thirty days ahead, except an addition the law requires, which takes effect when published and is marked as such. No action ever cites a rule added after the fact.

IVDue process

15. No action without notice, and no notice without a rule. Every action cites exactly one rule. An action that cannot name its rule does not happen. Before we act, the maker receives the rule and its text, the specific post or conduct, the proposed step, seven days to respond, the appeal path, and the admin's handle. The window shrinks to three days only under a rule the Terms name, once an admin has written down why the harm is ongoing.

16. A report is a request for review and nothing more. The number of reports is never a reason for action, and reports that lead nowhere are counted in public.

17. Enforcement climbs a ladder one step at a time: a warning, a removal, feature limits, a suspension, a termination. A case skips steps only where its rule names a higher first step.

18. Four cases act before notice, and only four: sexual content involving minors, a court order, a valid copyright notice, and an intimate image published without consent. The notice follows the same day, and the action can be appealed, except a copyright removal, which is answered by the counter-notice the law provides.

19. Every action other than a copyright removal can be appealed within thirty days, and a different person decides it. While one admin is active, the appeal goes to an outside reviewer named on the transparency page. If nobody decides within fourteen days the action is reversed, except in the four legal cases, which stand until they are reviewed. A declined applicant may appeal by the same path.

20. The record is public. The transparency page reports every action by rule, every appeal and its outcome, legal requests, processor actions and the current admins, refreshed weekly.

VWhat you keep

21. Your work is yours. Every post, revision, image, tier and payment record exports in one click, in open formats, free, here and for ninety days after you leave.

22. Your audience is yours as far as your supporters agree. A supporter who chose at checkout to share their name and email appears in your export by name. Everyone else appears as a stable pseudonymous id with their tier, start date and amount, which is enough to honor their support anywhere else.

23. Your money is yours. We never hold a payout without telling you the rule. Stripe holds and releases funds under its own agreement, and when Stripe acts we pass you everything it tells us the same day.

24. Leaving is easy. Close the account, take the export, and your supporters' monthly tiers end at the paid period with no further charge.

25. We keep no data we do not need, and we will not sell your attention to anyone. The privacy page lists what we hold and for how long.

VIHow we make money

26. We keep one share of every payment a supporter makes to a maker: tips and GPU hours, tiers, offers, hardware paid once or every month, and project contributions. The share is the same for every maker, it is stated as a sentence before every checkout, and Stripe's processing fee is passed through at Stripe's published rate, with no markup. There is no paid plan that lowers it, no listing fee for pages hosted here and no advertising. A change to the share is announced thirty days ahead and applies from the date in that notice, never to a payment already made. Crypto sent to a wallet address a maker publishes never passes through us, and we keep none of it. The current share, with worked examples, is on the fees page.

VIIAn invitation

27. The door of the forge is open because the room is warm. If you build things in public, apply. We judge five things and nothing else: a real person or team, a buildable thing described, links that resolve, no rule violation on the linked work, and a handle that is not reserved and does not impersonate anyone. A decline cites one of them. To watch and support, make a free account and find a maker on the makers page.