I prefer non-corporate alternatives, like lemmy or mastodon. However, if it's going to last, users are going to have to contribute what they can to keeping the lights on, otherwise, if lemmy grows, they'll have to resort to things like ads to cover their costs and it will become reddit all over again.

[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Well, we are on the ground floor here. Let's find something that keeps the lights on and gives everyone the incentives they need to make a great community!

Perhaps a good start would be a page that gives statistics about the time and money required to run an instance. I really appreciate those who have dedicated their time money and reputation to start things up. Lets find a way to build a better social media experience together.

I think many of us would be OK with a number of different models, donations, non-intrusive ads, reasonable subscription fees, etc. Perhaps there could even be incentives for people who put time into building communities by moderating or other tasks. The important thing in my opinion is that everyone feels they contributed to the structure in a way that they want to keep participating.

Edit: I found a budget page from the donation link on the side bar of the main page of lemmy.world.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Perhaps a good start would be a page that gives statistics about the time and money required to run an instance.

Yeah, that's not not a bad idea.

I'm ok with some non-intrusive ads, also. I'd also be ok with chipping in $5 a month, or so, if it's something I end up using a lot.

[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From a personal perspective, I would like to see a model where basic access is free. A 5$ a month fee is fine for you and me, but I think there are a lot of people who may not have that in their budget or who don't want the paper trail of payments (e.g. if they live in a country that is restrictive of free speech). I am really hoping that voluntary donations are sufficient, but I guess we will see.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I am really hoping that voluntary donations are sufficient

I hope so too.

[–] BlankSix@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really love that idea.

Regarding ads, I almost always turn on an ad blocker because the ads I see are over the top and either obstructive or somehow offensive, so figuring out a way to monetize that isn't also horrible is kind of a delicate balance. Like, no autoplaying video/audio, for one.

Tip jars, things like possible user customizations allowable for those that donate above a certain threshold (so like, specific color callouts for donators of $x in the last month, or the ability to add highlights inline in comments, or something) and other incentives other than, y'know, getting your average user to understand that servers and time are things that need money to keep going. That said, that stat page would be super helpful on the main instance page, like maybe over on the side.

[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, reasonable ads are key. Moving/flashing things are a show stopper for me. Also, ads shouldn't track private information, I think its fine to base them on the contents of the current public info on a page, but tracking data across sites gets creepy. I don't like using ad blockers if I can avoid it, but many websites are completely unusable without it.

[–] player1@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Honestly I’m fine with some amount of ads as long as they are unobtrusive and inoffensive. Either that or there’s a free tier with some minimal ads and a paid tier with no ads. Nothing outlandish though.

No instance admin should have to bear the cost.

[–] EonNShadow@pawb.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unfortunately with the current structure of things, that's probably what will have to happen for a bit.

Lemmy is decentralized and federated and there are pros and cons to that system. One of those is that users expect a completely free experience. However, I have a server at home, but I have no way of scaling it. So despite there being a community I'd love to spin up, I can't because I have no way of scaling it.

Most people are going to have to go through Cloud providers for that, which can get pricey.

[–] amki@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Just like people share the cost for a Netflix account they could probably share the cost of their fediverse access. IF people really wanted that is.

[–] 15Redstones@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least with Lemmy there's lots of different servers, each with their own running costs.

Each could try a different way of keeping the lights on. Some could run on donations only, some could use small unobtrusive ads on the side, some could do lots of ads. If any server does too little they'll go down due to lack of funding, if any server does too much the users will migrate elsewhere, as it's quite easy to make a new account on another instance and keep following the same communities.

Even if we end up with some large-scale instances with big servers, millions of users and serious money involved, they won't have a monopoly on all the content like with reddit, so the competition should keep them from doing anything stupid.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That's true. That's definitely why I prefer open source and federated models. No one can have a monopoly.