On the Fireside Fedi interview with Jerry ( the admin of Infosec.Exchange Mastodon instance ) a scary truth was suddenly revealed ( on 34:11 ): Just to keep the instance up and running he needs to spend up to $5000 a month, pretty much out of his pocket. Donations to the instance barely cover any of that. And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.
  • Null User Object@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.

    Ok? What on earth would be the motivation to let these people keep spending your money instead of letting them go spend someone else’s?

    ETA: Especially if their reason for leaving is that you had the audacity to ask them to pitch in for the cost of the resources that they’re using. Oh, the humanity.

    • Blender Dumbass@lm.madiator.cloudOPEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      So the question is, what the hell should we do about this? How do we solve this? How do we even approach to solving it? Should I setup a forum page, somewhere, or a chat, where people can discuss everything and start approaching something? Or are we simply doomed?

      • rglullis@communick.newsEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        Let’s get rid of open registration instances and look for alternative models that are actually sustainable:

        • Small servers run by self-hosting enthusiasts for their friends and family.
        • Institutional servers (schools/universities running servers for faculty and students, companies running servers for their own employees)
        • Servers run by media institutions for journalists + maybe for subscribers (on a separate domain)
        • Servers provided by telcos, tied to their phone service (get a contract for mobile and that gives you access to our AP server)
        • Commercial providers who charge a flat subscription for access (mastodon.green, omg.lol, my own communick)

        We need to get rid of the idea that we can have a sustainable Fediverse infra running on volunteers alone. It is not working, all the growth potential that we have is stunted because people keep lying to themselves.

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          26 days ago
          • Institutional servers (schools/universities running servers for faculty and students, companies running servers for their own employees)

          This is the best long term strategy. News orgs should be hosting their own Mastodon instances at the very least. Same with schools and government.

          It solves a number of problems - for them. So many news organizations and government offices are reliant on Xitter. That means that they are at the mercy of the owner of the platform for their messages to the public. Hosting their own instance puts them in charge. They can get out messages reliably and the public can trust that they are who they say… Just like an email address or URL.

          Schools pay lots of money to private corporations to run bespoke university messaging systems, and are likewise reliant on those companies to provide administrative services such as moderating. Moving those communications in-house will be cheaper and simpler.

          We should all be pressuring schools and local governments to adopt these technologies.