@mho I think it's too early to say that donation funding doesn't scale. Way too early.
Also, because I'm an American, getting "public" funding would mean getting the government involved. And right now, that's an exceedingly bad idea when it comes to our government.
#Mastodon, despite having more than 11 million users, is largely based on enthusiasm and unpaid work.
That's not sustainable, especially not, when the #Fediverse keeps growing and more people come here, that don't want to idealistically build the future of #SocialMedia, but just microblog, share pictures or connect.
Someone has to pay for server costs and stuff like that, but the work to moderate the content shouldn't need to be done for free either. So we need a financing model.
At the same time, #Mastodon is explicitly designed so that business models such as #Twitter's do not work. Advertising can't or shouldn't pay for the costs, like on other #SocialMedia.
Hope is pinned on companies and organizations setting up instances for their employees. Here the funding would be clear, but except for some industries with employees in the public eye - such as the press (like my emploeyer @heiseonline) - I see no reason why companies should do this on a large scale.
Instead, it's time for #Mastodon to pass on the costs. Alternative models are being tried out here. For example https://digitalcourage.social wants a monthly fee of one Euro for an account on its own instance. So far, this has not become widely established, but it would be desirable for the Internet if this were to happen. After all, it also makes visible the costs associated with our online lives.
Also much is paid by donations. That doesn't really scale, I think.
I can think on one other alternative, at least in countries with big public boradcasters, that have money. Here in #Germany, @ZDF has made public, that they are working on a #Twitter-alternative. So clearly they think, it's their mission, to provide a #SocialMedia-plattform.
So then, why reinvent the wheel? Just set up a #Mastodon or #Fediverse-instance for the public, that already funds the broadcaster. So we would pay, but not a new fee, but with existing costs.
What do you think ☝️? If I am wrong, why and where? Who should pay the costs of a #Mastodon with say 100 million users?
I'm not talking about the tech-savvy people hosting their own instances, I'm talking about the broader public, that could one day migrate here from #Twitter and the other #SocialMedia.
If we don't get us – and later them – used to the idea, that all this here costs money, I don't think, this is futureproof.
@evan@mho I worry that ISP-based instances would end up driving people toward a handful of large instances, since small, independent ISPs can't even always manage e-mail hosting for all their customers.
Besides, I wouldn't want to be on a social network run by Comcast.
@linebyline@mho another one is domain name registrars. A lot of them sell WordPress blogs or other apps as an upsell or freebie. Mastodon could fit in there, too.
You hit on one option that might be the best one; for example, orgs like ZDF could run an instance as part of their mission.
Relatedly, membership organizations could run servers for their members (@Jonathanglick had this idea). So when you join the YMCA or donate to NPR (or subscribe to Heise), a Mastodon subscription is included.
ZDF (well, one of their associated production companies) is already running a community instance at det.social that is separate from their instances for official accounts at edi.social and zdf.social
That's because @janboehm and @stefan just went ahead and did it, so there was no big press brouhaha about it. They did some promotion on their private Twitter accounts and sort of mentioned it in their TV show, but that's it.
@davidslifka@mho@atomicpoet@mmasnick@fediversereport@Gargron@donmelton@tchambers @Jonathanglick
Yes. There will be various costs--servers & moderation, insurance, optional services (I want an algo I choose). Other ways to attack this: premium services that subsidize free services (my algo), shared services (hosting, moderation). Institutions (e.g., media orgs, philanthropy, schools, NGOs) can help by directly paying & by sharing the load of work (hosting, moderation).
I agree: great topic. I only wish that the funding systems for NPR and ZDF were more similar. Unfortunately, NPR is dependent upon local member stations for its revenue. Direct donations to NPR from listeners makes stations upset. I'm guessing local stations wouldn't want to set up their own Fediverse instances, but who knows?
Add comment