@dansup I believe a better option would be premium hosting. Basically allow users of #Pixelfed to host content under their own domain, & you could throw in the checkmark as a bonus. 😉
Similar to how @matt provides premium hosting to #WriteFreely via Write.as & @photomatt provides premium #WordPress hosting via WP.com (are there any other examples‽).
It would benefit the community plus encourage other hosts to take a second look at Pixelfed.
@dansup I'd say if the purpose of verification is trust, it should not be a paid feature. Otherwise it's only possible for people/orgs with enough money.
I can imagine other forms of monetization. More branding/customization features for instance. Or a special "I donated" badge. A "donaters" page where your name is listed. Things like that?
@dansup I’m not a fan of this for three reasons:
Being centralised goes against the very nature of the fediverse and leaves it open to bad actors.
There’s already a successful verification system as used by Mastodon. At the very least it will cause confusion.
These paid verification systems don’t really verify you only show that you’ve paid.
@dansup True verification is expensive, so I'm concerned this would be a loss-making product. (Unless you restrict it to locations where you can use an existing identity verification system.)
@dansup I would like not the "verification" but just the ability to get the visual "App Support Badge" next to your profile. And it must be available and possible to pay through other clients if their devs want to implement the feature and not only main Pixelfed client
@dansup maybe go with an individual suppprters wall? "Paid verification" almost always leads to grifts & scams, so you'd need to pair it with identity verification or fancy reputational damages.
(I'm slowly actually working on age & identity verification for those that want it)
@dansup looking at your profile I already see verification checkmarks for your pixelfed, GitHub, and website links. Adding a way to vary that checkmark to indicate paid support, or just to customize and give hosts the option to charge a fee for customization, could be a nice way for supporters to make that public that would be hard to fake
@dansup The added complication is how do you handle those of us who host Pixelfed servers for users? Is this verification funding only available to mothership users?
@dansup I’d prefer to have the option of a general subscription, where one option is being able to have some kind of symbol denoting I was a paid user. Let’s not conflate payment with “verification”, and be explicit about what it entails for content visibility or promotion.
@dansup can you maybe first share what you want to fund? And where the underlying problems are you want to get financed? Since I have not enough context to actually give good advice.
@dansup no. I don't think paying is a way of being "verified". Make merchandise, custom emojis, custom themes for the app or put in advantage donations in the apps.
A thing that don't have software in Fediverse is account analytics. Make that available for Pixelfed users with a small paid subscription for example.
@dansup Having it in the client regardless of the server would in practise mean built-in telemetry, no? I don't think that would go down well with the typically privacy conscious Fediverse crowd.
Also, while I agree that having a way to support the creators of the software would be nice, I think any such system should somehow also allow supporting the instance administrators, as running the services isn't cheap either.
@trisweb@dansup yeah, as we’ve seen with twitter blue it definitely makes sense to separate verification and support. better to find other benefits for supporters
@dansup Could the price maybe scale with the user's geographic location and account type? (Large US business vs freelance photographer from a small country in Eastern Europe?)
Otherwise this seems fair, definitely want the fediverse to explore ways to stay sustainable.
@MarkDW@dansup The only reason corporate social media offers free, unlimited online storage space is because of user exploitation.
I applaud everyone trying to make the fediverse sustainable without resorting to that.
I'd rather pay for my social media account (which I do, through self-hosting) than have my server shut down because the admin ran out of personal savings.
@stefan@dansup OK, this is a good and fair point and may well be an important building block for a future "internet": pay upfront and support what you need and value or descend into a cesspit with no rules or values...
@dansup I'd rather go with some other form of supporter badges as there is already the verification mechanism from Mastodon in the fediverse and that could be confusing
@dansup
Sorry but definitely no, it goes against a philosophy of decentralization and free software. I am happy to volunteer contributions, not to pay a fee to a central authority. Just my pick, sorry if I sound harsh but it's definitely against my principles.
@dansup
I am wary of any centralized authority, they always end up tempted to impose their own policies or norms. Exactly what I'm trying to avoid by promoting Fediverse.
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