-
[ugh sorry i can't stop myself from posting about federation] so, like, on one level i agree, it's a difficult and complicated up front decision and it definitely puts a lot of people off using Mastodon. but also i wanna dig into the word "win" here @owillis/1593608286460420101Look on archive.org
♻️ 6 Retweets ❤️ 28 Favorites Mood +6 🙂
-
because what do you win? lots of users? to be the dominant social media platform? that's pretty cool to brag about, but... servers cost money to run, and moderation is a tiring & time consuming process! Twitter costs a lot to run, and (before Elon) didn't quite break even.Permalink Look on archive.org
-
Mastodon doesn't have ads. it's funded by - well, there's a Patreon for the main dev & biggest instances, it makes around £300k a year: patreon.com/mastodon . that pays for the hosting costs & a little bit to support a few devs at way below market rate.Permalink Look on archive.org
-
but most people aren't on the main instances. they're on a spread of smaller instances, mostly run by volunteers. server costs are often covered by users chipping in, but admin time rarely is. moderation, server admin (including, recently, dealing with a load of load spikes)Permalink Look on archive.org
-
why do people run instances? because they want to provide something for the community they're in. because they believe that places to hang out online shouldn't only be run for the benefit of corporations. because they like playing with tech.Permalink Look on archive.org
-
the process of choosing a server is the process of finding someone who wants you around enough to do free work to maintain a space for you to do it in. of course there's friction! you're not doing them a favour by joining - they're doing you a favour.Permalink Look on archive.org
-
reduce that friction, and you can win - win users, win work, win responsibility. it's flipped around! and i get that this can be surprising, it's counter to a lot of instincts we've built up. but... that's because it's genuinely not a service built on a capitalist model.Permalink Look on archive.org