I absolutely believe the Fediverse needs to remain a space built on transparency, autonomy, and equity for users, instance admins, and developers working on ActivityPub. Look at the current state of social media, power and money concentrated in the hands of a few, stifling innovation and undermining trust. The centralized model isn’t just flawed, I think it’s had a devastating impact on an entire generation.
The Fediverse offers us a chance to rethink how the internet should work. It’s not just about being a space for free expression; it’s also about proving that a values-driven model can support those who keep the lights on. My main question is, can we implement monetization that honors our commitment to fairness, transparency, and equity, while still ensuring that the people supporting the network earn a livable wage?
This isn’t about getting rich, it’s about creating a sustainable ecosystem that empowers us all to build and maintain a trustworthy digital space. The Fediverse is already a success in its own right, but to truly evolve and thrive, I would argue we need a resource model that can drive sustainable innovation and meaningful progress.
TL;DR: I’d quit my day job tomorrow if I could secure a living wage from this work. Many in tech whold do the same. Is a monetization model that fairly compensates those who support and sustain the Fediverse possible?
I agree. Look at email servers. It just works out. Email server owners don’t look at the content. They just host the servers. Both protocols are federated.
Forums will most likely be driven by the community and volunteers. Just move everyone over to the fediverse. Then it should be easier to find such people.
But do you remember how they monetized email
Yeah, the largest email company is probably Google (maybe Microsoft). Google definitely looks at every email they receive for users!
I don’t use Gmail. There are plenty of email providers out there that is completely free without ads and privacy focused. Mailfence, Tutanota, ProtonMail etc. Personally I use my ISP provider that is actually pro privacy - Bahnhof . That due it is a niche and if you don’t save logs you don’t have the log storage cost.
If feddit.nu (only 50 users) did not exist I would have chosen to self-host it on the free Oracle VPS teir.
The claim was “Email server owners don’t look at the content”. This is untrue since possibly the largest owner of email servers looks at the content to monetize the service. That’s all.
They are not suppose to do that. It is disrespect to the user privacy. Hence good opportunity to change owner. Just a design flaw of the protocol that makes it possible to abuse that. Gmail is just one single provider, but yes, many more does it and Gmail is big.