EDIT: we just crossed 30K ๐ฅณ
We are now at 28.5K users (see https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list). The top 10 instances also got a decent boost in user count. With the exception of beehaw.org which defederated, the Fediverse is thriving ๐ฅ
@econpol @corytheboyd i wonder what makes anybody think nobody will donate, quite a few fedi servers manage to survive off of donations
i think a couple of fedi servers are semi-private with paid accounts on a subscription basis, too
Mostly the pessimist in me talking about the general case. Getting many people to pay for something that is free somewhere else is an uphill battle.
When the service is good enough, I donโt at all mind throwing in ~$5/month. Example services like that I pay for: Fastmail, Bitwarden, Mullvad
Doesnโt mean it canโt work, and success is much easier at small scale (like you said, paid private).
