So we end up with one instance having to serve millions of users… for free… Hmm yes that’s going to work.
People on Lemmy are not going to like it but either Lemmy takes off and people will have to find ways to fund their instances or Lemmy dies.
We’re in a nice period right now where kind people are able to run instances on donations or from their own pocket. But it’s not going to last.
Let’s have a mass organized bake sale. We’ll call the lemon squares “Lemmy Squares”. People will love it.
I don’t think a Wikipedia-style donation system would be bad. It’s better than ads.
I just hope they don’t do what YouTube does and interrupt the most important and engaging parts of videos to show ads in the most jarring manner possible. …though it would help if creators helped design their content for ads to have a place to go like how TV used to do.
I don’t really see how this relates to my comment. The equivalent would be for Lemmy to insert a funding message in the middle of someone’s post… What seems likely to me is a double wide post at the top of the page with a donation ask or a plan to give users who donate some extra flair or something.
Also, just use an ad blocker on YouTube or RevancedManager.
I’m sure how the ecosystem of Lemmy will play out is that there are a handful, maybe 6 or 7, main instances that require funding and are simply massive with teams committed to them. Then you have the niche medium sized instances that are known for a particular community or two, such as an instance that is well known for its great vegetarian community or whatever. Then you’ll have tiny instances that are used by irl friend groups, or for simply tech savvy people that want a home base instance that they can control.
We’re already sort of set up like this, but less organized and smaller overall. Many instances have duplicates of the same communities right now which I think will slowly fade away as future updates make it easier to visit/search other instances.
