cross-posted from: https://threadiverse.link/lemmy.ml/post/29579005
Since we depend on them to have this platform, it seems fair to spread their request for donations. To be clear, this is to finance the developers who build this software, and has nothing to do with our specific instance operational costs.
From the Lemmy developers
An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:
Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto
If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name “Luigi”.
Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.
Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can’t go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.
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Cross-posting my comment from the lemmy.world thread:
The purity testing and holier-than-thou attacks going on in these fundraising threads are truly counterproductive. We’re not strong enough as an ecosystem and community yet to be able to afford this luxury. If this is coming from the left, I think you should consider the larger goal here.
I also think that this take is worth reading.
The devs being who they are is a big reason this place was not attractive to nazis and other reactionary trolls who were banned from reddit the way other reddit alternatives have ended up in the past. Say what you will but I would deal with whatever we have going on here over whatever Voat, for example, became 100% of the time.
Off topic, but threadiverse.link is a pretty neat service. I didn’t know such a thing existed. Unfortunately, clicking the link from my lemmy.ca account takes me to a logged-out session. Is this a known issue?
Are you browsing on www.lemmy.ca and that link took you to lemmy.ca maybe? (I just fixed that missing redirect, so now www.lemmy.ca -> lemmy.ca)
Contributing monthly both to them and Fedecan. I’ll see if I can increase my donation to Lemmy devs.
E: Done. Thanks for the reminder, and thank you to everyone making this incredible thing possible!
I donate monthly to Fedecan. If Fedecan wants to give some of that to the Lemmy devs, then go right ahead, but I’m not giving my money to them.
I would rather just donate to Fedecan, like you (and I do). If Lemmy or any other project (e.g. Pixelfed) need money to operate, I think that is a good use of the funds.
Hard to separate the developers from their politics. But once the software is out there, we’re in a “Death of the Author” scenario. Usually. For open source software, we could maintain a fork without them, but then we’d need to get a bunch of devs up to speed. So it’s an interesting choice.
Or how about no: https://sh.itjust.works/comment/18374613
I’ll donate money to individual instances, but for as long as Nutomic/Dessalines is in charge of the .ml instance I will not be donating to them.
If we all stop donating to Lemmy just because the devs are being tankies, how will Lemmy survive?
I don’t want to go back to the bot-ridden reddit with its elon-simping CEO.
It might not survive because it’s not just the software, it’s the software-userbase combination that creates the network. Moving from Lemmy to something else isn’t a seamless experience. It requires work. If you force the already sizeable userbase to move to something else, you don’t know what proportion would move and what would decide this is too much instability to deal with and go back to corpo social. If onboarding is a problem to adoption today, I bet this sort of change won’t register well.
Nobody is forced to move. They can stay on lemmy until they choose to move, because their instance decides to change or they see the features on other software is better. They can continue to use lemmy without expecting it to improve at the same rate it would with more donations.
Lemmy isn’t the network, Lemmy is just software that some members of the network run.
mbin, PieFed, Friendica, nodeBB, and a bunvh of others are also powering the network.
I mean, PieFed exists as alternative software that has a very similar feel to the one Lemmy has.
Could also go for making the instance one based on Mbin, though the layout change might be a bit of an adjustment for people.
Honestly for all the flaws it has that the developers are still working on, I would much rather give my time and money into supporting PieFed.
At least the devs there are expressly against the kind of rhetoric Nutomic and Dessalines regularly involve themselves in.
Is there a way to support individual Lemmy instances, like mine at .world, and not the main .ml tankie one?
Update: Just found their Ko-Fi. Sweet
In the sidebar at the right it lists several ways to donate.
Did it earlier today. Thanks!
