I’m fairly new and don’t 100% understand it yet, but instances are run on servers that require money. Are we heading towards seeing ads or subscriptions to raise funds instead of relying on donations to cover overhead?
Especially with the influx of new users. Hardware upgrades are needed.
It’s definitely possible to see scammy for-profit strategies pop up.
A more likely outcome is Big Tech coming in and fragmenting and dissolving ActivityPub servers like all the Lemmy servers. It will most likely be Big Tech incorporating the big tech websites/servers (Meta, Twitter, etc) into ActivityPub and then creating a closed Big Tech ActivityPub-like system where the artifically popular servers/instances (Meta, Twitter, etc.) migrate from FOSS ActivityPub to a closed for-profit system and essentially close off FOSS Lemmy. And most people wont understand FOSS ActivityPub vs Big Tech ActivityPub-like system thereby rendering OG Lemmy useless.
I prefer the idea of have separation; one whole server(s) for bots, one for for‐profit big tech, etc. Big Tech can play but won’t interfere with the heart of the AcivityPub.
But who tf am I?
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Hahahah. Very good explanation, and well articulated. My thoughts exatcly
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How? If, say, Facebook built a Lemmy-compatible instance, the worst they could do is eventually defederate it from other Lemmy instances, in which case we’re right back where we started.
Don’t know exactly, but it’s what happened with Google and XMPP.
Same thing can happen here.
But I’m imagining that Big Tech starts to post from their own server with content that is interesting to the the masses, rather than us nerd, then they market to all the other servers to get a bunch of sign ups (maybe with exclusive content or features, idk), then federate with their own other websites and servers using their own proprietary ActivityPub, then bam OG ActivityPub never takes off, withers and become even fewer nerds like me, and and a bunch of bots with little content.
There’s not inherently bad about there being a profit motive. Servers are expensive, developers are expensive. There are costs to be paid, and if I am going to do something full time I’m going to have to pay my bills, too.
That said, there’s definitely a line where it’s taken too far and it loses what originally made it great cough cough.
I think otherwise, only because being profit driven always ends up hurting the consumer. Whether it be squeezing out every penny from us and them not caring about leaving us destitute, to actively obliterating the environment, to stealing our data because “hey, you have nothing to hide right? Also, we’ll only use it for marketing ;) . Don’t ask why it’s so expensive to sell.”
It’s up to you as a consumer to make those choices.
But would you do your job if it didn’t pay you and you couldn’t pay your rent? If I decided to really put effort into running an instance, developing a nice frontend, paying for the servers, should I not be able to pay my rent?
What amount of money is acceptable for me to have to spend, since it’s immoral for me to try to get any of it back?
https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
An article covering similar issues to what you brought up.
Yes. Exactly, however, it’s 2023 so new and more vicious strategies will probably be used.
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I believe all the information is publicly available. The problem though, is as you say: it’s not easily accessible to us laymen. It’s all in very specific technological terms and codes. In the name of federation, accessibility, and transparency, there definitely needs to be a single database that describes all this, just like your wiki idea.
Hey, I responded to some of your questions earlier. I don’t know if you saw my most recent response to clarify a few more things.
I have to say, seeing you on this thread being somewhat militant has me thinking you might be concern trolling? I’m trying to help you out, but you’re jumping straight to conclusions like Kbin is going to cause WW3.
For anyone curious, this is the previous thread in question: https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/120407/Welp-I-just-deleted-my-12-year-old-240k-karma#entry-comment-471743
Obviously a troll
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Wait, are you saying that you didn’t even read what I said? And you’re assuming that what I wrote is just shit? Without even reading it? I gave you a pretty thorough response. Probably took me a solid ~15 minutes to type out and research and provide hyperlinks.
Troll probably isn’t the right word to describe you. But it seems you’ve already made up your mind, and you want the Fediverse to be nefarious. Without listening to any actual discourse.
I would say that I feel you’ve wasted my time, but this has been pretty entertaining watching you come up with these crazy responses. Plus, I’ve learned a bit more about this platform, researching your questions. I’m going to go ahead and block you now.
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Take a quick look through the last ~24 hours of my profile. I’ve put a fair amount of effort into answering their questions. While it’s been entertaining for me, don’t waste any more time with this person. They are not listening.