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?
Something along the lines of a monthly donation model, perhaps with a nominal “pro” system. A badge to showing that you donate and how many years you’ve been donating (users can disable display of such badges if they want).
I second something like this, don’t make it compulsory but instead something people want to spend money to support.
Great idea. Backed by some kind of Patreon for FOSS. Which might exist already, as I just learned here: Open Collective
Crazy idea here: would it be possible to have a model where everyone’s phone is a mini personal instance, syncing with others when the user opens the app? When a phone is offline that phones content would be unavailable too, but that is part of the truly decentralised model.
That would drain your battery pretty quickly since it would need to be communicating with other instances constantly
Truly fair would be to have corporations pay.the users to allow them to show them advertisements.
A corporation will only pay users to watch ads if it is a way to get them to buy junk that they didn’t need or possibly even want. Otherwise the model breaks. Advertising is a scourge, to rely on it in any way does not feel “values-driven” to me.
PS: to be clear, maybe the ad model has merits on pragmatic grounds but, speaking personally, if I ever see an ad here, I am GONE and never coming back.
I agree it feels off, but it’s better than what we have now. Users could allow certain companies’ ads they feel comfortable viewing.
The additional benefit for companies would be that they would have a direct finger on the pulse of the market. If they make a decision and they see a lot of users abandon their ads, it was probably a bad decision.
The obvious downside is that people that can use the money will be under the influence of big corporations more.
I mean honestly, why not? If a server admin chargers a $1 per ad the user should get $0.50. Crude example but you get the idea.
It’s called Web Monetisation. It’s a standard that’s in development. In short, you, the user, can donate/pay money on any website that follows the standard. No patreon, no PayPal, no VISA, no yada yada.
Setup: You install an extension or use a compatible browser, create a wallet with a web payment provider, login / connect with the extension / browser.
Example operation: while browsing you happen upon a website (Lemmy.world for example) or web page (tilvids.com/u/thelinuxexperiment or one of the video pages), the “tip” button is made available, you hit it and 1£ is queued to be sent to the website or person on the webpage. At your leisure, you accept the transaction.
This can be implemented any number of ways e.g statistics are collected (locally) about which websites you visited with web monetisation active, at the end of the month, you are shown a breakdown of that activity. Say 10% peertube, 30% Lemmy, 40% mastodon, and a smattering of other softwares. You say “I want 10£ to be split across the different softwares with a minimum of 1£ per transaction”. Or anything else you can come up with.
That’s it. The website operator doesn’t need you to have PayPal, or patreon, or some special bank. You have a " wallet", you decide how the money is transfered and to whom, and you’re done.
