Comment on [Instance] Kbin.run down
rglullis@communick.news 5 weeks agowhat’s stopping that from happening now?
Mostly, culture. Everyone hates ads and corporate controlled networks, but almost no one wants to pay for a commercial service provider. People say that donations is an acceptable alternative, but no one pays enough for admins and developers to a living out of this.
I’m not sure it’s that simple.
I can tell you that if if that I had 10000 paying customers for my commercial offering ($29/year for Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix and Funkwhale), I’d be able to pay myself a good salary, support the developers (I pledge 20% of Communick’s profits to the devs) and hire a couple more people to help me. It is not a lot, and a lot less than Facebook extracts from each user by exploring user data.
Elevator7009sAlt@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I do not blame people for this, but that’s because as much as people hate ads and corporate controlled networks, they hate parting with their money more, and corporate-controlled, ad-ridden social media is free.
rglullis@communick.news 5 weeks ago
“Skin in the Game” is a powerful filter. If people are not willing to put their money where their outrage is, then their opinions and desires will be completely disregarded.
I can bet that the majority of people here on Lemmy have paid a handsome amount of money for their corporate-controlled smartphone, yet paying less than 3 bucks a month is such an ordeal? I have no sympathy for these types.
Elevator7009sAlt@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I do have sympathy, considering a smartphone has become somewhat a necessity and not everyone is aware of options like the FairPhone. I agree about the filter, but it’s also true that no matter how much time social media consumes in peoples’ life, a lot of people would not want to say “I spend money on social media,” to look quite that online, no-life internet obsessed what a loser and all other sorts of insults. Especially since the norm now is to not pay, and people tend to resist change. Ads and the corporate control thing are probably just a minor annoyance for most people, they personally have not hit their bullshit limit yet, not everyone has the same priorities. I’d like them to have the option of a nice ad-free social media too. If I wasn’t around for the Reddit API drama I would not even be aware of the Fediverse and would not be here having this discussion with you.
Honestly kind of fearing a negative response because of your statement you have no sympathy for that kind of person—which means you might be more willing to engage in a harsh manner with me too. But I’ll take that risk in order to speak up in opposition to the no sympathy viewpoint.
rglullis@communick.news 5 weeks ago
Hard disagree. Computers? Internet access? Sure. Those are very difficult to live without. But a smartphone is still a convenience at best and an expensive toy at worst. The only reason that people think that is such an indispensable part of our lives is because people (especially in North America) will happily give away their freedoms in the name of convenience, and corporations will gladly profit from that.
My lack of sympathy does not mean animosity. It just means that I do not submit to the idea that people can “play the victim card” when talking about the evil corporations if they are not willing to put anything on the line.
There are plenty of people who will say “I accept the ads because that is what allows me to have so much content for free”. I may disagree with that, but at least it is consistent. What is hard to swallow is to see a bunch of Gen Z privileged people “protesting” against spez without giving up on anything of material substance.