They exist do to this notion of “ if we just get the user base and replace this old thing with our new thing, we can then monetize later.”
This has been the case since at least the .com bubble (and subsequent crash) in the late 90s to early 2000s. Even now, 25 years later, things haven’t changed much.
The main monetization strategies are still either to:
Charge money for the service, which people don’t like since they expect way too much for free. It also alienates low-income users. OR
Show ads, which people don’t like because ads. The increasing expenses and lack of people willing to pay for services has resulted in ads becoming larger and more intrusive. It’s a cycle that I’m not sure anyone knows how to fix yet.
There’s a newer third option but it’s mostly for smaller services:
Admins pay the costs out of their own pockets, and allow users to donate to support the service
It’s part of the reason why I think decentralized services could be the future. Lemmy or Mastodon can have a lot of small servers with reasonable costs spread across many admins, instead of one centralized service that costs a significant amount to run.
It’s part of the reason why I think decentralized services could be the future. Lemmy or Mastodon can have a lot of small servers with reasonable costs spread across many admins, instead of one centralized service that costs a significant amount to run.
Ohh, absolutely, or rather, it is the past. I mean, internet was built that way, as a resilient federation of networks and protocols. Lemmy could be seen as us just rediscovering emails after the tech giants almost succeeded in killing it. We should approach all the services we use by asking ourselves basic sustainability questions:
is that thing opensource?
self hostable?
does it federate/interoperate with equivalent services?
can I pull my data out of it/relocate to another provider on a whim?
if not, is this a trustworthy and ethical business?
is it profitable?
are there open financial records available showing where/for what the money is going?
Ohh, absolutely, or rather, it is the past. I mean, internet was built that way,
Exactly! I miss those days, where search engines mostly returned small websites with useful info.
can I pull my data out of it/relocate to another provider on a whim?
This is actually kinda tricky with ActivityPub-based services like Lemmy and Mastodon. Sure, you can move provider, but you lose your original username since usernames are tightly coupled to the instance you’re using.
BlueSky’s approach is better. Currently they’re the only provider using their protocol, but they have plans to decentralize. You can use your own domain as your username, regardless of which provider you use. If you move provider, your username can move with you, you just need to update some DNS records to point to the new provider.
Ohh, absolutely, or rather, it is the past. I mean, internet was built that way,
This has been the case since at least the .com bubble (and subsequent crash) in the late 90s to early 2000s. Even now, 25 years later, things haven’t changed much.
The main monetization strategies are still either to:
There’s a newer third option but it’s mostly for smaller services:
It’s part of the reason why I think decentralized services could be the future. Lemmy or Mastodon can have a lot of small servers with reasonable costs spread across many admins, instead of one centralized service that costs a significant amount to run.
Ohh, absolutely, or rather, it is the past. I mean, internet was built that way, as a resilient federation of networks and protocols. Lemmy could be seen as us just rediscovering emails after the tech giants almost succeeded in killing it. We should approach all the services we use by asking ourselves basic sustainability questions:
is that thing opensource?
self hostable?
does it federate/interoperate with equivalent services?
can I pull my data out of it/relocate to another provider on a whim?
if not, is this a trustworthy and ethical business?
is it profitable?
are there open financial records available showing where/for what the money is going?
is it at risk of being acquired?
is it subject to foreign/unlawful interference
Etc Etc
Exactly! I miss those days, where search engines mostly returned small websites with useful info.
This is actually kinda tricky with ActivityPub-based services like Lemmy and Mastodon. Sure, you can move provider, but you lose your original username since usernames are tightly coupled to the instance you’re using.
BlueSky’s approach is better. Currently they’re the only provider using their protocol, but they have plans to decentralize. You can use your own domain as your username, regardless of which provider you use. If you move provider, your username can move with you, you just need to update some DNS records to point to the new provider.