The operational costs for:

radioactivestardust

@dansup but why then do you want to have an onboarding that leads to one instance? It will raise the server costs even more and you can't meet the monthly costs atm? I don't understand

Daniel Supernault

@bookstardust because a lot of new users do not understand federation, its a complicated step

Roma Komarov

@dansup This was probably proposed, but: what if any instance could have some setting in it which says that it is ok with being a “general” one. Then, on the onboarding step, a random instance from a list of instances that participate would be selected, with some simple explanation for a user, a button to randomize it from the same list again, and then a link to all instances?

Daniel Supernault

@kizu That won't work, people who are not familiar with the fedi want to join the flagship instance with the most trust and reliability.

Using random servers to register on is very dangerous, because not all of them are as dedicated to this as I am, some of them don't update frequently or handle mod reports as fast as we do.

For new people, it's essential we provide them the best experience and server, and few can provide the level that I can, because I'm the developer.

Daniel Supernault

@nblr that's fair, but at the same time, I can't worry about devops.

I have to focus on coding, devops and marketing, otherwise I would go another route.

Roma Komarov

@dansup Mm, I think maybe we should have a bit more faith in the Fediverse, and other Pixelfed servers? That's why I mentioned the “pledge”, and why I mentioned some moderation over which servers are accepted. Of course, just random servers would be bad from many standpoints.

Not giving an option is saying “all other servers deserve no trust”.

Aarno Aukia

@dansup I work in cloud infrastructure, let me know how I can also donate spare server capacity

rany

@dansup @mntyfrsh at least according to https://getonthestore.com/nonprofit-donation-apps/

> Apple’s 30% commission applies to payments made through in-app purchases (IAP). However, charitable donations are not processed through IAP, so this commission does not apply to donations made within your app.

Kevin Beaumont

@dansup why not close registrations to spread the cost?

Markus

@dansup I have joined #pixelfed only some days ago and love it aleady. I happily just joined your Patreon with a monthly donation! Keep on your good work 🥳

barczek

@dansup Is there a chance I can donate via PayPal

Mark Dixon

@dansup how about ISPs host an instance for their customers as a value add. This is how usenet uses to work and it worked pretty well.

Jonathan Hartley

@dansup @kizu I adore you and respect all the work you do immensely, but "only I can do it right" does not sound sustainable, or even healthy for the idea of a distributed fedi. We can all agree that a *totally* random server would be unacceptable. But couldn't you pre-select one from a curated shortlist, while still providing the ability for knowledgeable or opinionated users to override that default?