"In 2024, it cost $N to run a Mastodon instance with ~1000 active users for a year.

Johannes Ernst

@esk @thisismissem @mekkaokereke @dma I believe Twitter before the acquisition had revenue of about $3/MAU/month, which is broadly consistent with your numbers.

{Insert Pasta Pun}

@dma @raphael @esk @thisismissem @mekkaokereke

in addition to jurisdiction -

someone also gave a talk that talked about anchoring the value at $0 (given that commercial social media costs nothing because of ads, why should their own one cost money?)

IMO communick could compete with e.g. masto host or elest:

https://elest.io/fully-managed-services/applications/fediverse
https://masto.host/pricing/

where they seem to target obviously your more techy admins with a mix of ease-of-use but also some console-ish/CICD-ish access

I'm not sure if it's a question of finding the right users on e.g. advertising on threads / techy forums, or some other way to get people in the door

I bet e.g. somebody like @jerry is either predisposed to be:

a) willing to do the sysadmin stuff themselves
b) executive-enough to delegate that to someone else for a fee as a service

I bet that's a question for user research!

maybe you'll find the correct addressable market

Raphael Lullis

@risottobias @dma @esk @thisismissem @mekkaokereke @jerry

I also offer managed hosting ( https://communick.com/packages/managed ) but like you said this is a different market.

{Insert Pasta Pun}

@raphael oh. wait those prices are /without/ it being managed?

ChatJERRYPT

@risottobias honestly, I think most people just want to signup and go. I’ve noticed that even slowing down the signup process by requiring a signup reason and moderator approval, which adds maybe an hour or two at most to the process, results in nearly all of them finding a different instance or just leaving altogether. I think we have this view that most people here want the level of control that running their own instance brings, but that’s not really the case. They don’t want to worry about what happens behind the app or the web page. Some of them recognize there is a lot to it and donate to support, but most don’t. @dma @raphael @esk @thisismissem @mekkaokereke

Raphael Lullis

@risottobias

Managed hosting = you run the instance however you seem fit (moderation policies, block lists, relays), I manage the infrastructure (server, storage, updates). Prices vary depending on the software and the resources allocated.

"Basic Access" = you get an account on the communick servers.

Esk 🐌⚡💜

@aud @mekkaokereke @thisismissem @dma let's get (just a little bit) more scientific with datas

in 2024, #hachyderm received about $24k USD in subscription dues from individuals and a handful of small "corporate" accounts. it's actually closer to $23k but $24k is so much more divisible by 12.

this averages out to about $2k a month. so tracking against our goal we're at:

- $.036/user/mo
- $.20/active user/mo

covering the raw infra costs and with some room. far from covering people costs under Esk's Dream Model (tm), though.

--
ps. re corp accounts: they don't get anything special other than a badge that says they went through a review process. they get moderated against the Rules just like anyone else. no special treatment, no refunds. if we lose that subscription renewal, we'll make it up somewhere else.

--
pps. these details will be published publicly when I get some time later in the wk from $day_job to publish Nivenly's 2024 financial report. i'm behind, sorry!

--
ppps. the new post length is great. you could say it's super green.

Emelia 👸🏻

@esk you are now convincing me on the new post length. Would be interesting to graph average post size before/after.

Esk 🐌⚡💜

@thisismissem data all the things!

PierreNick :apple_old_logo: 💾

@thisismissem @esk Oh wow! Just realized the new post length! 🫨

I could write exactly 2105 more characters right now.

That was a really meta thing to write.

Nik

@esk @thisismissem @mekkaokereke @dma

I did a bit of a deeper dive into this, mostly as a fun intellectual exercise for myself.

Mastodon service staffing.md

Mastodon service staffing.md. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

Gist (gist.github.com)

Caveat lector, worth what you paid for it, etc, etc.

Just Boby

@raphael Hi

Non tech person here, I have dumb q?

So I could have 6 person mastodon server (?) group (?) with my friends for 89 USD per year?

*dumb update edit: I see it requires techy knowledge to run it nonetheless. ( no idea about relays)

Raphael Lullis

@boby_biq

Not a dumb question at all!

The "group package" gives you 6 accounts at the "flagship" instance, https://mastodon.communick.com

Esk 🐌⚡💜

@nikclayton @thisismissem @mekkaokereke @dma this is a super fun iteration, and it's awesome that you go beyond the core tech/mod team and consider the ops-ops work like HR, etc. because as the thing scales, those supporting roles are absolutely critical.

Just Boby

@raphael I start to see more clear what I misunderstood at first. Might gonna try out the single account full access bc why not of I can do it with one user name..?

Raphael Lullis

@boby_biq

Yeah, you can sign up, get the trial and don't even need any payment info upfront.