I asked around so-called influencers why they were not on #Mastodon . Here are the most common replies:
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April The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆replied to Raphael Lullis last edited by@raphael @mekkaokereke @thisismissem @nixCraft i recommend reading up on the german medical system, ammies are sared of it because they think its "socialism". but: surprise surprise, not everyone needs to be charged for it to work. charge people by their income.
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Risottoreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke @nixCraft happy/funny content is great, but when a platform doesn't address awful content good enough I think that's what people are mad about.
like, they're not saying the chuckles aren't popular
they're saying the incel pipeline is too strong on recommendation algorithms
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mekka okereke :verified:replied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
Eg
Harry Mack:
Freestyle rapper (makes up songs on the spot)https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=czcEatnm0LU
He started doing raps for people on YouTube and Omegle:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DceyX6SKyAQ* Runs ads
* Does sponsored mentions (eg for Ricola throat lozenges)
* Sells albums + concert tickets
* Is paid for direct appearances
* Influences rap away from mumble rap (Future), and back towards 90s lyricism (Nas, Jay-Z, Eminem).He also raps on livestream for "tips."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iLIbC8kt4kw2/2
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Raphael Lullisreplied to April The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆ last edited by
@april @mekkaokereke @thisismissem @nixCraft
I live in Germany. I'm well aware of how it works.
I do not want to detour the discussion into politics. We can discuss hypotheticals all night, but in the end of the day I will still have to make a simple choice: do I think that I can get 5-10k customers to pay the $29/year to get access to my suite of Fediverse services, or should I go back to find a job that can pay me what I think I am worth?
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@raphael @mekkaokereke @thisismissem @april @nixCraft that certainly happens in the OSS world, where some people yell at others for even trying to make money producing it, while in practice, a huge amount of high quality OSS is paid for by large companies
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Julian Fietkaureplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke Very fun videos!
To state the obvious, "influencer" is (in its current meaning) a young term with no formal definition, so colloquial understanding will be kinda fuzzy almost necessarily. I ask about it because I genuinely don't know.
It seems like the term rose to prominence out of, or concurrently with, the concept of influencer marketing. If ad agencies are the origin, I'd suspect a degree of ethicswashing in the definition they'd initially push.
(1/2)
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@notmybackdoorbug @damon @nixCraft I have been on here for a couple of years now as my primary social platform, I feel quite fluent in it, yet I have NEVER felt the email analogy is helpful or intuitive to most people. I understand for some people it's the best analogy, but for most people, it's just confusing.
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Julian Fietkaureplied to Julian Fietkau last edited by
@mekkaokereke Maybe that's just where I'm stuck in the past, as someone generally not close to that world. In my perception "influencer" (just like "content") has that bitter aftertaste of swallowing the framing of marketing agencies, like anything that isn't monetized is wasted.
But it's fairly likely that someone under 20 would feel very differently about those words. Maybe in running with a less manipulative framing, you could say they have been reclaimed, sort of.
(2/2)
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@raphael @april @mekkaokereke @nixCraft
Building a business (selling a service) is also always going to be different to being self-employed and making a comfortable living.
I am not particularly financially stressed at the moment, but I have been in the last year. I'm confident I can make the amount of money I need to this year, but of course getting more community support makes my position significantly safer & less dependent on grants & freelance work.
Ergo, I'm currently successful.
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@thisismissem @april @mekkaokereke @nixCraft
I don't want to tell you how to feel about your finances or the value system you use to consider what is important when choosing on what to work.
But I will say that the majority of people with your skills and experience are looking to make more than a mere "the amount of money they need".
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April The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆replied to Raphael Lullis last edited by@raphael @thisismissem @mekkaokereke @nixCraft well but then you need to offer people something useful they actually want to pay money for
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@raphael @april @mekkaokereke @nixCraft
If I wanted to do that, I would. It was my choice to do what I'm doing, with the financial changes it meant taking on. Please don't infantilise me.
Money is not what drives me.
Yes, I need money to live, but I don't need to be making €80-160k, yes, I know my skills are able to ask €160k, I've done that before. It didn't make me happy nor healthy.
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@thisismissem @april @mekkaokereke @nixCraft
To repeat: my point is not to argue your choices. You and only you know what is best for you.
My point is that there are so few people working on Fedi because most people are not willing to make the same choices you did and leave money on the table or sacrifice their earning potential.
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I value the Fediverse and want to fund its existence. I don't want to simply set money on fire. What are my options?
My charity budget is completely allocated. My investment budget is not.
I think that's a critical challenge, if someone solves that without breaking the ideals, it would be beyond awesome.
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Jürgen Hubertreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
Okay, here are some numbers. I translate German folk tales and publish them on my Patreon and in books. I published a Stakeholder Report for 2022 where I go into the details for my revenues and expenses:
Stakeholder Report 2022 - Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles
Once again, it has taken me far too long to publish my annual Stakeholder Report. But here are my musings […]
Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles (sunkencastles.com)
I advertise via engaging on social media. In 2022 I made the switch from Twitter to Mastodon, and my revenue was:
€834.17 from Patreon
€299.36 from book sales at AmazonI haven't yet managed to do a full-fledged Stakeholder Report for 2023, but my revenue last year was:
€2,071.18 from Patreon
€443.17 from book sales at AmazonThus, I can conclude that the move from Twitter to Mastodon has not hurt me in any way, and engagement is way better here than it was over there.
The revenue is, of course, not nearly enough to live off. But I am still very early in my writing career (I have only published two books so far), and this is still something in my free time next to a busy full-time day job. I expect that as long as I publish more books and more translations, my revenue will gradually increase - perhaps to a level where I can justify reducing hours at my day job.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to April The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆ last edited by [email protected]
@april @mekkaokereke @thisismissem @nixCraft
Providing Mastodon/Lemmy/Matrix/Funkwhale, ensuring they stay up, secure, spam-, abuse- and harassment-free.
Helping with onboarding and troubleshooting, figuring out gotchas and limitations of the software to let them know if there are workarounds or fixes. Sometimes even getting involved in the project development, writing and following up on issues.
This is a service that (I think) is worth a lot more than $29/year.
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@iwein @mekkaokereke @raphael @april @nixCraft
There isn't really ROI for stuff that is open-source, and that's where we really need the money, not in for-profit services.
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mekka okereke :verified:replied to ⁂iwein⁂ last edited by
@iwein @thisismissem @raphael @april @nixCraft
The Nivenly Foundation has given grants to many of the folk I mentioned in this post. ️
mekka okereke :verified: (@[email protected])
@thisismissem @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Hot take: People think that the Fediverse isn't safe(yet) because of slight differences between how you see the world, and Eugen sees the world, and Ro sees the world, and Oliphant sees the world, and Jaz sees the world, and Sierdy sees the world, and Hrefna sees the world, etc. But the real reason the Fediverse is not safe and secure (yet), is that none of you can earn a stable and secure living working on Fediverse safety full time.🤷🏿♂️ 1/N
Hachyderm.io (hachyderm.io)
I'd say either give to one of those folks directly, or give to Nivenly.
The Nivenly Foundation
Powerful, extensible, and feature-packed frontend toolkit. Build and customize with Sass, utilize prebuilt grid system and components, and bring projects to life with powerful JavaScript plugins.
(nivenly.org)
Speaking of investment, the goal is not to create a new part of the non-profit world, where these orgs are dependent on philanthropy. The goal is to bootstrap these orgs and help them become independent, running without VC or philanthropy
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@thisismissem @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
If you get for-profit services, they will be more than aligned with the sustainability of the open source part.
For example: I already pledged to give 20% of communick's profits to the underlying projects. The only "problem" is that communick will never be profitable for as long as it's competing with large instances (hachyderm/.world/universeodon) that have no intention/plan to become proper businesses.
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@raphael @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
I'm pretty sure instances run not for profit aren't your enemy. Last I heard Masto.host was doing pretty okay. Their smallest plan is 3 times your smallest plan in cost.
It's easy as a business owner to blame others for the challenges you face in building & growing a business, it's a lot harder to raise to the challenges and reassess your decisions