I asked around so-called influencers why they were not on #Mastodon . Here are the most common replies:
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mekka okereke :verified:replied to βiweinβ last edited by
@iwein @thisismissem @raphael @april @nixCraft
The Nivenly Foundation has given grants to many of the folk I mentioned in this post. οΈ
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.π€·πΏββοΈ 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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Raphael Lullisreplied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@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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Emelia πΈπ»replied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
@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
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Emelia πΈπ»replied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@raphael @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
Also, fwiw, those larger instances have been funding development work. Nivenly (the organisation behind hachyderm) has funded several grants and has a security bug bounty program for the fediverse that's been quietly existing for most of the year.
They also give significant product feedback & test out new things.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@thisismissem @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
Masto.host is managed hosting, the customer gets full control over the server. This is not the same as charging per account.
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Emelia πΈπ»replied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
@raphael @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
That's not how your website reads. Maybe how you're positioning your business isn't right for the market that exists, it happens. There's several "pay to use" instances that are doing fine, e.g., social.coop
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Bruno Rocha βreplied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
I would pay for joining an instance if they provide me some really good advantage like (boosted search engine? Exclusive client with cool features? Useful automations...) OR if the instance is for a project/community/foundation that I support.
What is the selling point of your 29/y accounts?
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@thisismissem @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
Organizations that provide funding for development provide a function that is orthogonal to bearing the operational costs of running an instance with many active users.
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Emelia πΈπ»replied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
@raphael @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
And I'm saying that the instance you listed all help fund the development, not just operating their own instance.
e.g., earlier this year Nivenly paid me for fixing a security vulnerability in pixelfed which was CVE 9.9/10
Nivenly also provides me invaluable feedback on my work developing Mastodon. Not all beneficial relationships are financial, some are symbiotic where a developer can gain knowledge and feedback from people using tools everyday
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Emelia πΈπ»replied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@raphael @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
Nivenly has also filed several bugs raising things to our attention where moderator needs weren't being met; you've, as far as I can tell contributed exactly one issue to the project.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Emelia πΈπ» last edited by
@thisismissem @iwein @mekkaokereke @april @nixCraft
I have both. The website's copy is indeed confusing because I added managed hosting later.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Bruno Rocha β last edited by
Do you think that, e.g, fastmail needs to offer something extra on top of their email service, or that "pure" hosting is a legitimate business in itself?
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Bruno Rocha βreplied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
@raphael @thisismissem
fastmail solves a problem that doesn't exist yet in the mastoverse, I would pay for fastmail for reasons: Liberate me from big tech domains (gmail...), privacy (my data is encrypted, no advertising recommendation), use my own domain, faster and reliable.I could get those things hosting my own mail server but that is difficult and expensive to maintain, so fastmail is worth paying.
In the case of Social Microblogging, what does your service do different? why I would signup instead of running my own one-click instance or joining a big community instance? encryption for my DMs? guaranteed delivery of all activities? Route my own domain? privacy control?
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Rafael Martinsreplied to Bruno Rocha β last edited by
@bruno @raphael @thisismissem fwiw, I'm seriously considering to move out of fastmail because their antispam is a joke.
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Bruno Rocha βreplied to Rafael Martins last edited by
@rafaelmartins @raphael well, I don't have much to say about their services because I am not a user, my point is that they have a selling pitch, a business model, reasons to pay for.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Bruno Rocha β last edited by
How many instances disappeared overnight because the admins were overwhelmed with the user influx, or failed to keep it secure, or could not deal with the moderation, or shut down because they hit an unrecoverable database corruption...
My (few) customers pay me because they want a worry-free experience, and this is what I strive to provide.
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Rafael Martins last edited by
Replace fastmail with migadu or any other email hosting service. The point still stands.
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Rafael Martinsreplied to Raphael Lullis last edited by
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Bruno Rocha βreplied to Bruno Rocha β last edited by
Pitch 1.
Pay me 29/y and I give you an ordinary Mastodon account + (lemmy and matrix if you care), and that is all.
Pitch 2.
I offer a unique mastodon account on a high availability server, the list of guarantees [...], exclusive features and improvements as you can see on [...], a very unique and exclusive web and mobile client that extends mastodon functionalities, route your own domain to your account, monitoring panel etc..
All of this for 290/y
It will ve very easier to get me in for 10x the price because the option 2 really offer advantages, fill the gaps, solve problems.
How to get all those features working? well that is why it is called "work" you need a team, a plan, a business model etc...
One can't just offer the bare account with no differences/advantages and charge for it, unless this one is a project/community/non-profit/club etc...
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Raphael Lullisreplied to Bruno Rocha β last edited by
> How to get all those features working? well that is why it is called "work" you need a team, a plan, a business model etc...
You also need *money* and time to develop all these things without revenue. How are you going to get that?
Requirement: if the answer includes any form of "Venture Capital", it is the wrong answer.