So that's your next target: how to get your work to fruition. It's never not going to be about money, so either it's a slow process with an organic, ethical income - or rapid with money from potentially problematic sources.
I think we may be talking at cross-purposes: I'm not advocating for protection and safeguarding to take back seats. I've done plenty of those things. I'm saying that we need to be grateful for what you can currently do, or else put up the money.
Exactly, and people like me need to put up, or shut up. What you do is great, and if people want *this* model to continue, they need to accept that you're doing all you can.
Or, we can start thinking about funding.
Refuse to accept what? That we should be grateful to those currently keeping Mastodon afloat?
If you have a way to prioritise and shortcut improvements to safety and onboarding, that's wonderful. Truly. Get going, and I'm in awe of your talents.
But for the vast majority of users, there are two gripes - what Mastodon *isn't* providing, and the ridiculous amount of gatekeeping within the system. Both are off-putting. For the former, most of us can't fix that.
Although, when people start seeing budgets of $30+ million, they often get more interested in the money than the principles.
I find it astonishing, as somebody who can barely use 5% of the functions on my doohickey gadgets, how Mastodon is held together by goodwill and string. The trade off from that is that we must accept what people can afford to do for us with their time and efforts.
This is like that Christmas morning where you woke up convinced you were getting a PlayStation, but it was socks.
And you don’t own the socks and you have to pay to use the socks and you’re horribly allergic to the socks but they just passed a law saying you can’t take the socks off even if they’re killing you.
But hey, at least they’re bulletproof, so you can keep shooting yourself in the feet.
You had one job, America.
