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1. Embed this notice
   Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:39 JST Martin Holland

   I got a lot of heat for this #OpEd two months ago, but I don't remember someone convincing me, that I am wrong. On the contrary – I think, the basic premise still holds. So I'm curious what the rest of #Mastodon and the #Fediverse thinks, because it's applicable to both:
   https://www.heise.de/meinung/Kommentar-Mastodon-muss-etwas-kosten-um-auf-lange-Sicht-zu-bestehen-7518145.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege

   What I was arguing for was, that Mastodon (all the Fediverse, really) needs to cost something for users, to work in the long term.

   Let me explain..

   A thread ? (1/6)

   #SocialMedia #TwitterTakeover

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:32 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • blaine

     @mho I am roughly in agreement with your ideas so far about commercial instances and public broadcasters.

     A few others:

     - social appliances in the home are great. I'd like to see more of these.
     - cooperatives like CoSocial and social.coop are a good option.
     - @blaine has suggested public libraries.
     - Postal services could also be a good provider.

     I appreciate individual operators but I think we ask too much of them.

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:33 JST Martin Holland

     in reply to

     What do you think ☝️? If I am wrong, why and where? Who should pay the costs of a #Mastodon with say 100 million users?

     I'm not talking about the tech-savvy people hosting their own instances, I'm talking about the broader public, that could one day migrate here from #Twitter and the other #SocialMedia.

     If we don't get us – and later them – used to the idea, that all this here costs money, I don't think, this is futureproof.

     #Fediverse #TwitterTakeover

     (6/6)

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:34 JST Martin Holland

     in reply to

     • ZDF :zdf:

     I can think on one other alternative, at least in countries with big public boradcasters, that have money. Here in #Germany, @ZDF has made public, that they are working on a #Twitter-alternative. So clearly they think, it's their mission, to provide a #SocialMedia-plattform.

     So then, why reinvent the wheel? Just set up a #Mastodon or #Fediverse-instance for the public, that already funds the broadcaster. So we would pay, but not a new fee, but with existing costs.

     (5/6)

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:35 JST Martin Holland

     in reply to

     Instead, it's time for #Mastodon to pass on the costs. Alternative models are being tried out here. For example https://digitalcourage.social wants a monthly fee of one Euro for an account on its own instance. So far, this has not become widely established, but it would be desirable for the Internet if this were to happen. After all, it also makes visible the costs associated with our online lives.

     Also much is paid by donations. That doesn't really scale, I think.

     (4/6)

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:36 JST Martin Holland

     in reply to

     • heise online

     At the same time, #Mastodon is explicitly designed so that business models such as #Twitter's do not work. Advertising can't or shouldn't pay for the costs, like on other #SocialMedia.

     Hope is pinned on companies and organizations setting up instances for their employees. Here the funding would be clear, but except for some industries with employees in the public eye - such as the press (like my emploeyer @heiseonline) - I see no reason why companies should do this on a large scale.

     (3/6)

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Holland (mho@social.heise.de)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 05:51:38 JST Martin Holland

     in reply to

     #Mastodon, despite having more than 11 million users, is largely based on enthusiasm and unpaid work.

     That's not sustainable, especially not, when the #Fediverse keeps growing and more people come here, that don't want to idealistically build the future of #SocialMedia, but just microblog, share pictures or connect.

     Someone has to pay for server costs and stuff like that, but the work to moderate the content shouldn't need to be done for free either. So we need a financing model.

     (2/6)

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 06:05:52 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @mho another idea is ISPs. We're all used to paying them, and we're all used to having an email address and sometimes Web page space offered, even if we rarely use them. Adding social networking with Mastodon would be pretty painless, and could be a good option for a lot of people.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 06:37:36 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Linebyline

     @linebyline @mho sure. There are obviously a lot of different options, which I think is good. The more models and more variety we have, the better.

   • Embed this notice
     Linebyline (linebyline@bytetower.social)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 06:37:38 JST Linebyline

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan @mho I worry that ISP-based instances would end up driving people toward a handful of large instances, since small, independent ISPs can't even always manage e-mail hosting for all their customers.

     Besides, I wouldn't want to be on a social network run by Comcast.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 22-Apr-2023 06:40:52 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Linebyline

     @linebyline @mho another one is domain name registrars. A lot of them sell WordPress blogs or other apps as an upsell or freebie. Mastodon could fit in there, too.