this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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Personally I think we're just reaching a critical mass with the traditional way social media platforms and advertisements work. The status quo is that all these platforms spring up, get millions of potentially billions in capital from a bunch of rich people who want to be rich, the initial mandate is just "grow grow grow", making a return isn't relevant, as long as you can grow fast enough you keep getting more money
Then eventually you can't do that anymore, you can't get more funding faster than you use it. And now the rich people who gave you money initially are starting to demand it back. All your conventual lons are due back as well. So now you need to monetize. If you make your platform a paid platform, you'll lose a lot, potentially even most, of your user base. And that would make the rich people sad. If you stay free, you need to make your money back from ads.
The issue is, no amount of money is ever enough. The rich people all want to get richer. So even once you've paid back your debts, you still want to make your own money too
Another key part of it is that if it's structured like that, you will always inherently have problems keeping someone happy. Because your users are not your customer, they're you're product. But unlike a conventional product, your users need to be kept happy as well. It's not like a normal product where you just chuck 'em on the shelf and you're off to the races. If you don't keep your products happy, they walk off the shelf and now you have nothing to sell to your customers
I'm hoping this Federation stuff will help with all that, but I do have some worries about how these servers plan on making enough money to not need to shutdown. Donations are good, but can you rely on just donations and nothing else to keep you running? I mean, look at Wikipedia. They get some funding from various organisations and have decently large cash reserves, and we've all seen how aggressively they beg for money
(Edit: I didn't post this multiple times, did I? Jerboa threw a tantrum when I tried to post it)
Funding is definitely a big issue - and one reason that a small server like this one that is not focussed on growth is important. The costs of aussie zone are pretty sustainable (check in the Meta community if you want to know what it is costing), and the growth is limited by having restricted communities and being focussed on a limited population. The other server I have an account on is a lot more chaotic, had unconstrained growth and I would consider much less likely to survive long term. But it is also interesting because the person who started it is trying a participatory democracy style of running the site, which could either end up in disaster or working really well with a group of people who take ownership of what they are creating together. I predict the former but hope for the latter!
Edit: I think you only posted once, but the same thing happened to me - I thought I typed out a long post and that it had disapeared.