this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy

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I'm really enjoying lemmy. I think we've got some growing pains in UI/UX and we're missing some key features (like community migration and actual redundancy). But how are we going to collectively pay for this. I saw an (unverified) post that Reddit received 400M dollars from ads last year. Lemmy isn't going to be free. Can someone with actual server experience chime in with some back of the napkin math on how expensive it would be if everyone migrated from Reddit?

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[โ€“] httpjames@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Personally I plan on donating the price of Reddit Premium to my instance owner

[โ€“] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Whenever he figures out donations that is :))

I don't know what kinda person happens to have a massive server cluster sitting around waiting to go, but @TheDude is the dude, and the dude abides.

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[โ€“] LootGoblin42@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I think the idea is that many people can run lemmy servers so the load is split between everyone hosting them.

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[โ€“] Krusty@feddit.it 4 points 2 years ago

There already is a question similar to this. You can find lots of ideas there :)

[โ€“] Valmond@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'd love hosting a chunk on my anyways online Linux box (and if it was easy I could put up another junk box or two (like i3-i5 8GB 256GB-512GB/1-4TB) if it fits on a 1Gb ethernet line, but I admit I don't have the time (/energy) for all the stuff around (I'd do backups) especially if the hardware breaks or there are troll infestations etc.

Before the whole world migrates to Lemmy, maybe we could hold on by teaming up in some way.

Maybe my shard should be about doing just that, and hopefully people wanting to set up 'lemmys' could gather and share experiences and help.

Thoughts?

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[โ€“] howdy@thesimplecorner.org 3 points 2 years ago

I'm running a barebones server for myself and a few communities (not many subs yet) which will run for less than a Starbucks coffee a month... (Assuming I don't need more storage space... Lemmy seems pretty light. The main servers are gonna carry the load unfortunately... Beehaw.org had a transparency post about financials as of about a week ago they said something that their instance was costing like 50-75ish a month of I recall.

[โ€“] emstuff@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago

donations to my favorite instances, like wikipedia i hope :)

[โ€“] torknorggren@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)
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[โ€“] EdibleSource@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

I would like to join a cooperatively owned instance.

I have been tempted to join cosocial.ca, however I don't care for microblogging (Mastodon) as much as something forum-like such as a Lemmy instance.

[โ€“] luckystarr@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Put up a yearly donation drive (like Wikipedia) but unlike Wikipedia do:

  1. a competition between the various instances, on which collects the most donations
  2. not shift the page content when displaying the donation banner!

Ideally the donations will be handled through a non-profit org dedicated to this particular purpose. If the donation level is high enough, developers can be hired to further improve the source code. Currently the funds are managed through OpenCollective, but with enough growth this may not be feasible any longer.

This will most likely lead to heated debates as this will build a somewhat centralized organization, which necessarily comes with power concentration.

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[โ€“] octet33@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

The thing is, Lemmy is decentralized. You don't need to have an account on an instance (server) to use that instance's "subreddits" (communities) - instances communicate their activity to each other automatically, so any instance will do (provided the instances haven't banned each other). It's just like email.

So it's pretty simple to just stop accepting sign-ups once an instance starts to become impractically large. Anyone can start an instance for just the cost of a domain ($10ish/year, or free if it's a subdomain of an existing website) and a server (that random computer you already have lying around will do just fine, for free). And a small instance can do fine on just donations and the good will of the operator.

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[โ€“] fratermus@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

edit: misposted comment - see bizarre explanation below (and it's not just me)

  • westworld - lovely visuals
  • alias - excellent theme music
  • bojack horseman
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[โ€“] V4uban@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago
[โ€“] SubArcticTundra@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

You can always have paid-access Lemmy servers

[โ€“] RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Really, the only direct cost of lemmy is the development. That's the beauty of lemmy's decentralized nature, the cost of actually running it is spread out among tech hobbyists with spare hardware and time (edit: and only ~$30/year or less for a domain name), or may even have some money to throw at new hardware. For most people, the connectivity doesn't incur any additional cost to whatever they're already paying for internet access.

There are plenty of free and excellent open source projects that neither charge money or generate profits, they're driven by passionate developers who give their and talent for the enjoyment of it and betterment of the community.___

[โ€“] freedomenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Communities can get quite big, the big communities would be quite expensive to be hosted right?

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[โ€“] Heraldique@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think the price is spread out across multiple generous people that generously host instances. I think it really depends on how much members there are. From what I heard my instance is 25 $ a month. Another instance I was in on Mastodon cost a few hundreds bucks to run. This is why it is good to help out your fellow admins. On the other hand, lemmy and other fediverse software are open source, so they don't really have to pay for developpers. Also the scope of what lemmy or Mastodon do is considerably smaller that Facebook, Twitter and the likes. Facebook isn't just a social media, it's a spying engine and an ad recommendation platform, Lemmy and mastodon are just social medias, so of course it costs less to do.

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It's literally all donated

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