The way I saw it I probably saw way more than $8/month in ads per month on Twitter before I quit Twitter for Mastodon (especially when you count brands getting

The way I saw it I probably saw way more than $8/month in ads per month on Twitter before I quit Twitter for Mastodon (especially when you count brands getting retweeted everywhere for essentially free marketing on their part), and as an "ad removal" fee, Masto.host or someone else is still a good idea to own your own social media with basically no brands trying for "engagement" and definitely no ads or "Promoted Posts". It's not that the stuff I post is worth that much a month to spin it out into the network, but that it has been worth it to have so much control over what I receive from the network, including no ads and no "brands".