3 ms·

> To summarize my impressions over the last 5 years I'd say there is no way to run a big open instance without funding. The best way for small single actor inst

> To summarize my impressions over the last 5 years I'd say there is no way to run a big open instance without funding. The best way for small single actor instances to survive is to be invite only or approve each member account. I really like the way social.coop, a cooperatively run instance, handles this. Because we're all just pooling a little bit of money (1GBP/yr for most people) we can run a service cheaper than we could run it ourselves if we're renting a VPS and there are enough people interested to create a rotating moderation team, so we rarely get too much spam from other instances. So far a cooperative model has worked very well for us; no donations required, just splitting up costs in the cheapest possible way so that no one gets burned out or feels like their money is carrying the instance!

INTPenis 5y ago
That's great to hear, heart warming. But I have had many experiences with various voluntary organisations over the years. Hacker spaces, maker spaces, activist groups and online groups. Maintaining a group is hard work and it requires someone to care about the end goal. And if that one fire brand gives up someone has to take their place. So in the long run most of my experiences with such organisations have ended on a sad note. And especially when it comes to the Fediverse I'd say 99.99% of my users just want to try it out and see if it ever goes anywhere. At the moment it's all coming from my pocket because I love the work and I love the idea. And at the moment it's not that much, just maybe 80 euros a month.