this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Fediverse
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This magazine is dedicated to discussions on the federated social networking ecosystem, which includes decentralized and open-source social media platforms. Whether you are a user, developer, or simply interested in the concept of decentralized social media, this is the place for you. Here you can share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions on topics such as the benefits and challenges of decentralized social media, new and existing federated platforms, and more. From the latest developments and trends to ethical considerations and the future of federated social media, this category covers a wide range of topics related to the Fediverse.
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I'm new to the fediverse but have a long history with FOSS and P2P. Realistically, the fediverse is not a money-making venture. It's a passion project to fill a gap in existing software offerings. The source code is hosted online (just confirmed by visiting kbin and Lemmy on GitHub). But the reason they can run without massive influxes of cash is because they are P2P in the resources they consume (fediverse style).
So donations are key. @ernest won't get rich on donations, but they can keep him supported while he develops and maintains kbin, and his experience with kbin could underpin and propel a very prosperous software engineering career, where his reputation precedes him. The passion project continues and the software remains in positive development. I've done the exact same thing in my career and I'm probably 5-10 years ahead of where I'd otherwise be because of my FOSS passion project.
Since the fediverse is a peer-to-peer structure with freely available foundational software, anybody can pitch in resources. Anybody with a computer, an Internet connection, and some sysadmin skills can run a fediverse server. Mileage will vary based on connection speed, hard drive space, etc, but it's completely doable. Lemmy/kbin servers are probably going to be the next most popular service that homelabbers start hosting, and peak-demand can be offset with scalable solutions like virtual servers (VPS offerings like AWS, but these cost more immediate $).
So knowing that, hopefully your question is answered. Short story is the fediverse follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) backbone that torrenting and other piracy methods used (e.g. Napster or Soulseek, but without a central server!) and similar to Tor as well. I specifically name those networks because P2P networking has been incredibly resilient for decades (except Napster, whose central server was shut down).
Decentralization is not only the future, I fear it’s our only hope of maintaining an internet that is truly free as opposed to one built solely for data collection and corporate profit.
Is there any reason an instance couldn't just copy Reddit's model? (Advertising that's hidden if you subscribe, paid awards, etc.)
The beauty of federation isn't that we have a million instances. It's that if there's a problem with one instance (such as greed), we can just go to another. In effect it adds competition instead of walled gardens.
Even if there's only a couple big instances that make up the majority of users it's not really a problem as long as the federation option holds. It's not the leaving that makes federation great, it's the ability to leave.
An instance can do whatever it wants, within the terms of the license of the software it runs.
But so can every other one. And ad drive social media has demonstrated itself to be toxic social media. So, you'll end up with a lot of other sites defederating from it.
Being ad driven is what has led to Reddit doing what it's doing, after all. The people who have come here from there should be much more concerned about emulating that kind of model all over again. Otherwise, why not just stay there?
It needs to be a subscription model, an ad model, or a donation model. It's not free to host a website especially one with millions of users. I think a Wikipedia style model could work.
It can, if people see it as as valuable to them as Wikipedia.