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How are we going to pay for all this? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by psylancer@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] seaduck@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I suspect reddit's reported uprofitablity isn't due to the cost of hosting, but from blowing money in other ways.

[–] this@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Yea, lemmy is volunteer run, so most of the cost is going to be hosting it would seem, unlike reddit who have to pay for employees/office space(?)/legal fees/ect. I would imagine that the larger instances will have the most problems paying for hosting while the small ones will probably be fairly cheap.

[–] maddogx2 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah cocaine and hookers don't come cheap

[–] oh_so_hazey@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Hookers and blow, right? It's always hookers and blow

[–] venoft@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their hosting costs also rose exponentially when they decided to host their own videos and pictures.

[–] petriborg@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Which they could have locked behind Reddit Gold or some pay-tier. /shrug

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We don't even know for a fact if they are truly unprofitable or not, it's not like anyone here has reviewed their books.

[–] ZebraAvatar@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, but it would be extra stupid for Spez to say that if it weren't true because it could affect investments and draw legal action.

[–] Angry_Maple@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly, who knows at this point? I've seen some horrible business/legal decisions happen over the last 5-10 years. Some people will practically set themselves on fire just for the chance to make higher profit. Hypothetically, this certainly wouldn't be the first case of a sketchy business drawing bad legal attention to itself, not by a long shot. I have seen a lot of businesses shut because of this type of behaviour.

The other lies from Spez about the developers certainly don't help his case, either. That's another fantastic way for Reddit to open themselves up to potential legal issues.