this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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I see Lemmy accepts donations as well. https://join-lemmy.org/donate
Not sure about ActivityPub etc.
But isn’t it all open source?
Not sure how open source interacts with non-profits (whether that’s allowed, wouldn’t be open then… ?).
Having difficulty following how what you suggest could happen. Not saying you’re wrong I just don’t get it.
It is just the idea of people working for free and for nothing .... if those people keep getting no monetary support, eventually, they'll look for ways to find it somewhere else.
The instance owners of Lemmy, Kbin and all the rest all maintain the hardware using their own money
The developers of the Lemmy software all work mostly for free or as a side job to maintain the software
The developers of Activitypub, the protocol that makes the whole fediverse possible all work as professionally either as volunteers, part of a larger organization or as a side job
All of them are either making very little money from doing all this or making no money at all ... which is admirable and I support anyone that is willing to do that.
But like anything in life, you can't keep giving forever and eventually either you run out of your own money or your own time. So you pass on the responsibility, you invite others in, or you figure out a small way to make money to save yourself and your work. It creates a crack in the system for monied interests to step in. And those interests often are only interested in monetizing things rather than in creating any benefits for the greater good.
So it's in our best interests as users to give and donate to the instance owners, the various software developers and regularly support them ... if we don't, eventually someone else will and that someone else might not be the people or businesses we want to support what we all built.