EDIT: we just crossed 30K 🥳

We are now at 28.5K users (see https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list). The top 10 instances also got a decent boost in user count. With the exception of beehaw.org which defederated, the Fediverse is thriving 🔥

  • corytheboyd@kbin.social
    0·
    2 years ago

    Rather, more instances, not servers. An instance can scale out using as many servers as the owner can tolerate.

    I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one managing a horizontally scaled fediverse instance on a cloud platform though, that shit adds up fast, and no way in hell is anyone going to donate here.

    I honestly don’t get how that’s supposed to work indefinitely, that’s usually where ad money comes in and… god dammit we’re back to square one lol. I’m here for a good time, not a long time 😎

    • levochemist@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      I definitely think that ads will start appearing on the bigger instances especially since the overhead will most likely outpace donations. I could also see a lot of super small instances pop up just for people to host for their friends. I’m thinking about creating an instance just for me and a few friends but I’ll definitely have to deviate from my standard Reddiy username, can’t let that cat out of the bag.

      • TechnoBabble@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        I’ve said it before, but I really think that “Reddit Gold” was an excellent non-invasive monetization strategy.

        Gold didn’t really do much but put a little coin above a comment, and it supported the site for a long time without having to pump in advertising, which many people would block anyway.

        I gilded a total of 3 times maybe, over the years. And that $12 or whatever was way more than Reddit ever got out of me from ads, since I block them all.