this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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So the question just goes down one level .... who owns the instance? It's an important question as it then determines what influence can occur with any instance or any owner or owners of an instance.
Yes, no one can own the English language but the language can only occur because each and everyone of us own the hardware because the hardware is built into our bodies.
A fediverse instance has to be run from some location and by some hardware ... so the question I still wonder about is ... who owns any one instance ... who owns or controls Lemmy.world? who owns and controls lemmy.ca
Anyone can run one. Why not run one yourself for $20/month?
Which leads to the question ... what if the owner no longer has any money to pay $20 / month ... what if his instance grows popular and now he has to pay $40/month $100/month $500/month ... I can appreciate the goodwill of people but whenever anyone puts lots of energy into any activity, eventually it costs money, time and effort ... all of which does not come for free and usually comes with a price
These are all good questions and lead you to explore more about what it means to run software.
So as well as the instance (domain name / hardware server) admins, there are also the open source developers of the Lemmy software. They keep things updated and put out new features and releases. They currently have a (partial) grant from some European agencies who are making sure that open source software isn't all built and owned by American corporations.
It would be good for every instance to allocate some funding to the open source software they rely on.
I'm one of the people responsible for (currently a test Lemmy instance) news.cosocial.ca. Our main service today is our Mastodon server (cosocial.ca). We are a registered member-owned Canadian cooperative. Every member has paid at least $50 per year. We currently have volunteer moderators and server admins, our goal is to eventually pay those roles. More on our blog.
We're also here to be a resource to anyone running services in Canada, especially if you need legal or other help. /me waves at smorks
Back to keeping things running: the Lemmy software needs a bunch more features to scale. The moderation tools are very basic, there are a couple of mobile apps in development that are very early on. We should think about pooling funds and donating.
It's great to see Lemmy.ca on OpenCollective (we use it for Cosocial too). I've just donated as a $5 monthly backer. Thanks for setting this up!
Everybody is different, but I'd suggest subscribing as a backer or just tossing in a one time donation to start to support @[email protected] and Lemmy.ca.
thank you Boris! i've sent you a long PM to your matrix account.
Hi Smorks! I used LibrePay. Is Open Collective the preferred platform? If so, I will switch going forward. :)
thank you! i don't currently have a preferred platform, i know that liberapay doesn't take any cut of the donations.
Great to know. 😺
Great to see this and come along for the ride!