It’ll be interesting to see how the Fediverse moves forward without direct monetization.
We’ve seen Usenet become more of a niche platform because it’s hard to monetize. Meanwhile, the popular social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) are dripping in ads, which make it easier for them to build and maintain developer teams.
I want the Fediverse to succeed, but I have a hard time seeing how it can compete for average users without paid developer hours.
Money is possibly the biggest concern when it comes to running an instance - it can be difficult to sustain donations over time.
I know the Lemmy devs have, or at least did have, some grants that were helping keep them afloat, but they still rely on donations from users.
The development of New Exciting Features™ will probably be slower on nonprofit systems, but the enormous costs of moderation will be effectively zero, while simultaneously improving in quality. My prediction for what we’ll eventually see is “fun” ad-supported commercial platforms (assuming they can afford moderation), and a somewhat more “serious” discussion-based Fediverse.
