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Who owns the Fediverse? I mean who owns and runs the hardware that runs this system? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've been talking to many people about the controversy with Reddit, why I left it and why I went onto Lemmy, Kbin and Mastadon instead. Some of my friends have commented that the control is still a problem as other platforms and it is all dependent on who owns the software, who owns the hardware, who are the admins, who are the moderators and which community or group has the most influence.

Who are these people that influence the most control on the fediverse? Are they Conservative? Are they Liberal? Are they Republican? Are they Democrat? Do they lean to the left of politics? to the right? or are they center? Are they even political? But also if they had to be would they easily or not so easily influenced?

So .. for the ELI5 version of the question ... Who owns the fediverse?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (40 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (11 children)

hello! i'm the current owner & admin of lemmy.ca.

Who are these people that influence the most control on the fediverse? Are they Conservative? Are they Liberal? Are they Republican? Are they Democrat? Do they lean to the left of politics? to the right? or are they center? Are they even political? But also if they had to be would they easily or not so easily influenced?

i don't really consider myself very policital, but I have taken those "vote compass" things just to see where I would fall, and i typically lean left. not sure exactly what you mean by easily influenced, but I would hope that I'm not. I think of myself as fairly level-headed, and probably overly analytical about things, and I typically don't try and let my emotions get involved in my decision making.

I have to run but can answer more questions if you'd like. or i can maybe do an AMA later?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)

That's amazing that you responded ... that would never happen to any commercial social media service out there.

Thanks for that.

My concern is not so much what your personality or political leanings are ... to a degree, if any owner holds extreme views, it should be concerning.

My biggest concern is money and funds - where it comes from and where it goes.

The work you guys (owners of an instance) are doing is admirable but no one should expect you guys to provide any and all of these services for free. I am sure you are working hard and tirelessly to keep this instance working and maintained but it must take up a considerable amount of your time and energy. Which begs the question, how do you make your money? Do you have a separate job ... or do you make any money by running this instance? And also, what are your costs in being able to maintain this instance? Do you break even? Are you running a loss? Are you making a profit?

My questions are two fold because I would like to know if you are benefiting from this work ... and I would be the first to congratulate you on that.

The other side of that question is ... if you are suffering a loss ... shouldn't we be helping you with your work? We shouldn't be taking your work and energy for granted and expect you to work for free, pay for services for us who enjoy them. Even if you are able to pay for services, hardware and rentals ... we shouldn't expect you to work for free.

I know you have to maintain your own privacy but as users of your service, it would be nice to know what your situation is ... maybe you are independently wealthy and you don't care about money .. I don't know. Or maybe you have no money at all and you are barely getting by.

If you do need funds ... I would be more than willing to donate, subscribe or sign onto a subscription to keep this instance running.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which begs the question, how do you make your money? Do you have a separate job … or do you make any money by running this instance? And also, what are your costs in being able to maintain this instance? Do you break even? Are you running a loss? Are you making a profit?

I currently have a day job not related to this at all. I'm a software developer by day. I currently accept donations that go towards the hosting of this instance. The users so far have been very generous, so we have enough to carry us for around 6 months (from what I remember), based on current usage. As long as we don't get any huge spikes in usage (and i'm likely talking about in the thousands of new users joining), we should be ok for a while. If donations slow down I will be able to maintain the instance on my own, but ideally i'm hoping it can run off donations. I will be as transparent as I can be about this instances financials, as I plan on doing a monthly (maybe every other month?) "State of the Instance" type post, that I've seen done on mastodon, and some other lemmy instances too.

My questions are two fold because I would like to know if you are benefiting from this work … and I would be the first to congratulate you on that.

I have no plans to ever profit from this. All donations will 100% go towards our hosting costs. If, for whatever reason, this instances changes owners, I will transfer whatever donations are left over to the new owner as well.

If you do need funds … I would be more than willing to donate, subscribe or sign onto a subscription to keep this instance running.

Thank you! You can see from the donation link above how much we currently have. As I said earlier, we've had quite a few generous donors, so I'll let that up to you! I'll be adding my hosting expenses into opencollective as well so that will be visible too.

Hopefully I've answered most of your questions? If there's anything I've missed or if you have other questions, let me know!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not a rich man (I wish I were and I would just send more to you) but I've subscribed to a $5 month plan ... if all us users did the same, it would be more than enough to pay for the services you run and pay you for the work you do ... I honestly believe that we users have to learn that we need to directly pay the people who do the actual work of maintaining these open source social media systems ... even if it means that each user contributes a dollar a month, with thousands of users, it would all add up ... if we don't, we will eventually run into the same scenario of someone coming along to monetize it, commercialize it and sell it all along with our content.

I look forward to what you will with this instance ... keep up the good work, you sound like a good man who is working towards admirable goals.