I'm happy when an instance owner just says how much it costs to run a server, how many people actually manage it and how much time they spend to keep it running. I also like it when they just come out and say "we need this much money to keep things running every month, every year, etc"
Then I just donate and there are more a dozen ways people can send and recieve donations.
I don't mind paying for things and services if the person or people I'm donating to are just honest about what they need and why, especially if it's a service I use often.
Bro, who are these people trying to normalise ads? Do y'all work for ad-companies or have you been brainwashed enough to believe ads are the only way? Ads are a braindead problem for another problem looking for a solution.
Fuck ads. Write that 50 times. If isn't through your skull after 50, write another 50 and repeat until it is. Fuck ads.
I'd be okay with devs promoting their own FOSS software, etc. And seeing donation buttons every now and then. No trad ads plz. We have enough of those.
Never, i would leave my instance immediately. Thankfully i dont believe this will ever happen. If admins need funds community members will donate. Through mutual cooperation we can keep these spaces free of the commercial bullshit that has infested every other faet of our lives.
In my view, the problem isn't monetizing an instance, but that ads right now are fundamentally problematic. I don't know of a way to introduce ads that wouldn't be intrusive, invade user privacy, introduce bad motives for admins, and just be generally unpleasant. If money is a problem, I think a subscriber model would be better suited for the platform rather than taking any step to normalize ads.
NO ADS! These platforms were created so that you won't see any ads ever. If you want to support the instances or platforms, you can make a donation via Patreon/ BuyMeACoffee or what they use. Here is a list of links for some platforms:
Nah. I don't plan to ever have ads. Hardly any users so my nice little single server will be fine for years to come and I can afford it no problem. If somehow I got a lot of users, I'd likely just close registration rather than ads. I hate ads!
Transparency - where the ads come from, how the revenue is used, etc.
the ads are safe and appropriate and follow the same rules as posts and comments
the ads are clearly labeled or otherwise visually distinct and not disguised as user generated content
the ads do not make up more than 10% of the displayed content (by any metric (screen space, text, bytes, etc.)
the ads are in like/kind to the surrounding content (e.g. if the community is text only, so are the ads, if the community allows images but not video, then the ads cannot move, etc.)
no tracking
the ads can be removed via subscription or donation
no double dipping (e.g. charging for access and still showing ads.) Members who support the instance should not see ads, members who see ads should not be required to pay.
Everyone sucks at business. Everyone. Businesses is an art form. You can do anything you want with it.
Check this out. Free isnβt a real thing. You cannot build a site in your free time and then give it away for free and expect people to pick up the slack.
You need to charge people. So you need a secure way to handle information and payments.
NOBODY wants ads anywhere anymore. Itβs mind poison from another time.
Virtually nobody opts in, and power users opt out. If someone is running ads, they presumably want to make money, and they'll only be making money if it's on by default
Any lemmy instance using ads instead of donations should be abandoned to wither and die. It should get globally defederated... because any users ok with ads are not users we want on the fediverse.
I think for a shitpost instance a custom ad network banner ads with memes and shitposts would be make sense. What I mean by that is that on geocities as well as some small internet sites thereβs βcustom ad networksβ where they basically rely on donations and or just random people submitting βadsβ that normally tend to be just links to their site, weird obscure memes, animal pictures, etc.
I think real ads for the sake of advertising on lemmy wouldnβt really be acceptable in any form, but shitposting ads have potential imo
I already donate to my Mastodon instance, if my instance needs or wants money for any reason, they should set up a donation button and I'll subscribe. Which will give them a lot more money than they would ever make from showing me ads. We should normalize removing all ads from the internet, forever.
I don't mind ads as long as they're not following me around. Show me ads based on the community that I'm browsing or something if you want better targeting
If a website needs ads to thrive, it needs ads to thrive. I don't look forward to playing the role of both the beggar and the chooser. As I explain here, under the exact circumstances of today, I'm not afraid to say I'm judgy when someone mentions adblock usage.