How are lemmy and other fediverse platforms profitable?
Reddit migrator here (shocking, I know)
Just wondering because I found out about all this yesterday and just realized the ammount of independent servers, but no sign of any ads or sponsors.
So... is it all based on donations?
Also don't just lurk, if you know you should answer because lemmy only counts users who posted or commented as active users.
It will probably never be. Because it is never intended to be a platform for profit, but a (finally, real) place for everyone to hang out. In turn, everyone contribute content, money, code, and/or time to keep this place alive.
It is really pretty grim that we are conditioned to think that our internet NEEDS to benefit a corporate and its millionaire shareholders.
Not just about making money, you gotta make enough money over what you take in that rich people can make significant returns too. Simply being profitable is not even enough, because if your investors find better returns elsewhere, that's where their money goes.
To be fair, a code contribution won't pay for infrastructure. The people running the fediverse may not have a profit motive, but the hosting companies sure do.