The value of information or entertainment might not seem relevant. Though the spreading of information or entertainment might.
It's all personal. A datamining company like Google holds value in it by presenting you ads that are relevant to your interest. Considering that Google holds little power in the fediverse, the value does not come from there.
The value of spreading information or entertainment is subjective, though sometimes quantifiable in that people might buy a product because of a post. I know I bought a few games thanks to lemmy.
I short: not usually financially. Maybe mental value.
Interesting take. I like the light philosophical bend there with the mental value. I think you’re right about that. I have been more considering whether the cumulative data of a platform like Lemmy as a whole is something that we as the users/server should be asserting our ownership of. Or, whether it is effectively worthless.
Federation is a double edged sword imo. The data might be valuable to some in the future, like reddit is if you have a problem, there often is a thread about it. But being that most servers are self-hosted, the data can dissappear more easily than a big corporation hosting it. But I rather take it. For the support Foss and for cutting ties to big corporations.
I'm not sure if, for instance, I stop hosting my server, if the community data is archived on other servers. I'm not a programmer.
I get paid for my posts. In fact, because of Kellog's Morningstar Farms faux vegan corndog nuggets and my willingness to mention their superior taste and nutritonal profile compared to inferior faux vegan cordog nuggets, I am left with far more time to post stuff on social media. I'm not saying Kellog's Morningstar Farms faux vegan corndog nuggets will solve all your financial problems the way they have solved all of mine, but they're a pretty tasty distraction. Move over non-vegan corndog nuggets, there's a new nugget in town! At least that's the thing I am contractually obligated to work into everything I post online, including this comment!