Gotta wonder why 21% of the people refused to answer whether they were aware of the fediverse before signing up.

Probably there would be a spike compared to the normal number of new daily signups, but I don't see millions of people coming. At least it's somewhat partially depends on mod decisions - While some have succumbed to Reddit's threats and will probably remain there, others have explicitly stated in /r/ModCoord that they fully intend to quit. Probably some subreddits will have suckers willing to volunteer even knowing how Reddit doesn't give a damn about them, while other might remain unmoderated. According to ModCoord a few large subreddits have been closed or archived due to all mods leaving and nobody replacing them (at least not yet). If some of the said mods decide to come here and post a pinned message in the old subreddit with a link before restricting it then it might bring new people.

As long as it remains federated, you can access the content of one instance from another, so why would I keep using an ad-infested instance if I can access the exact same content from another instance? And if said instance decides to unfederate itself it means that every user that was coming from another instance will have to re-register, which not everyone will be willing to do. This can only happen if a single instance grows so big that it doesn't need "support" from other instances anymore. I hope that never happens tbh, I don't want another /u/spez ever.

That's nice, but I doubt enough people would use it to have a significant effect on Reddit's bottom line. It does require you to download APKs, patch them and install manually, which sounds easy to tech savvy people but isn't for the common grandma. Furthermore it's a bit bothersome cause you have to repeat it every time there's a new version (at least a new version that you want or that's required for continued access) and then there are all of those with iCrap, who can't patch apps at all.

Actually, could you maybe give me permissions to pin posts? I'd like to write a few FAQ posts to get this thing running.

I think it's more than just "not for profit" - there was actual effort to make this platform as difficult to monetize as possible (probably as a lesson learned from Reddit lol). Let's begin with the code - it's under AGPL, which means you can't set up a public Lemmy instance without making its code public. This prevents you from creating an improved version and keeping it to yourself to gain an advantage over other instances. Second, the fediverse means that it's less likely for a single instance to become so big that it can unfederate itself without consequences, and while you're federated you can't really place ads - people would just view your community on another instance.

For the time being I've joined. Since currently I'm the only one here there's no real need to mod at all. I'm pondering posting a link here in the reddits but I don't want to piss their mods.

Not surprising, since ad blockers are a thing even on mobile these days.

I'm pretty sure Lemmy has been designed specifically so it can't me monetized. If you try to place ads people can just switch to another instance. If you try to split off from the fediverse I'm pretty sure there's enough data on other instances in order to clone your server along with its content (and mind that you don't own the copyright for posts made by users).

Seems like they were forced to reopen. However, I personally don't want anything to do with Reddit anymore, and the only subreddit I'm still watching is ModCoord. Anyway I'm looking for an alternative community to be part of. Wouldn't mind moderating if the official mods of the subreddits pass, but I guess we need to get more people on board, and I don't want to advertise on the subreddit without the mods' permission.