Does it? If you set up an instance for your local community/city/whatever, and name it something that makes sense for your intended userbase, I think it would be fine.
It goes from "I sold my couch on FlohMarkt" to "I sold my couch on Local Ottawa Marketplace" for the 'normies' out there. They're not going to care about the underlying software so long as their couch gets sold.
Do recommend a DIY local advertising strategy if trying to get something like this running, though - posters at IRL flea markets, adverts in small community papers for antiques and collectibles, crossposts/links to postings on stuff like MaxSold/Kijiji/Craigslist/GumTree/FB Marketplace/[insert online marketplace operating in your area] by first adopters, that kind of thing.
Focus on the current primary use case of centralized marketplace services (buying shit from your neighbours), then introduce the "Oh yeah, we've also set it up so you can see postings on Local Toronto Marketplace, Local Kingston Marketplace, Marché Local de Montréal" etc. from there.
I really, really think talking to people in terms of specific instances over the overarching platform/protocol is a way around 'normie' confusion about the Fediverse when first trying it, then getting exposure to how it works in practice will help them understand the nitty gritty stuff better. Is this problematic in some cases, like with Lemmy? A little bit, yeah. For something like FlohMarkt? I think less so.
('normie' in quotes 'cause I'm not the biggest fan of the term, but it's a useful shorthand)
The whole 'death of the author' thing is my preferred brand of copium for this.
Writing talent is not reserved for people who aren't complete shitbags - it's just that often, shitbags write to their shitbag interests and that comes over clearly in the work or with very basic analysis. Sometimes they don't. It's best to consider the work on its own merits without too much emphasis on authorial intent, as much as is possible.
Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow were the very first things that popped to mind when I heard this phrase. It's the kind of thing that makes me say "Don't avoid reading if you want to, but maybe avoid buying new printings and opt for second-hand/library copies instead".
I'd also appreciate an official update of this at some point (I'd be fine with end of Feb for the first update). What I have right now is some napkin math, as someone who sucks at math:
Ko-Fi: About $401.60 at the time of this post ($160 x 2.51)
Librepay - I made an assumption based on remaining weeks in 2025 last time, but idk if that's actually how it works, so I'm changing it to a full calendar 52 weeks here (if someone has a source on how librepay comes to the per week figure, let me know, because I do know it takes lump sums and divides it to add to a weekly value): 28.66 x 52 = $1490.32
Assuming this is all 100% accurate, puts current total at $1891.92, about 55% of the proposed 2025 budget.
Please do not take this as gospel - I think I'm in the right ballpark but that Librepay per week thing is throwing me for loop. I think Ko Fi is more straight forward and the $160 is not a per week goal thing
Between both, and keeping in mind the Liberapay donors may be doing recurring contributions rather than a lump sum for the year (so may need to stop if something comes up for them), we're looking at about $1250 give or take for 2025 so far. Nice!
Edit: Did the Liberapay weekly rate x 47 weeks for remaining year, but forgot to add the Ko Fi amount. Dur.
Edit edit: Please feel free to correct me if I'm reading the Ko Fi stuff wrong.
If you want to see what that looks like in the relevant context here (Canada), check out what lemmy.ca is doing (fedecan.ca). Would be curious if there's non-Canadian instances taking this approach too.
I assume there's at least some tax benefits/less of a tax liability to TheDude if doing this, but likely requires an additional level of support from folks too for the adminstrative aspects of that.
Reading some deets:
Liberapay - does not take a cut of payments, the service is funded by donations to its own account. However, there are payment processing fees. The fees vary by payment processor, payment methods, countries, and currencies. In the last year, the average fee percentages have been 3.1% for the payments processed by Stripe and 5.1% for the payments processed by Paypal.
Ko-fi - No fee for one-off donations, 5% platform fee to use premium features/become a Ko-Fi contributor (basically, if TheDude and co give Ko-Fi a 5% cut in exchange for premium Ko-Fi features for TheDude and co). 5% on monthly donations, other stuff at same % that I don't think is relevant here. Normal payment processor fees apply (usually around 3% + $0.30)
My short verdict: Not a huge difference if doing one bigger donation at a time, go with Liberapay if you intend to do regular scheduled donations and maybe avoid Paypal if you can. Or whatever makes more sense, I'm far from a crowdfunding expert.
I don't think an instance-level ban is necessary at this stage, ever since thinking more about it after a similar discussion on a .ml post.
What I'd much prefer to see is a move on the part of users to use alternate methods for sharing Twitter content: links to reputable archive services or alternate frontends for Twitter (I lack a lot of knowledge in this area, but xcancel stuff, whatever libredirect does, etc.), or screenshots. In this order. Sometimes something comes up in the Twitterverse that is worthy of sharing, where pointing to the source is important for verification. But there are steps that can satisfy that without necessarily direct linking to Twitter, or that being presented as the only access medium to other users.
I'd think about this more at the level of courtesy (or good sh.it.iquette, if you will) than a hard rule. Won't get your comment/post deleted if there's no community rule but will have someone jump in with a not-direct-to-Twitter link/pic and some light (I'd hope) ribbing.
I support any community that makes it a hard rule at the community level, though. And if it came to pass at the instance level it's not like I'd leave sh.itjust.works over it - I can't see Twitter posts anyway, just a log in screen.
Does it? If you set up an instance for your local community/city/whatever, and name it something that makes sense for your intended userbase, I think it would be fine.
It goes from "I sold my couch on FlohMarkt" to "I sold my couch on Local Ottawa Marketplace" for the 'normies' out there. They're not going to care about the underlying software so long as their couch gets sold.
Do recommend a DIY local advertising strategy if trying to get something like this running, though - posters at IRL flea markets, adverts in small community papers for antiques and collectibles, crossposts/links to postings on stuff like MaxSold/Kijiji/Craigslist/GumTree/FB Marketplace/[insert online marketplace operating in your area] by first adopters, that kind of thing.
Focus on the current primary use case of centralized marketplace services (buying shit from your neighbours), then introduce the "Oh yeah, we've also set it up so you can see postings on Local Toronto Marketplace, Local Kingston Marketplace, Marché Local de Montréal" etc. from there.
I really, really think talking to people in terms of specific instances over the overarching platform/protocol is a way around 'normie' confusion about the Fediverse when first trying it, then getting exposure to how it works in practice will help them understand the nitty gritty stuff better. Is this problematic in some cases, like with Lemmy? A little bit, yeah. For something like FlohMarkt? I think less so.
('normie' in quotes 'cause I'm not the biggest fan of the term, but it's a useful shorthand)