I've never run a server, so I can't really say much about how sustainable it is to do it right now, but ultimately I don't see why it should be able less sustainable than running any other popular website.
Granted, I think you're totally right that there's a generally unsustainable attitude that's pervasive on the fediverse and the open source community in general, which amounts to a sentiment that "someone else will pay for all this". It's wrong, it's naive, it's unhelpful, and it's basically an express lane towards the tragedy of the commons. I've worked for non-profits and I've seen first hand how difficult it can be to turn users into supporters, but the sad truth is that non-profits are just like businesses in the sense that if costs are higher than revenue they will not survive very long, and this is true for community run fediverse services too.
I do think that people who like the fediverse should want it to become financially sustainable, at the very least.
I'm open to the idea of limited, non-invasive ads for example. (Plus I think that if the fediverse ever becomes massively popular we're going to see thinly veiled ads anyway, in the form of "influencers" and "sponsored content". That's inevitable, and honestly probably even worse that straight-forward ads.) I would not leave my Kbin.social or my current Mastodon instance if there were a small number of ads.
Also I could be wrong on this but IIRC, Misskey supports user data storage quotas that can be expanded for a price. And I think that's potentially a smart and sustainable method of getting those people who make heavy use of their server to chip in a little bit. If someone wants to post a lot of images, audio and video to their Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, Lemmy, etc., instance then I think it's reasonable to expect them to cover some small fraction of the hosting cost by becoming a paying member or paying for a server-level storage plan.
I don't think what I said is whataboutism--at least that wasn't my intent.
I'm simply pointing out the few facts as we know them right now, as well as the extremely high degree of uncertainty around what actually happened.
I'm not on Israel's side, I just want the truth...
Sadly, and to my point, truth is not something we can expect from either side of this conflict. Because as I was trying to point out, both sides might have had motive, both sides certainly had the opportunity, and both sides are basically certain to blame the other side regardless of what happened. So...
Both sides have provided the exact same amount of evidence, zero. Maybe wait before hoping back on the [...] bandwagon.
I think I tend to agree with the comment up the chain, that the best and most reasonable course of action is to wait for whatever evidence exists to surface before we collectively decide to buy into either side's narrative about what happened. Talk is cheap, but I think anything that's true can be proved, given enough time.
I mean... Do we really believe that propaganda is something that only one side of this conflict engages in?
Hamas claims it was Israel, and Israel claims it was Hamas.
Both have a possible motive, and both had the opportunity.
Both have every reason to lie about it or otherwise spin up a narrative that will embolden their support.
The fact remains that one of them did it, either intentionally or incidentally, and they are both certain to blame the other regardless. In the end, I don't know the truth, nor do you, or the media, or even the victims of the attack themselves. It's just another sad example of the cycle of needless violence and the massive humanitarian disaster that this situation is, has been, and will only continue to be for the foreseeable future. No matter which way we look, its the innocent people who seem to suffer the most.
We can only hope that the genuine objective truth behind this attack somehow comes to light and whoever is responsible for it is held accountable.
I hate remote work because it means I have to pay attention to overall output and the progress of the project instead of constantly surveilling and lording my authority over the workers, who I view as subhuman tools for my own enrichment.
Honestly I think it's fine, smart, and like they said, a little bit funny.
If some portion of Trump's audience is on Truth Social, it makes a reasonable amount of sense to go there with targeted messaging for them. Posting clips of Republicans complimenting Biden or criticizing Trump is a good way to stir up a bit of division amongst Republicans, and it shows that the Democrats aren't afraid of Trump's echo chamber.
On the plus side, it won't be long before they get banned for trashing Trump, and that'll only show what completely spineless bitch asses the far right are.
Learn about the states and call them by their state name like we do in the US: (washingtonians, oregonians, californians, and so on.)
Internationally people love making fun of Americans for knowing little about geography, but it's always a bit surprising to find out how little people in other countries know about US geography considering many of our states are bigger (size-wise) than many entire countries.
I don't feel that my country, America, is funding a genocide right now, though it's worth keeping in mind that America is the product of genocide against the Native American tribes and just about every nation in the modern world is the product of conquest at some point in history.
I can only remind myself of the facts:
America did not create this conflict, nor did we add the fuel to escalate it. It is a wild stretch of a biased imagination to blame America for this.
Land itself belongs to no race or nation. People fight to capture land and they fight to defend it from invaders.
Israel and Palestine we're effectively crafted as nations at the same time by the British.
The argument of "who was there first" is not only irrelevant but also complicated. It can be argued that the tribal ancestors of both Israel and Palestine have been there for thousands of years.
Before the independent states of Israel and Palestine were created by the British, this area has been part of many large empires, including the Ottomans (Turks), the Islamic Caliphate, the Byzantine / East Roman empire, the Roman Empire, the Assyrians and the Egyptians. As such this area has been conquered and colonized by various peoples (maybe even your ancestors depending on where you're from) for almost the entirety of the Common Era.
Palestine is a thorn in the side of Israel that they would rather not have to deal with. At the same time Israel is the target of many of its large and powerful neighbors, many of whom have not been shy to express their own genocidal ambitions.
By the definition of genocide it's hard to call an attack on Gaza a Palestinian genocide when the West Bank is not also being attacked.
I won't pick a side between the nations of Israel and Palestine, instead I'll side with the innocent over those who would target and kill them.
The terrorist attacks orchestrated this week by Hamas and possibly funded by Iran and Russia were a sickening crime against humanity and should be easy for anybody with human decency in their heart to reject and condemn. At the same time, innocent Palestinians should not have to bear the brunt of Israeli rage or revenge. This situation has now escalated to full blown war, with rockets and missiles being thrown both ways, hundreds of people kidnapped from Israel, and hundreds of thousands soon to be displaced from their homes in Gaza with basically nowhere to run. It is a genuine humanitarian disaster. Israel has to respond to this attack, not only to at least attempt to save the hostages that were taken, but also to show strength against those that would try to attack them. There are no shortage of nations and groups in the middle east who despise Israel and want them wiped out, and now that they have shown weakness, as their most powerful and important ally America must come to their defense and aide as a deterrent to further attacks.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the oldest and most complicated wars in history. Everyone wants to boil this down to good and bad, but I hate to break it to you. There are no good guys here and there are no bad guys either. Or maybe you can argue that there are only bad guys, if that helps you sleep at night.
But in the end of the day, this shitshow of human horrors is nothing more than the culmination of thousands of years of history, politics, conquest, cold war, religion, prejudice, money and blood. This is war. Just like Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but actually with much more nuance and history behind it.
Assuming it's not seriously illegal where you live, substitute alcohol for cannabis, have a great night and wake up rested and refreshed the next morning.
Seems to be less damaging to the body long term too, but that's neither here nor there.
donuts @ donuts @kbin.social Posts 4Comments 673Joined 2 yr. ago
I've never run a server, so I can't really say much about how sustainable it is to do it right now, but ultimately I don't see why it should be able less sustainable than running any other popular website.
Granted, I think you're totally right that there's a generally unsustainable attitude that's pervasive on the fediverse and the open source community in general, which amounts to a sentiment that "someone else will pay for all this". It's wrong, it's naive, it's unhelpful, and it's basically an express lane towards the tragedy of the commons. I've worked for non-profits and I've seen first hand how difficult it can be to turn users into supporters, but the sad truth is that non-profits are just like businesses in the sense that if costs are higher than revenue they will not survive very long, and this is true for community run fediverse services too.
I do think that people who like the fediverse should want it to become financially sustainable, at the very least.
I'm open to the idea of limited, non-invasive ads for example. (Plus I think that if the fediverse ever becomes massively popular we're going to see thinly veiled ads anyway, in the form of "influencers" and "sponsored content". That's inevitable, and honestly probably even worse that straight-forward ads.) I would not leave my Kbin.social or my current Mastodon instance if there were a small number of ads.
Also I could be wrong on this but IIRC, Misskey supports user data storage quotas that can be expanded for a price. And I think that's potentially a smart and sustainable method of getting those people who make heavy use of their server to chip in a little bit. If someone wants to post a lot of images, audio and video to their Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, Lemmy, etc., instance then I think it's reasonable to expect them to cover some small fraction of the hosting cost by becoming a paying member or paying for a server-level storage plan.