Gregory's Serverbecause mastodon.social obviously is the mastodon server with the worst funding and it's definitely not small instances that could need some more money to pay for infrastructure, moderators, etc /s
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44 comments
how about this: server info could include a donation link, and this donation link could be displayed in the app as "support instance"  @megalodon They should just make the donation link a part of the Mastodon API, and then all servers and all clients could support it.  I do think that's the direction they're going, and they test things like this in the app… at the same time, it's possible it gets hairy with app store rules around payments. @cassidy @steve @megalodon @megalodon I 100% believe Gargron would defederate if he believed it wouldn't tank the userbase. Then he'd try to get VC money somehow.  @megalodon If servers need donation, they should have a unified approach. The donation link for mastodon.social specifically is an example of bad programming practice.  @megalodon@floss.social so glad they formed that non profit with VC types on the board. otherwise we wouldn't get to experience this type of horseshit. /s @megalodon Is almost like Eugen has gone on a power trip upon realizing that 90% of the fediverse is on Mastodon software, and 90% of that is on mastodon.social.  @megalodon Locking feature specifically to Mastodon.social in the "official" Mastodon app is a huge issue imo and can hurt the Fediverse. They should make a API where every instance can use this feature. @megalodon @Mastodon They say they did it to make it easier for people to get started, which is understandable, but this is definitly not ideal and does centralize more instead of federate it. There are definitly better ways, for example a smth which helps you choosing a instance which fits preferences you can select.  @ben@m.benui.ca @megalodon@floss.social GoToSocial, IceShrimp, or akkoma probably (or misskey/sharkey but no good mastodon api if you wanna use mastodon clients)   @ben@m.benui.ca @megalodon@floss.social For social network stuff, probably one of: Sharkey, Iceshrimp, Firefish, Misskey, Akkoma, Plemora, GoToSocial, Diaspora or Hubzilla @pak0st @megalodon i don't think you need IAPs, just a good old-fashioned link would do the trick.  @megalodon Yeah this is not a good look. The user of the app shouldn't need to go looking for the right place to donate. I thought the Mastodon app for Android was okay but this is souring that.  @megalodon unironically they should pay a _lot_ more moderators but yeah, this is pretty shit  @megalodon "3rd party server" so the way mastodon is meant to be used ? since, you know, it's a fucking decentralised and federated service  @megalodon@floss.social @SRAZKVT@tech.lgbt I give it a year before mastodon gets sold  @megalodon bruh. Like, building an instance donation mechanism into an app is such a fucking good idea. A donation API for instances would be so, so good. Making this only work with a project’s flagship instance in a federated network just feels shitty.  @megalodon The Mastodon team building this software is immensely underfunded. What is wrong in them asking for donations? 🥲 @nileane @megalodon the point of contention isn't asking for donations, but rather building such features only for mastodon.social. These could instead have been more generic additions to their API that could allow other servers to be able to offer similar options within the Mastodon app. @msfjarvis @megalodon I get it, but as far as I can tell, they’re just trying to get more donations to fund the software we’re all using so it can improve and gain more features, including via items on their long feature request list, like a donation API. @nileane @megalodon I'm not against them seeking more donations, but I feel if they can add something for their own server then they can take the time to also make it available to the broader ecosystem. This shouldn't be the app for Mastodon GmbH the company, but for Mastodon the ecosystem.  @msfjarvis @nileane @megalodon "These could instead have been more generic additions to their API..." Sure. But that would have been *significantly* more work. So if you think they should be more capable to implement features like that, donating to the dev work would be a good idea, which this feature does. @frog_reborn @nileane @megalodon I'm not against them seeking funding, they deserve to be paid and I donate to them myself. The problem is quite simply of optics, where the team repeatedly makes changes to the apps to promote their flagship instance which for a lot of people defeats the point of the ecosystem being decentralised and federated. @msfjarvis @nileane @megalodon "where the team repeatedly makes changes to the apps to promote their flagship instance" But it's not doing that here. How is having a donation option that only appears when you're already using mastodon.social promoting mastodon.social? @frog_reborn @nileane @megalodon A lot of people end up on mastodon.social only because the app guides them to it @frog_reborn if you don't see how navigating people to a specific instance and then later presenting donation options only on that instance are connected then we're not on the same page about this. This isn't moving the discussion any further. We obviously aren't on the same page, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. Just stating that helps nobody better understand the argument of the other. @frog_reborn I've laid out as much of my position as I can, and don't really need everyone else to agree with me. It's been a pleasure talking, have a great rest of your day 🫰  What bothers me quite a bit about this post is that it basically treats mastodon funding like a zero-sum game. As if giving mastodon.social users an option to easier fund the instance and project would hurt other instances, when it does the opposite. .social users are unlikely to donate to random instances but the potential additional funding for the dev work would still benefits all instances. And maybe other devs could still look at the feature and use it as a basis for implementing a wider donation system in their apps (or maybe that's still coming). It seems like at worst a net neutral feature for me, probably slightly beneficial to mastodon at whole, yet it's being used as a launching point to sow division and play one part of the community out against the other and I honestly think we as a community should be better than that. |
just call your app mastodon.social if you want it to be a mastodon.social client, jesus christ. it's almost as if mastodon isn't even meant to be a federated server software