Gregory's ServerMastodon is financed by crowdfunding instead of venture capital not because we don't know that venture capital exists, not because we don't have bills to pay, and not because venture capital isn't willing to give money to new social media platforms. VCs don't want a sustainable business, they want a big exit. Every VC-backed business is on a timer to deliver or die.
 89 comments
 @conniptions @Gargron VC is either Vulture Capital, or if you're an old Goldman-Sachs fan, Vampire Capital.  @Gargron I'm tired of the Capitalism, I'm staying here on Mastodon with the Humans, for all their faults.  Exactly ๐ฏ VC money means enshittification. Thank you for not going down that route ๐ EDIT: In case anyone is wondering why Eugen is posting on this topic, have a look here https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/113364985280012085   @Gargron BlueSky was cool for a minute. Then I saw the venture capital announcement and was like, welp, so much for that. VC capital always has a price. They want their return. 
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 @Amr1ta Bluesky, the Mastodon competitor announced that they're doing a Series A funding round led by....a blockchain investment company.  @LiquidParasyte @Amr1ta Yeah, they say there are no plans to include blockchain on the app but it has a "not yet" feeling to it. Too bad because Bluesky reminds me of Tumblr during its peak years before it was bought by Yahoo, connecting to creative people in the blink of an eye.
 @Gargron been spending a lot of time explaining to college kids that being good at capitalism and being good at business are two different things, both functionally and morally different.  Yes! I may not agree with you all the time, and strongly disagree sometimes, but I completely agree with you on this. We want sustainable business and social platforms and people first projects. @Gargron On my instance, we see people join in a wave, then move on to the next shiny platform, and then come back to us. We are the steady tortoise, that keeps working and improving at a steady pace, and is still here when the shiny platforms crash and burn. We might sparkle, but that sparkle is from people connecting instead of just broadcasting. And we care about ethics.  please do some kind of public conversation with @evan and @mmasnick.bsky.social and @jay.bsky.team. I hate that people go there thinking they'll get all the same benefits of decentralization and public interest development in either place. there's a trade-off in design and easy money for a reason.      @Gargron if you are willing to convert mastodon project in pure pure pure common law , we could offer opportunity to get all the funds you need to boost mastodon at speed you never expected by pure pure pure common law that permits new high-speed developent  @Gargron with every news article I see of other media companies and VC anything the more and more im glad Im a part of Mastodon. Thank you for starting this thank you for making this happen  @Gargron The number of users of Mastodon has never become too large. It looks like it will be like this forever. If that is the case, would you regret not have taken some VC money to make it big? Given how Twitter (X)'s current status, I personally would prefer some better alternatives.
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   @Gargron Let's keep it this way. I want Mastodon still standing when all the other social media sites have enshittified themselves to high hell. @Gargron it's sort of amazing Mastodon hasn't been stomped down already... <eerie foreshadowing music starts playing in the background>  @Gargron so true - I worked at a VC funded startup and they let it go for two years with no interest in us making revenue. I was told by the founder this was common and gives VCs more leverage later. If you've created something good then you'll need more money to stay in business and they get more equity for continued funding because you're desperate. And if you're mediocre you're never going to be a great exit so they cut their losses and move on. @Gargron  @Gargron It's the old trick- this decades-old website explains it nicely: https://analog-rf.com/busfail.shtml  Suite ร ce pouet du crรฉateur de Mastodon โคด๏ธ Avez-vous dรฉjร donnรฉ un peu d'argent pour le projet Mastodon ? Et vous ? @Bristow_69 Je pense que c'est pour payer les dรฉveloppeurs ร temps plein, type @renchap , et l'hรฉbergement des 2 instances mastodon.social et mastodon.online  @Bristow_69 @sgtpepere @Zekovski Oui la majeure partie du budget part dans les salaires des employรฉs ร temps plein (Eugen, 2 devs backend, 1 dev iOS, 1 devopsโฆ) et de freelances (dev Android, designer, moiโฆ). On est une douzaine maintenant, plus quelques volontaires qui aident sur des aspects spรฉcifiques : https://joinmastodon.org/about  Stop pretending it's about "#crowdfunding", for you. You are expressly working on bringing #advertising to the #Fediverse, and the Mastodon instance that you run. @katzenberger@mastodon.de so why do you think that is @Gargron@mastodon.social's goal specifically? The link doesn't really establish a direct link. Also VC funding is a different thing from ads.  @Gargron The only way I see Mastodon and the fediverse succeed is to find a way for non tech savvy people to get into it. If we could develop a solution for anyone to host their instance, on their smartphone for example, it would be an impressive achievement and not necessitate people paying to access their social media.
  @Gargron Sorry to bother, but are you planning to release the annual report for 2023. Love the work, keep it up.  @Gargron it's absolutely true that VC will want an exit. However that can come through an IPO, which is essentially crowdfunding. If you are serious about crowdfunding, consider opening an investment round for all. I also agree on the need for sustainable business. But Mastodon doesn't have that, at least one that would give significant resources for growth. Donationware isn't that, and most instances are run out of people's own pockets. Side note, if you'd like us to help pay our bills for the 5 full-time employees and a number of freelancers we currently have working on developing Mastodon and bringing you new features, and potentially grow the team to do so even faster, there is a number of ways you can do so outlined on this page: https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors   @Gargron Just made a donation, on top of my monthly Patreon contribution. Keep up the great work!  @Gargron hi, glad for this service. What is the average cost per user? (Want to check I was at least doing that.) @Gargron I took the next step this morning and started a (small) monthly donation to support Mastodonโs maintenance and development. Hope progressive nonprofits and candidates will devote even a small portion of their comms budgets to invest in this fundamental, small-d democratic work. ๐๐ค๐ https://bluegrassroots.ninja/home/nonprofits-must-build-social-media-ecosystem-with-their-values  @Gargron Does it help if I buy a Mastodon stuffed toy? I just bought one and I hope it helps! P. S. Was I lucky enough to buy one of the last ones? I just saw the page right after buying it, and it appears to be sold out!  @Gargron Added a monthly through GitHub. Considering how much I use Mastodon, it's about time!  @Gargron What I want most most most is just the ability to post more than 500 chars at a time. Just make this something customizable by an admin! Pweeeez! I am too verbose for only 500 chars most of the time! ๐ Edit: I'm aware of glitch-soc. I'm on a managed, vanilla-masto instance ๐ญ  @Gargron Enter to Win a FREE $750 Walmart Gift Card! Walmart is giving away $750 gift cards in their. Plus 5 will win a $1,000 gift card. You can enter daily to win. Check here to get all the offers at once:  @Gargron Yet Mastodon seems to work way better than most VC backed products lol keep on rocking  @Gargron Having taken VC money for a startup, I want to confirm for others everything you've said. They promise big returns to their investors, but most startups fail, so they need the successful ones to make gobs of cash. Modest successes get pushed to take big risks until they get rich or die trying. And if they do win big, they'll be pushed to extract ever more cash, causing enshittification. That's the VC game, and Mastodon is smart not to play it.  @Gargron Cash app๐ฒ only US- new account Sing-up bonus $750 receive your wallet this offer limited so harry up.see more๐๐
I'll remember that the next time someone brags about how good a project is because it's VC-backed.  @Gargron Good to see this place apparently saw Ello was little more than a speed bump and isnโt repeating history. |
@Gargron To deliver *money*, and *not* the actual thing it was supposed to deliver. They should call it 'PC', not 'VC'. Poisoned Chalice.