@stefan I don't spend much cash on it, but with all the time I spend on it, the opportunity cost is probably quite high.

For me:

- $24/month for hosting my server (where I also host 50+ bots https://stefans-creative-bots.glitch.me)
- $5/month for hosting uploaded media (this is shared among a few other of my projects)
- I've also made several, mostly one-time donations to Mastodon-related projects and developers and I'm a bit too lazy to add it all up.

So, probably in the $11-50 bracket?

@stefan my tyrannical bitch admin makes me pay all the server and domain fees plus an additional "protection fee" so she doesn't starve me to death

@stefan nothing yet but I guess there may be a call for donations if the hw needs updating

@stefan I would donate to my server if I had money

@stefan It was previously $25 - 30/month as I was running on a DO droplet.

Now that I've migrated it to a Nuc (with more resources!) though, it's basically just power.

@stefan Costs me nothing.. I'd have the same ISP costs and electricity costs whether I was running a server or not (the VM might be increasing the electricity cost a few pennies but it's barely measurable).

@stefan@stefanbohacek.online
I pay for our instance so I do spend some.
Wish I could spend more for better servers but it is what it is.

@stefan nominally I participate for free. But I am a paying member of a foundation that sponsors my instance's hosting service (Mastohost). And this expense is less than 1% of the total expenses of the foundation.

@stefan A #GoToSocial instance for a few people on an Atom box from 2016 that's always on and is used for many purposes, so definitely less than $5 a month.

@stefan €4/month for managed hosting of a tiny server for two people on a custom domain. Don't have to bother myself with anything technical at all.

@stefan I opted for $5/month to the instance I'm using (paid yearly).

@stefan For me, it’s purely my annual subscription for Ivory.

A follow-up poll. Where does your money go?

#fediverse #mastodon #SocialMedia #poll

@stefan I spend less than I would like to, because that’s what I can afford while my last six pay periods have totaled out to under USD$200 deposited into my bank thanks to unreliable shift hours.

Actively looking for sustainable employment so I can contribute my fair share, but haven’t found it yet.

@stefan So far completely free but if my admin needs me to contribute I am there, obviously.

It's truly encouraging to see how generous people in this community are. And this is not even including the many mutual aid donations people here make!

#fediverse

@stefan if I had the money to donate towards my admin, I certainly would

@stefan instance I'm on is funded via https://postersunion.com/ which has 385 paid members averaging $3AUD / month

@stefan i pay $25-30 a month for hosting, plus an additional $150 a year for the domain for my tiny instance (3 active users), so i rounded to $11-50

@stefan Very cheap VPS, domain costs next to nothing monthly, but have put myself in the 11-50 bracket just incase :D

To folks saying they wish they could do more/can't afford to contribute, your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated! You make the fediverse an amazing place to be just by being here, thank you!

@stefan My biggest cost is the domain name, as .social aren't cheap (looks like a scam business at this price for a domain name).

@stefan hosting my own peertube and mastodon server (9,53 €/month) and two monthly donations.

@stefan nice to see that most people care!

@stefan
You just reminded me that I wanted to send money to my instances admin.

@selea Liberapay says your banking account is not ready to receive payments. Can you check because TAKE MY MONEY!! 😅

@stefan @BlurTheFur I host my own instance in a cupboard at home, and spend like £4 a month on the tiniest cheapest VPS I could find as a media cache to protect my home connection from the fedi hug of death.

@stefan I am against paying. I do not rule it out in the future. I prefer to buy merchandising, such as Plushtodon. I would do it through Liberapay, but as every OS project, it has something absurd, it obliges you to make periodic donations, not punctual.

@stefan completely free for me, thanks to @selea

@stefan in my case, cosocial.ca is cooperatively owned. So, I'm paying for a say in that, as well as receiving the services.

@stefan
🥥 Eye included the cost 4 my internet provider in my calculations, Stefan. 🥥

@stefan I call it $12/mo because that's what the unlimited VPS that I dedicated to the instance costs, but I'm able to ignore a few costs like DNS, email service, storage, etc. because they're already baked into other things I run and have little or no incremental costs.

@stefan @mtechman I believe in chipping in for services I use often that would otherwise be free. I hope that other folks who can afford to chip in do so.