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Byte

@atomicpoet @mveron new here. What's an example of an instance being run for-profit? I find it hard to imagine how you could monetize such a thing.

21 Dec 2022 at 10:36 | Wall-to-wall | Open on uwu.social
9 comments
Chris Trottier

@byte @mveron mastodon.cloud, vivaldi.social, twit.social, etc.

21 Dec 2022 at 10:41 | Open on mastodon.social
Simon Lucy

@atomicpoet @byte @mveron

I guess Vivaldi is because it's available as part of the subscription so it could well be a loss leader feature. I don't see a financial relationship with mastodon.cloud or its owners, I've no idea about twit.

Would you say the same about masto.host or any other instance hosting company?

21 Dec 2022 at 11:29 | Open on mastodon.social
dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧:blobfoxcomputer:

@byte @atomicpoet @mveron Seems like a failure of the imagination when Twitter, Yahoo mail, google groups, etc are all right there.

21 Dec 2022 at 14:20 | Open on hachyderm.io
Byte

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I specifically asked how a mastodon instance can be used currently to directly profit off its users.

Those are walled-garden services that you have no option but to use if you want access to the platform.

If my current mastodon instance tries to monetize me, I can just move and still have the same overall access to the platform. That's the benefit of federation, and why the Fediverse isn't comparable to those platforms.

21 Dec 2022 at 14:44 | Open on uwu.social
dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧:blobfoxcomputer:

@byte @atomicpoet @mveron You can move right now. What if they decide to make that hard? Make exporting your data impossible or accessible only via arcane menus and paperwork?

"But the protocol!" Look at email and Microsoft. Once an organization starts using Exchange/Outlook, there's no way to use anything else.

21 Dec 2022 at 14:48 | Open on hachyderm.io
Byte

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron How could they make it hard? docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ The API endpoint for followers is public. The API can achieve anything the front-end could, and that also means I could use third-party apps (like movetodon.org/) to use those functions that could've been obscured by my instance.

Outlook, Gmail and other competitors are much more than just e-mail now. There's an entire suite there, email being a miniscule part of it. Changing your email provider is relatively easy assuming you have your own domain, it's all the other stuff that is hard.

But unlike those services that are built almost entirely on private infrastructure, Mastodon is entirely the ActivityPub protocol.

@davidr @atomicpoet @mveron How could they make it hard? docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ The API endpoint for followers is public. The API can achieve anything the front-end could, and that also means I could use third-party apps (like movetodon.org/) to use those functions that could've been obscured by my instance.

21 Dec 2022 at 15:29 | Open on uwu.social
dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧:blobfoxcomputer:

@byte @atomicpoet @mveron I fave'd a post this very morning from someone who said they "finally" got IMAP working with Outlook365.

This is how these companies make money--breaking protocols just enough to keep people captured. They are *good* at it. And when someone figures out how to handle it, they break it again.

21 Dec 2022 at 15:32 | Open on hachyderm.io
Tony Stubblebine

@byte @davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I’m thinking about this for my company and it’s the same stuff we already charge for: tools, curation, community. I think owning the fediverse is off the table (a good thing) and that means that people can come here with really opinionated product designs (also a good thing).

21 Dec 2022 at 15:57 | Open on mas.to
Tony Stubblebine

@byte @davidr @atomicpoet @mveron I’m not sure how true this is, but a bunch of people have told me they’d pay for an instance with professional community moderators. Not sure how big that is but it’d fit us since we think our standards are well tested and we already have a 24/7 team.

21 Dec 2022 at 16:03 | Open on mas.to
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