If lemmy.world became the biggest in the fediverse with a user base that could rival Reddit. Would it become monetized?
If lemmy.world became the biggest in the fediverse with a user base that could rival Reddit. Would it become monetized?
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Individual instances could theoretically monetize if their owners wished, they could show you ads, sell your data, sell you merch, sell the instance to a third party, all the same strategies as any other internet institution.
The Fediverse as a whole cannot, though, due to its decentralized ownership and development structure.
I think I would buy a lemmy.world mug, as long as it’s a huge one. Don’t know about ads tho. Selling user data would end with everyone scrambling their content into Lorem ipsum and scatter to smaller instances. Lemmings are different from redditors.
as long as it’s a huge one
How big are we talkin'?
Idk. 700ml?
Isn't the "user data" available for everyone to read already?
Most of them aren't.
User data are more than post/comment history and likes. Where do you connect from (no matter whether it gives hint about your relationship status or your work and customer), which comments you didn't write, which device you use to connect and more.
Lemmy instance I know, don't collect much data, hence the short term of services and the lack of cookies pop up unlike big (social) media sharing their data with hundreds of " partners"
In a sense, but I doubt there is the same level of tracking. Lemmy doesn't (as far as I assume) track how long you spend on a page, what you click on, how long you stay, etc. That's a pretty big difference compared to just what you posted or commented.
They'd need to grow big enough to turn off federation without much loss.
They could always do unidirectional federation and only take feeds from others but not send their updates out and make it walled off for a subscription.