this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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Lemmy

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Everything about Lemmy; bugs, gripes, praises, and advocacy.

For discussion about the lemmy.ml instance, go to !meta@lemmy.ml.

founded 4 years ago
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If the reddit exodus happens and Lemmy gets even 2% of reddit's daily active users, how will Lemmy sustain the increased traffic? I know donations are an option, but I don't think long term donations will be sustainable. Most users will never donate.

I know the goal of Lemmy isn't to make money, but I know that servers and storage costs add up quickly. Not to mention the development costs.

I would love to hear the plans for how to offset those costs in the future?

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[–] Senseibull@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Think the bigger instances hosts will need ads if there’s a large enough audience but that’s OK to an extent when you weigh it up against a free API

As long as it breakeven on costs, doesnt need to make profits

[–] PorkrollPosadist@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are Mastodon instances with hundreds of thousands of active users, and none of them are ad supported. Donations generally are capable of paying the operating expenses, as long as the staff is halfway decent at creating a space that people appreciate.

[–] Senseibull@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I’m happy to donate and will do, just like buying an app really if once per year.

[–] artaxadepressedhorse@lemmyngs.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ads would only be useful when hitting the actual instance site in a browser, many (or most) users will use some sort of app I imagine.