No Stupid Questions

It would possibly be enshittified like others. The whole purpose of decentralization would be broken and it would become one single centralized website.

This is why I advise people to lead people to other instances than lemmy.world. That instance is getting too big and the other instances aren't. We instead should balance the user count in all instances. And possibly finish the implementation to own content in a decentralized fashion using DIDs. That will need something like the blockchain though, so perhaps we could also have a fediverse coin as a bonus? lol

It would because of server costs

I think there is an arms race with content moderation that even if the instance is not themselves trying to monetize, clever and unscrupulous ad agencies will slip ads into feeds under the guise of actual content. I think it's a big reason Reddit went to shit even before it went public.

How do you separate a user who innocently includes McDonald's into a post or comment from someone doing so with the intention of driving revenue? (Do you want some fries now?)

It's probably already the case now just the 'ads' are mostly all political shit. Same idea just with a top-down political agenda rather than driving sales. They have all the public fediverse data to base their strategies on already.

I think this issue is just handwaved away with "oh go to a different instance" but we're here for content ultimately and not all instances have what we're looking for. Ad agencies are going to be able to adapt to a changing landscape like that because it's literally their full time jobs/careers.

Yes it would be monetized, by a swimsuit calendar of each Lemmy user.

Could go the route like tilvids where the community itself donated enough to keep the lights on.

They can go the route of The Onion and sell annual memberships. People will pay if it offers value and keeps ads out.

I hope so, but I’d also want them to be a registered non-profit or not-for-profit entity.

Just cover your bills and pay out bonuses to the people doing the work (including moderators)

Definitely. At least the damage could be largely limited to just that instance though. I can't seriously imagine the people behind it letting their ideals trump profit for an extended period of time, especially with financial imperatives from the costs associated with the infrastructure required if that one instance alone had so much traffic.

Theoretically though, if it started going rancid it'd be much easier to jump ship without losing out on too much, that is unless they defederate with everyone or everyone defederates with them, either of which could be distinct possibilities. In that case, I guess you'd just have another Reddit.

I already pay a few bucks a month into the kitty for this instance, because I'd rather be out the price of a coffee than deal with corporate bullshit, AI, the algorithm, and GD motherfucking ads.

100% certainty. the data gleemed from the content produced by a lively community is valuable to data mining and marketing. once an instance makes their radar, they will want a pipe into it. whether they pay the instance owner, the ISP/cloud it sits on, or just copy the data maliciously, they'll get it and sell it. and then have a plan to manipulate it / sell to that user pool as well.

it's "natural" (for assholes) to do this. seems to happen everywhere, but lemmy and fediverse are prone to it for now.

I assume that 80% of the users are on one or two instances. Maybe the operators of those instances could sell it to a big publishing company, like Condé Nast or something. That way it will be easier to vertically integrate advertisement between traditional print media, online publications, and less formal online gathering places. It’s a win win at the end. The original operators get their bag, and the community keeps going while being supported by a successful business.

/s

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 don't really see how. If they tried to charge you, why wouldn't you just join another instance? You'd still see the same stuff. Unless they de-federated, (and I only barely know what I'm talking about here) and became a privately owned site, but then, they'd lose all the content from other instances, which people would flock to immediately.