this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy

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I'll start:

  • Some significant portion of funds go towards development of the Lemmy software. 80%? Rest goes to lemmy instance hosting.
  • Ads are reasonable and non-intrusive (no popups etc)
  • People can still browse w/ an adblocker

I personally would gladly turn off my adblocker if I knew the ads were supporting development. Hell, I might even click a few!

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Yea. The question is completely absurd. There is no such thing as "reasonable ads". It is also completely against the philosophy of the project and the developers would never agree to it.

You may as well just browse Reddit at that point.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

Also, ads are very much "give an inch, take a mile" in nature. Once you open that door and have say a tiny banner ad, then it's like "well that didn't do much harm, let's do a slightly bigger one", then before you know it it you have sponsored posts, sidebar ads, videos and all that nonsense.

It's just one of the avenues where enshittification creeps in IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

The second I see ads on an instance, I'm off it. Fuck that noise.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm happy when an instance owner just says how much it costs to run a server, how many people actually manage it and how much time they spend to keep it running. I also like it when they just come out and say "we need this much money to keep things running every month, every year, etc"

Then I just donate and there are more a dozen ways people can send and recieve donations.

I don't mind paying for things and services if the person or people I'm donating to are just honest about what they need and why, especially if it's a service I use often.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same, but sometimes it's not possible due to the different payment methods that don't work the same accross different countries.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It's unlikely ads would bring in any significant amount of money from them se people, in that case.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago

There are no circumstances under which I would be okay with it. Including ads means there is a chance that content is removed to appease advertisers.

I will happily donate to my instance once they start accepting donations.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

Under no conditions. Don't try to normalize ads.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Bro, who are these people trying to normalise ads? Do y'all work for ad-companies or have you been brainwashed enough to believe ads are the only way? Ads are a braindead problem for another problem looking for a solution.

Fuck ads. Write that 50 times. If isn't through your skull after 50, write another 50 and repeat until it is. Fuck ads.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

I would much rather see the "Daily costs donation bar" that Reddit used to have

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Straightforward funding requests from the instance are just fine. Advertisements can gargle a cactus.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I'd be okay with devs promoting their own FOSS software, etc. And seeing donation buttons every now and then. No trad ads plz. We have enough of those.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Never, i would leave my instance immediately. Thankfully i dont believe this will ever happen. If admins need funds community members will donate. Through mutual cooperation we can keep these spaces free of the commercial bullshit that has infested every other faet of our lives.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

In my view, the problem isn't monetizing an instance, but that ads right now are fundamentally problematic. I don't know of a way to introduce ads that wouldn't be intrusive, invade user privacy, introduce bad motives for admins, and just be generally unpleasant. If money is a problem, I think a subscriber model would be better suited for the platform rather than taking any step to normalize ads.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

NO ADS! These platforms were created so that you won't see any ads ever. If you want to support the instances or platforms, you can make a donation via Patreon/ BuyMeACoffee or what they use. Here is a list of links for some platforms:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nah. I don't plan to ever have ads. Hardly any users so my nice little single server will be fine for years to come and I can afford it no problem. If somehow I got a lot of users, I'd likely just close registration rather than ads. I hate ads!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago
  • Transparency - where the ads come from, how the revenue is used, etc.
  • the ads are safe and appropriate and follow the same rules as posts and comments
  • the ads are clearly labeled or otherwise visually distinct and not disguised as user generated content
  • the ads do not make up more than 10% of the displayed content (by any metric (screen space, text, bytes, etc.)
  • the ads are in like/kind to the surrounding content (e.g. if the community is text only, so are the ads, if the community allows images but not video, then the ads cannot move, etc.)
  • no tracking
  • the ads can be removed via subscription or donation
  • no double dipping (e.g. charging for access and still showing ads.) Members who support the instance should not see ads, members who see ads should not be required to pay.
  • a transparent removal process for problematic ads
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Fuck ads, don't normalize this. I left Reddit because of enshittification, and putting ads on lemmy is just another first step towards that inevitable end. I'll just spin my own instance back up. I had one running but I took it down to avoid the influx of CSAM on some instances.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Everyone sucks at business. Everyone. Businesses is an art form. You can do anything you want with it.

Check this out. Free isn’t a real thing. You cannot build a site in your free time and then give it away for free and expect people to pick up the slack.

You need to charge people. So you need a secure way to handle information and payments.

NOBODY wants ads anywhere anymore. It’s mind poison from another time.

Creator owned platforms is where its at.

Nebula.tv is a great example.

If you cannot figure out a pay schedule then hire or collaborate with someone who does.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

None whatsoever

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I am all for ways to increase revenue for devs, I have donated. However ads are anti privacy by default. A way for people that don't want to donate but still want to support? How about a list of referral links people can use? Good middle ground.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
  • Visually distinct, not possible to mix it up with content
  • No more than 10% of visual space
  • Fixed - meaning directly agreed by with instance admin, no algorithmic ads or ad exchanges
  • No tracking, no cookies. simply an image and a link embedded in the site
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Opt-in ads. Disabled by default, but gives the user the choice to support the instance if they do not want to (or can't) provide a monetary donation.

I don't want ads any other way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I’d rather do monthly payments than having ads. Oh wait, I’m already contributing monthly.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Zero. There are other ways to monetize I’ll gladly accept first.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Any lemmy instance using ads instead of donations should be abandoned to wither and die. It should get globally defederated... because any users ok with ads are not users we want on the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think for a shitpost instance a custom ad network banner ads with memes and shitposts would be make sense. What I mean by that is that on geocities as well as some small internet sites there’s β€œcustom ad networks” where they basically rely on donations and or just random people submitting β€œads” that normally tend to be just links to their site, weird obscure memes, animal pictures, etc.

I think real ads for the sake of advertising on lemmy wouldn’t really be acceptable in any form, but shitposting ads have potential imo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That sounds great. I remember seeing really old sites with these.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The last 2 of your points.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

None. Dont need ads on my own instance

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I already donate to my Mastodon instance, if my instance needs or wants money for any reason, they should set up a donation button and I'll subscribe. Which will give them a lot more money than they would ever make from showing me ads. We should normalize removing all ads from the internet, forever.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm not okay with ads anywhere at all under any conditions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Despite how necessary it is to pay for hosting, ads have ruined nearly all browsing experiences save one site where the ads were maintained by the site themselves and could be purchased by the users to advertise threads.

I doubt any of the instances have a mod team large enough to want to maintain dedicated β€œFor Sale” comms and make sure nothing dubious is going on.

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