OP was taking about Tumblr, but I think it applies even more to the Fediverse: users need to develop an ethos of paying to support the sites they use. Otherwise advertisers pay the bills and call the shots.

  • n00b001
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    2 years ago

    Who pays for the data stored on the Blockchain?

    Who pays for those server costs?

    Regardless of what you think of crypto, there is some self-sustaining ‘business model’ there where storage and compute is paid for by the user (transaction fees).

    • Acters
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      2 years ago

      It is starting to look like a universal basic income that motivates people to continue participating in the community, for which the people using the service pay a small tax/fee that nobody can avoid. 🧐

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      2 years ago

      The server costs can be quite modest. The one big exception is streaming video. If you’re willing to give that up, a bunch of Raspberry Pis will get you pretty far. Even further by bumping up to old desktops running Linux.

      I’ve had a project in the back of my head about laying out what a Solarpunk Internet might look like. If you’re willing to drop streaming video (or even just drop down to 480p), that version of the Internet becomes a lot easier to setup on very modest hardware that’s otherwise considered e-waste.