It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control.
Yes, I am saying that we would be better off by having this money put somewhere else.
I get the notion, however social networks do have an inordinate effect populations and how they think. Spending 5M€ on say, poor communities would help those poor communities (short or long term, dunno), but they could still be influenced by a shoddy social network (or multiple). Whether that sum effect is positive or not is debatable.
It’s very difficult to make a judgement on utility of such a (comparatively) small sum and its target.
To be honest, I’m much more concerned about how people spend their money when they go shopping: buying non fair-trade goods like chocolate, clothes, coffee, phones, and so on, where they spend sums orders of a magnitude larger than a paltry 5-10€/month on mastodon.
The money wasn’t donated yet. This is their stated goal.
Yes, I am saying that we would be better off by having this money put somewhere else.
I get the notion, however social networks do have an inordinate effect populations and how they think. Spending 5M€ on say, poor communities would help those poor communities (short or long term, dunno), but they could still be influenced by a shoddy social network (or multiple). Whether that sum effect is positive or not is debatable.
It’s very difficult to make a judgement on utility of such a (comparatively) small sum and its target.
To be honest, I’m much more concerned about how people spend their money when they go shopping: buying non fair-trade goods like chocolate, clothes, coffee, phones, and so on, where they spend sums orders of a magnitude larger than a paltry 5-10€/month on mastodon.