Raphael Lullis (@raphael@communick.com)
mastodon.communick.com
So, it is really hard for me to share personal things online, but I need to get out of my comfort zone: I was fired from my day job last week and now I need to figure out if I should double down on communick.com or I should keep it as side-project and look for another job. I will make a series of polls to see if there is any viable business. Please boost for visibility.

I believe that the Fediverse can and should be more than a niche thing for those that reject Big Tech.

I also believe that to get there we will need businesses, service providers and professional developers who work on it because they are motivated by more than just “community values” and goodwill. For example, I have quite a bit experience with distributed systems and I know I could work to make Lemmy federation more efficient, but I can only do that if I can secure a stable income.

Please follow the linked Mastodon thread and vote on the polls. The idea is to find out if there are enough people willing to pay for services that can ease their pains with Mastodon/Lemmy/Matrix.

  • @rglullisOPAEnglish
    0•1 year ago

    Monetisation of any kind is against the mere idea of federated social media.

    Again, opinion-as-fact.

    People com here to be away from corporations, advertising and the like.

    Okay, let’s see where you are going with that…

    The model of social media that seeks to make social networking into a business model is in crisis

    That does not follow from your the first sentence.

    Not every business is a “corporation”. Not every professional that provides a service for money is a rent-seeker.

    The fact that there are “business coming to the fediverse” does not mean that they can only operate on the same (failed) business models from Big Tech.

    If you bothered to look into the polls I did in the original submission you’d see that I do not want to apply the Silicon Valley playbook here. If you go take a look at my first blog post about communick, you would see that the last thing I want to have is a “Corporation” in the Fediverse, but instead I want to have it strong and attractive enough for small, independent service providers, so that it can become a mainstream alternative and not just a niche for outsiders.

    • RetronautickzEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      If you go take a look at my first blog post about communick, you would see that the last thing I want to have is a “Corporation” in the Fediverse, but instead I want to have it strong and attractive enough for small, independent service providers

      No. What you want is to make money out of decentralised social media.

      Not every business is a “corporation”. Not every professional that provides a service for money is a rent-seeker

      People offering their services and talent for money already exist on the fediverse.

      The fact that there are “business coming to the fediverse” does not mean that they can only operate on the same (failed) business models from Big Tech.

      Funny. Because in the polls you asked a question about features someone would be interested in pay for. Some of which are characteristical of corporate social media…

      • @rglullisOPAEnglish
        0•1 year ago

        What you want is to make money out of decentralised social media.

        By providing a service and building things that can improve the ecosystem, not by rent-seeking.

        None of what I am doing or thinking about doing is exclusive. Managed Hosting? Subscriber-only accounts? Add-on features? What is so evil about these business models?

        People offering their services and talent for money already exist on the fediverse.

        So what is your problem with my polls?

        Some of which are characteristical of corporate social media…

        What is “corporate” about that?

        • RetronautickzEnglish
          0•1 year ago

          You do know you can’t make money out of any fediverse software, don’t you? You can make money on the fediverse, like artists and professionals do, but you can’t make money out of it.

          From mastodon main page:

          We respect your agency. Your feed is curated and created by you. We will never serve ads or push profiles for you to see.

          This goes in contradiction with an option on one of your polls:

          Better recommendations on who to follow

          Other than accounts that suggest you people to follow on the fediverse, there’s no algorithm that recommends you accounts to follow or content to see. In fact, this very thing would go against the TOS of Mastodon, Peertube, and other fediverse software

          You could make your own software that offers those things and give users the posibility/ability to federate, but you cannot legally add premium features or recommendation algorithms to already existing fediverse software or any fork of it.

          • @rglullisOPAEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            You do know you can’t make money out of any fediverse software

            this very thing would go against the TOS of Mastodon, Peertube, and other fediverse software

            you cannot legally add premium features or recommendation algorithms to already existing fediverse software or any fork of it.

            You are making things up or you don’t understand how the AGPL works. There is no “TOS” for the fediverse software.

            Don’t believe me? Go ask the Mastodon devs themselves if there is anything irregular/illegal about any of the things I am working on or proposing.

            push profiles for you to see (…) contradiction with an option on one of your polls

            Recommending profiles to follow is already part of the onboarding process, and is not in any way equivalent to “pushing profiles for you to see”.

            Look, I really tried to keep an open mind about this conversation, but now you are distorting the truth and I can’t tell if it’s for ignorance or dishonesty. I think it’s time to end it. Have a nice one.

            • RetronautickzEnglish
              0•1 year ago

              Recommending profiles to follow is already part of the onboarding process, and is not in any way equivalent to “pushing profiles for you to see”.

              So, if its already possible. What would your freemium features add?

              There is no “TOS” for the fediverse software.

              Each software has, in fact, its rules/terms. Peertube, for example, is explicitly non-profit.

              Look, I really tried to keep an open mind about this conversation, but now you are distorting the truth and I can’t tell if it’s for ignorance or dishonesty. I think it’s time to end it. Have a nice one.

              To me what you are doing trying to monetise something that is completely free of charge, while pretending you are doing it to promote the fediverse, “making it mainstream” (the last thing the hardcore fedizens want), IS dishonest. So I guess we are even.