Cosmetics.

Let’s offer paid cosmetics for users of your instance. Animated or custom banners, posts, new themes, etc.

It’s a model that works really well for Discord and League of Legends. Instances offering to sell aesthetic luxury to their user base could work for Mastodon too.

It’s non-invasive, it’s optional, it’s a great addition for some people, and it allows to raise funds to keep the hosted instances up and running.

Do you think it’s viable?

    • ericdano@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      It does though. Someone has to pay for the hosting costs. And the domain (yearly) cost.

      As an instance runner, it isn’t a LOT of money, but still, it is money. It DOES cost to run an instance, and donations/sponsorships are nice to help defer the costs.

      • Beardedgeek72@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        This is what donation drives are for.

        On the instance I am on the admin currently have collected enough last donation drive to run the server for three years.

        Mastodon is an open source Free-As-in-Freedom non profit project. That is the POINT of it.

    • ghost_desu@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Any non-free service needs to monetize to scale. Hobbyists paying out of pocket can only take it so far. Though it seems half of fedi users don’t care to grow it to begin with

      • stijnhommes@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I see monetizing as something different from covering cost.

        I agree that costs need to be covered somehow, but monetization is about making MORE money than is actually needed to run the platform and that is definitely the Achilles heel of existing social media that doesn’t need to be carried over to Mastodon.