We are now at 28.5K users (see https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list). The top 10 instances also got a decent boost in user count. With the exception of beehaw.org which defederated, the Fediverse is thriving ๐ฅ
Rather, more instances, not servers. An instance can scale out using as many servers as the owner can tolerate.
I certainly wouldnโt want to be the one managing a horizontally scaled fediverse instance on a cloud platform though, that shit adds up fast, and no way in hell is anyone going to donate here.
I honestly donโt get how thatโs supposed to work indefinitely, thatโs usually where ad money comes in andโฆ god dammit weโre back to square one lol. Iโm here for a good time, not a long time ๐
There is nothing wrong with having ads on a server. A server / instance should monetize itself like crazy if they want to. If users don't like it, they now have options! They're not stuck in a place like reddit.
I'm new here but if I stick around long enough I'll probably get up my own server/instance(s) for the various parts of the fediverse I participle in. Mostly because it sounds neat and partially because it would allow other people I know to have a fediverse "home" operated by a familiar face (if the fediverse gets popular among the mainstream).
Right now it's just Lemmy, but I may eventually participate in Mastodon, Matrix, Peertube, Owncast and.
I'm going to wait first though to see if the Lemmy userbase (and platform) remains healthy and/or grows. Then would come the hard part of setup, I'm familiar with technology, but nowhere near a professional or a hobbyist (unless you count gaming).
I set up our instance at Lemmy.pro for pretty much those same reasons, just to contribute in some way (I read messaging at Lemmy.ml when I first came around that adding instances helped) and make a space I could control my own account from.
I definitely think that ads will start appearing on the bigger instances especially since the overhead will most likely outpace donations. I could also see a lot of super small instances pop up just for people to host for their friends. I'm thinking about creating an instance just for me and a few friends but I'll definitely have to deviate from my standard Reddiy username, can't let that cat out of the bag.
I've said it before, but I really think that "Reddit Gold" was an excellent non-invasive monetization strategy.
Gold didn't really do much but put a little coin above a comment, and it supported the site for a long time without having to pump in advertising, which many people would block anyway.
I gilded a total of 3 times maybe, over the years. And that $12 or whatever was way more than Reddit ever got out of me from ads, since I block them all.
I'm betting that is going to occur with growing out communities. They will probably have disagreement with admin then move or just want a more focused community that people can click local & get what they want.
We have to see people show up, learn, and start to enjoy it. A big instance has some perks for the time being and everyone might want to see its sticking power before dealing with headache of running their own instance.