Yup, if I'm on an instance I treat it like a pay what you can subscription. The only way they can provide the service I want is if people who use it fund it.
I've donated to development. Instances need support, but the platform won't improve without developers.
It's popular to shit on lemmy.ml and the tankie devs, but that's where most of the development and beta testing happens. It's wild that software that allows users to ignore the silliness of that instance isn't funded because of the instance.
(It's possible for devs to be distasteful enough that I wouldn't use their software, but we haven't gotten there yet with Lemmy)
You’re right and Lemmy.ml’s reputation has contributed to my hesitation in donating to development. But I also use Mastodon pretty regularly and I haven’t contributed to its development either. I have no explanation.
I made this post hoping to get some input on how folks divvy donations up amongst the three and maybe pressure myself into doing it.