this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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Lack of funds, essentially. For all we hate corporatised Internet services, we really suck at funding alternatives.
This is an ongoing problem, we need to figure out a way to make these services sustainable. The donation model obviously isn't cutting it.
Paid supporter membership? Something like, you get a snazzy badge next to your username if you send them 2 EUR a month?
Don't have any sources, but I feel like I've seen that model before and it doesn't seem to have worked so far for most people.
I have a monthly donation going to the nonprofit running Lemmy.world as it was my server for the longest time, and it seems to work for them?
The donation model works for a very few groups, but for the vast majority of OSS and freehosted projects, donations are nowhere close to covering costs.
Even lemmy.world is viable because they only count server costs, and are volunteer run. If they had to cover staffing costs, it would be untenable.
true that!
Most people will buy a Starbucks everyday then scoff at paying for a service they use daily.
No idea why you're being downvoted, it's quite obvious the majority of users aren't contributing financially to the free services and products they use.