@asklemmy How could users Monitise themselves on the Fediverse?
As people possibly move across to the Fediverse to find alternatives, we have to question how people are going to make a living on this amazing platform.
Can it be fully run by donations or is there a better way for people to be paid across the Fediverse?
Not everything needs a profit motive attached. I’d argue nothing should, but I don’t think profit has made social media better overall.
I agree with you there; it hasn’t made social media great but lots of people make a living off it and shouldn’t lose out due to places like America banning an app they make money off.
It’s sad, but by that same logic we shouldn’t have swapped to electric lamps over oil-lanterns, because that put the lantern-lighters out of business.
Content creators have transferable skills that they can use in a variety of ways.
So how does the Fediverse make new jobs?
Why does it need to? Can people not just enjoy it?
You compared it to something that made new jobs with elections.
You may not need to work, but plenty of people do, and not everyone can work a normal 9-5 like everyone else due to disabilies, skills or other needs.
I compared it to antiquated methods. The Fediverse does not require jobs, nor profit, it exists in FOSS format and as such should allow donations, not direct monetization.
I need to work, and I do. Lemmy and the Fediverse will not be the death of all other social media, at least not in a time frame where people can no longer adapt to their changing material conditions.
Only seeing this a week or so after it was posted but feel the need to reply. One of the major motivations for myself and a significant portion of others who joined the Fediverse is the decay caused by commercialization of the WorldWide Web. I’d further argue that this decay is a mirror of the non-digital world and the impact of the hyper-comoditization championed by neoliberalism.
Humans don’t exist purely to serve commerce and transactional financial systems. Those systems are invented by and intended to serve humans. We need, for our health, spaces and activities that are not transactional and financial in nature. The Fediverse, as it currently exists is such a place.
Artists and other creatives are a vital part of humanity. Unfortunately, we’ve been sick in a neoliberal hellscape that demands a commercial reason for anything to justify its existence. If one wants to entertain people on the Fediverse, there are a number of possible models that could help one to make a living, while still not falling into the hyper-commercialization that has infected the Web. Most of the ones that come to mind could work well elsewhere too. Here’s some examples that come to mind:
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Form a non-profit related to the desired artistic medium. Through donations and grants, one can both make a living with their art and help others that are interested in the medium.
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Form an artists’ cooperative, whether for a single medium or multiple media. If the coop becomes known for talented artists who make good work, they can then act like a union, supporting eachother in contract negotiations and other collective bargaining to ensure that members are fairly compensated for their efforts and are able to make a living.
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Markets. I know several working artists that make the vast majority of their income in-person at local markets (farmers’ markets, swap-meets, etc). For performing artists, it may be possible to get bookings with the market organizers. For those that make pieces of still or recorded art, it can be sold directly.
With any of these, places like the Fediverse become a place to engage with people who know the artist and show their work to those not familiar. I strongly suspect that the Content Creator/Influencer as a “job” will not have long-term stability as it is being subsidized heavily by the platforms themselves, who are making money selling ads and enduser data, both of which are seeing more pushback from both users and governments as they are leveraged by bad actors and unscrupulous businesses chasing infinite growth.
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No
I don’t think anyone should be able to monetize themself on here. Donations are fine, but only for the select few actually keeping the servers on.
Bring money into it and most things go to shit.
So what’s the motivation of Creators coming to the Fediverse? How is the Fediverse going to grow for more people to want to donate to the servers and keep this amazing thing alive.
Self-promotion, same as most other platforms. There are already people on here doing so. If you post your e.g. comics for free, there’s nothing wrong with linking your website or merch.
However, ads or other forms of monetization within the fediverse will most likely ruin it.
I agree with the Ads side of things. That’s why I was asking if there was any other sort of model that people could use. I guess donations are probably the only thing that people could widely use.
Monetization is key to growth? What bullshit is that?
Lol…you say this as if people have been marketing it to Creators.
I’m here because Reddit is junk now. I don’t follow any “creators”, and I rarely leave Lemmy for external content unless I really need to open an article or something.
Creators often have Subreddits and places people want to interact with.
I was more talking about things like PeerTube and the upcoming @loops what is a TikTok Alternative for the Fediverse.
If I were to create content, my reasons to choose the Fediverse over other social platforms would remain the same. I believe in this project! I think it is important to have free spaces, people’s spaces.
I’d add a Patreon link (or an alternative to Patreon) for donations. That’s it. Some money to compensate for the effort is okay, I don’t need and I wouldn’t aspire to get super rich from my content.
The motivation is a platform that doesn’t revolve around corporate greed
So it should be done through donations then?
Creators can set up patreon accounts or ko-fi accounts if they want, but it shouldn’t be integrated into Lemmy.
That’s fair enough, Yeah love Ko-Fi as I run one for an Org that I helped create.
I guess Ko-Fi and other alternatives could be a good way for people to earn money without all the other crap that normal social media has.
So what’s the motivation of Creators coming to the Fediverse?
Why would we want them?
How is the Fediverse going to grow
Why does it need to?
Do people have to make a living of it?
Can’t we have a place online where out data isn’t being sold, aren’t being bombarded with ads, or begged for subscriptions?
People make a living online everyday through TikTok, YouTube & even Instagram.
If the Fediverse wishes to make not only a space but a better place for those who use it for personal use but also those creating great content, then we need a way for them to earn money well not taking away the great benefits of no ads on the Fediverse.
People make a living online everyday through TikTok, YouTube & even Instagram.
Those three platforms are now the fucking cancer of the internet
I will give your tiny tiny “influencer”-type brain seven minutes to figure out why that is
Hint - it’s directly relevant to your question
So you are willing to let thousands of people lose their job entertaining people… Kind of sucks for a video editor like myself as well as many other people that kind of require the online landscape to survive by allowing people that may not be able to work a normal job to create a living online.
Why not just stay where you are instead of infecting new places that don’t want it?
Ok, but
Can’t we have a place online where out data isn’t being sold, aren’t being bombarded with ads, or begged for subscriptions?
So with things like @loops on the way, do you think people who will move across to the Fediverse for an alternative if TikTok gets banned should earn there living?
The Fediverse makes sense to me for mass eyes on areas, having your data not sold and stuff, but why can’t people earn a living on it like the other parts of the Internet?
Nothing wrong with people making money online with content. It’s just why not have a space where people can’t?
I was more asking of the things that may replace platforms like TikTok connected to the Fediverse in the future suck as @loops
I understand not earning money from Mastodon or Lemmy, Just like the Video side of the Fediverse needs a way to earn money without the normal ways.
If some dev wants to make a monetized platform that uses activitypub, they can, and they can do it literally however they want whenever they want. I’m sure threads is or will be monetized in some way.
Literally nothing is stopping anyone from doing that.
But most current users probably wouldn’t migrate to a monetized platform, or even really want to interact with one, and new ones who do want to monetize probably won’t even move until a critical mass of people moves from the old platform(s). So there’s no incentive to create that at this point. And when the critical mass who wants to make money moves, they can figure out how they want to monetize their own platform.
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