An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:
Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto
If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name "Luigi".
Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.
Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can't go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.
For someone like me who wants to see Lemmy be a place that's owned by users, run by users, and moderated sensibly, what should I do? I have a problem with supporting the lemmy.ml instance.
Lemmy instances are already owned and run by their different instance admins and moderators. Regardless of how you feel about Lemmy.ml, development for Lemmy supports all who use different instances.
The alternatives are doing the dev work yourself, or finding a different platform to use.
Further, as @OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml said, the Lemmy.ml costs are very low, it's the actual life costs that allow development of much-asked for features and maintenance to continue.
“You have to donate to tankie transphobes to support the Reddit alternative” isn’t a great look though. And nutomic has stated that donations for Lemmy development also go towards supporting the .ml servers. That’s a massive issue with the way funding is handled, no matter how you look at it.
I've vocally criticized Nutomic's transphobia, but I have no issue with them being Communists. Further, I already answered the bit about funding Lemmy.ml, let me copy and paste the relevant section:
The donations pay the devs salaries. Donations pay for their video games, food, etc. What the devs do with their salaries allows them to continue developing Lemmy full time, how they choose to spend their salaries is on them.
There are other options... Lemmy development could stop and plenty of people would keep using it in its current atate. Maybe it'd even continue to grow.
Or maybe the developers quit and another team steps in? Open source projects are never fully tied to a single developer team.
The low server cost doesn't change anything for me. I'm just a person who won't donate if any amount goes towards keeping that place running under the current admins.
Then teams can fork it if they want, it's FOSS. Lemmy is adopted because the devs are competent, and a lot of us came here specifically because there are Communists here.
Yes, I agree. Maybe that will happen, or maybe it won't.
Experience has shown that when others try, they stumble significantly.
GOOD point
The lemmy.ml instance costs like 30$/month to run. Your donation isn't going to that; your donation is going to develop Lemmy itself
If they do not treat lemmy.ml server donations separately from lemmy development donations, that is a problem.
Lemmy.ml is how they test new features, it's a tool necessary for development. You can block Lemmy.ml or use an instance defederated from it if you wish, but it's necessary as far as development is concerned.
I don't want to block lemmy.ml, it's not like I hate that instance or anything. But I don't see why I should finance this server - it's definitely not just a development server. I would like to finance development of lemmy without that money going into that server.
They need users to test, and let people in to do so. The fact that the people here use the server is a necessary function for getting feedback and results from testing. Plus, the server costs are cheap, it's the life costs that you would really be supporting.
They can pick a different instance, this is bullshit speak.
Wanna be a dev? Fine. Keep your authoritarian bullshit out of it. The devs for lemmy being known as authoritarians causes new people to avoid lemmy.
They literally created the platform. They can moderate their instance however they like. That's the point of the platform.
And being "authoritarian" is when you moderate your own server how you see fit, like banning the equivalent of bad faith spamming of My Lai, Tulsa Riot, or the 1985 MOVE Bombing Wikipedia articles and pictures in obvious attempts at anti communism and stirring shit.
It's not like they're putting demands on .world to tone down the liberalism.
What "different instance?" Lemmy.ml has always been the test instance, you can block it if you don't like dealing with Communists. You're complaining about an anti-Capitalist, federated platform being developed by Communists, if you want a platform with everyone conforming to your views there are other platforms for you.
If they want donations, they can stop spreading bullshit authoritarian lies and request to work with other instance owners to be a test bed.
I'm not suggesting anyone conform to my views, I'm suggesting they do the right thing and remove themselves from admining and hosting tankie authoritarian instances that do nothing but show new users that the devs are just the lefts version of fascist.
So basically you're just upset that the devs of an anti-Capitalist platform are Communists, and it's not enough that they do free dev work on a platform used by many people, they must bend to your will to do so? The entitlement is off the charts.
Asking for donations is not free work.
This platform will start to shrink if it's devs continue to promote their political beliefs.
They're not communist. They're authoritarians. Get it straight... it's the same reason I've got you tagged as a tankie.
Asking for donations is free work. The product is free, paying is optional. You aren't being fleeced.
Lemmy is stable, and many people use it because the devs are Communists, and quite a lot of us are Communists here.
Yes, the devs are Communists. All governments are "authoritarian," what matters is which class is exerting its authority. Socialist states have expanded democracy for the Working Class. I really don't care if you have me tagged as "commie," "pinko," "red," "tankie," etc, whichever pejorative for Communist you prefer doesn't change it. I don't need your personal approval.
Where did I say anyone was being fleeced?
The population of lemmy is no longer majority tankies. Sorry but it's not, just like the majority of the world isn't tankies. You just had your bubble for a bit here. The mass majority are not tankies. Those that are are on defederated instances, lemmy.ml stays around because of the devs.
I didn't say I was giving you my personal approval, I just told you what you are.
You stated asking for donations isn't free labor. Lemmy is FOSS, it's free, donations are a common part for funding FOSS projects.
Lemmy doesn't force anyone into being anything, you seem to hold the view that the devs being Communists is holding back Lemmy as a whole, despite Communists not making up a majority of users.
The world is increasingly Marxist though, outside of the West, countries like Burkina Faso are now being lead by Marxists and Marxists run the largest economy in the world by Purchasing Power Parity.
I already know I'm a Communist, Marxist, Marxist-Leninist, etc. You just wanted to throw a pejorative jab, that's all.
When it's required to fund the development because the developers don't operate without any other income... then it steps into the boundaries of not free. I have no issues donating to FOSS projects, do it all the time. I have issues with devs using the platform to spread propaganda and then ask for money to survive.
Apparently you don't seem to visit any other instances and have your head in the sand. Plenty of people want to donate, but don't want to be attached to people who outright spew russian and Chinese propaganda and act like the western world....which mind you is feeding them right now with their donations...is evil scum.
ROFL ok sure thing champ.
No you're the lefts version of maga...
Again, your issues wrap around to not wanting to use free software made by Communists who have just as much power as you do to run their own instances. It's entitlement.
I visit other instances from time to time, I don't generally enjoy it. I stick mainly to the instances I do because I enjoy my time more that way, among other Leftists. The Global North is Imperialist, and China certainly is better, I won't apologize for having those views.
Not sure what you mean by "sure thing," you're clearly being sarcastic but you don't have a point you're making.
And no, Communists are not anywhere close to "MAGA," not the "Left's version of MAGA" or otherwise. This is nonsense.
Being a tool for propaganda is not a communist... it's being a tankie.
I never understood you tankies...why aren't you living in china or NK or russia? Like if they're these fantastic places what's stopping you from moving there, since the west is a shit hole?
Hmmm let's see ...sees propaganda as truth, is ok with their brand of dictatorship, is fine with regimes murdering millions, completely ok with the gov offing people they don't like, and likes to wash history....naa you guys are totally different.
Lemmy came about because Communists wanted to create an anticapitalist answer to Reddit. People can use it how they wish, including defederating from every Communist-adjacent instance and banning every Left winger if they want.
Secondly, Russia is no longer Socialist since the fall of the Soviet Union, I don't speak Korean and don't even think I can move to the DPRK even if I wanted to. I'd be down to move to China for a few years, but I have family where I am. When people say the Global North is Imperialist, they aren't saying it sucks to live there more than everywhere else, but that the Global North only exists as it does through brutal exploitation of the Global South.
For your final round:
https://join-lemmy.org/docs/users/07-history-of-lemmy.html
No no it didn't. Not a damn word of Communist is spoken here, and that's written by one of the devs.
China is literally exploiting it's own people and now Africa...the fuck you mean the north exists only through brutal exploitation of the south. The ussr did the same shit and so does NK... I'm baffled you think it's the evil west is the only ones doing this...but I really shouldn't be since your next answers speak volumes
So you think russia has a claim to Ukraine then?
So....still ok with a dictatorship...got it.
Well you're favorite Communist killed millions...soo assuming you're gonna tell me that's propaganda and they where saints.
No they didn't but yes majority...they also sided with the nazis and they killed my family during wwii like it was a second thought. And lend lease from the west...is the reason they didn't turn into a conquered nation.
Please tell me how refuting shit like Holodomor is demystifying history...
That entire history was clearly written as a Leftist frustrated with Reddit's censorship of Leftists and pro-US slant, it's because the devs are Communists.
As for China, they are not "doing the exact same shit." Same with the USSR, and the DPRK is insular, how could it exploit the Global South even if it wanted to? You don't know what you're talking about.
As for 1-5...
What do you mean by saying Russia "has a claim to Ukraine?" I don't even think Russia is saying they want to annex the entirety of Ukraine.
A DotP is a term that originates with Marx, referring to a Proletarian government that suppresses the Bourgeoisie. The DotP is democratic for the proletariat. This is Marxism 101.
Can you tell me who my "favorite Communist is," and how they "killed millions?" Politics isn't a sports game, but if I had to pick a "favorite," it would be Lenin.
More than 80% of all combat in World War II was on the Eastern Front. The Soviets never sided with the Nazis, they had in fact tried for years to convince the Western Powers to join the Soviets in a pact against Nazi Germany, as they hated each other. The West said no, preferring the Soviets and the Nazis to kill each other.
I have never once denied that there was a famine in the 1930s, just pointed out that the idea that it was intentional is seen as bogus even by western historians.
If right-wing shits leave because if this, that's great.
The worst thing to a lib is when number go down. Its a catastrophe. Never mind that the devs have been "promoting their political beliefs" since the inception of lemmy I believe and the platform has been onboarding the reddit refugees (for better or for worse) for all that time.
Lol tankie authoritarians calling progressives right wing ROFL. Yea cause murdering millions via labor camps and starvation is totally not right wing at all. Let me guess none of that shit happened and your saviors stallin were saints that clothed/houses/fed everyone and everyone was equal...lol
By donating you are not financing the lemmy.ml server, because that is already long covered with a much lower donation level. Everything above that is exclusively for developer salaries.
Just donated via ko-fi!
Thanks!
That's not quite how a pool of money works.
Once you fill the gas tank in a motorcycle, you can't pick which molecules of gas go towards acceleration and which ones go towards idling at a red light.
Nah
Some fraction of my donation would go towards the $30. Any amount of money going from me to .ml, be it $10 or $.00001, is too much.
I know $30 is "not much", but the amount doesn't change my principles.
Don't discard imperfect allies.
If the development of Lemmy stops, all of this goes away and people end up back on Reddit or conventional social media.
lemmy.ml hosting is exclusively paid via Opencollective. All other donation options go directly into developer salaries, so not a single cent goes to lemmy.ml hosting.
www.lemm.ee has been the only place I've enjoyed using lemmy