I’ll start:

  • Some significant portion of funds go towards development of the Lemmy software. 80%? Rest goes to lemmy instance hosting.
  • Ads are reasonable and non-intrusive (no popups etc)
  • People can still browse w/ an adblocker

I personally would gladly turn off my adblocker if I knew the ads were supporting development. Hell, I might even click a few!

    • Izzy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yea. The question is completely absurd. There is no such thing as “reasonable ads”. It is also completely against the philosophy of the project and the developers would never agree to it.

      You may as well just browse Reddit at that point.

      • CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        37
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Also, ads are very much “give an inch, take a mile” in nature. Once you open that door and have say a tiny banner ad, then it’s like “well that didn’t do much harm, let’s do a slightly bigger one”, then before you know it it you have sponsored posts, sidebar ads, videos and all that nonsense.

        It’s just one of the avenues where enshittification creeps in IMO.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I’m happy when an instance owner just says how much it costs to run a server, how many people actually manage it and how much time they spend to keep it running. I also like it when they just come out and say “we need this much money to keep things running every month, every year, etc”

      Then I just donate and there are more a dozen ways people can send and recieve donations.

      I don’t mind paying for things and services if the person or people I’m donating to are just honest about what they need and why, especially if it’s a service I use often.

      • Izzy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        No, this is rewarding the implementation of ads and can’t be thought of as donating anymore. You are paying to remove ads thus giving them money for having added ads to the site.

        • Vlaxtocia [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          What if the ads are optional, they’re turned off by default, but if you can’t afford to donate but still want to support you can turn them on for yourself?

        • Iwasondigg@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          It all sounds like semantics to me. You could implement donations first and then say OK for all you people who haven’t donated we’re going to punish you by showing you ads. Bottom line is this shit isn’t free. It has to get paid for somehow.

  • raptir@lemdro.id
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    There are no circumstances under which I would be okay with it. Including ads means there is a chance that content is removed to appease advertisers.

    I will happily donate to my instance once they start accepting donations.

  • elouboub@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Bro, who are these people trying to normalise ads? Do y’all work for ad-companies or have you been brainwashed enough to believe ads are the only way? Ads are a braindead problem for another problem looking for a solution.

    Fuck ads. Write that 50 times. If isn’t through your skull after 50, write another 50 and repeat until it is. Fuck ads.

  • nuez_jr@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Straightforward funding requests from the instance are just fine. Advertisements can gargle a cactus.

  • AlexTheTurtle@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Never, i would leave my instance immediately. Thankfully i dont believe this will ever happen. If admins need funds community members will donate. Through mutual cooperation we can keep these spaces free of the commercial bullshit that has infested every other faet of our lives.

  • Ech@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    In my view, the problem isn’t monetizing an instance, but that ads right now are fundamentally problematic. I don’t know of a way to introduce ads that wouldn’t be intrusive, invade user privacy, introduce bad motives for admins, and just be generally unpleasant. If money is a problem, I think a subscriber model would be better suited for the platform rather than taking any step to normalize ads.

  • 404@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’d be okay with devs promoting their own FOSS software, etc. And seeing donation buttons every now and then. No trad ads plz. We have enough of those.

  • chraebsli@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    NO ADS! These platforms were created so that you won’t see any ads ever. If you want to support the instances or platforms, you can make a donation via Patreon/ BuyMeACoffee or what they use. Here is a list of links for some platforms:

    • r00ty@kbin.life
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Nah. I don’t plan to ever have ads. Hardly any users so my nice little single server will be fine for years to come and I can afford it no problem. If somehow I got a lot of users, I’d likely just close registration rather than ads. I hate ads!

  • milkjug@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Fuck ads, don’t normalize this. I left Reddit because of enshittification, and putting ads on lemmy is just another first step towards that inevitable end. I’ll just spin my own instance back up. I had one running but I took it down to avoid the influx of CSAM on some instances.

  • Binthinkin@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Everyone sucks at business. Everyone. Businesses is an art form. You can do anything you want with it.

    Check this out. Free isn’t a real thing. You cannot build a site in your free time and then give it away for free and expect people to pick up the slack.

    You need to charge people. So you need a secure way to handle information and payments.

    NOBODY wants ads anywhere anymore. It’s mind poison from another time.

    Creator owned platforms is where its at.

    Nebula.tv is a great example.

    If you cannot figure out a pay schedule then hire or collaborate with someone who does.