Individual instances could theoretically monetize if their owners wished, they could show you ads, sell your data, sell you merch, sell the instance to a third party, all the same strategies as any other internet institution.

The Fediverse as a whole cannot, though, due to its decentralized ownership and development structure.

I don’t really see how. If they tried to charge you, why wouldn’t you just join another instance? You’d still see the same stuff. Unless they de-federated, (and I only barely know what I’m talking about here) and became a privately owned site, but then, they’d lose all the content from other instances, which people would flock to immediately.

I think there is an arms race with content moderation that even if the instance is not themselves trying to monetize, clever and unscrupulous ad agencies will slip ads into feeds under the guise of actual content. I think it’s a big reason Reddit went to shit even before it went public.

How do you separate a user who innocently includes McDonald’s into a post or comment from someone doing so with the intention of driving revenue? (Do you want some fries now?)

It’s probably already the case now just the ‘ads’ are mostly all political shit. Same idea just with a top-down political agenda rather than driving sales. They have all the public fediverse data to base their strategies on already.

I think this issue is just handwaved away with “oh go to a different instance” but we’re here for content ultimately and not all instances have what we’re looking for. Ad agencies are going to be able to adapt to a changing landscape like that because it’s literally their full time jobs/careers.

100% certainty. the data gleemed from the content produced by a lively community is valuable to data mining and marketing. once an instance makes their radar, they will want a pipe into it. whether they pay the instance owner, the ISP/cloud it sits on, or just copy the data maliciously, they’ll get it and sell it. and then have a plan to manipulate it / sell to that user pool as well.

it’s “natural” (for assholes) to do this. seems to happen everywhere, but lemmy and fediverse are prone to it for now.

I already pay a few bucks a month into the kitty for this instance, because I’d rather be out the price of a coffee than deal with corporate bullshit, AI, the algorithm, and GD motherfucking ads.

I assume that 80% of the users are on one or two instances. Maybe the operators of those instances could sell it to a big publishing company, like Condé Nast or something. That way it will be easier to vertically integrate advertisement between traditional print media, online publications, and less formal online gathering places. It’s a win win at the end. The original operators get their bag, and the community keeps going while being supported by a successful business.

/s

I hope so, but I’d also want them to be a registered non-profit or not-for-profit entity.

Just cover your bills and pay out bonuses to the people doing the work (including moderators)

Yes it would be monetized, by a swimsuit calendar of each Lemmy user.

Could go the route like tilvids where the community itself donated enough to keep the lights on.