Oh don’t get me wrong, definitely donate to your instance. But it’s just not possible to keep running an instance if the one person with full control of the infrastructure disappears; feddit.de had the same issue, and feddit.de/feddit.org was AFAIK always doing well in terms of donations.
Lemmy as a whole is still very much alive. We lose servers every now and then, but no server is the whole platform.
If your server disappears, look for a new one and pick one that will fit your needs better this time. Or help pay for costs if that’s why it disappeared.
It’s a real catch-22. The ability to spin up new servers leads to plenty run by your run-of-the-mill person with some knowledge about hosting. The downside is that it’s inherently unstable due to relying on your run-of-the-mill person with some knowledge about hosting to maintain a social media server, and it’s always easier to destroy than it is to create.
Each time a server goes down, there’s some percentage of users and communities that won’t return due to the effort of relocating and starting all over. Why go through the effort of finding a new server, especially one run the way you want, and start over when the same thing could happen within a month. It’s like when a Discord server disappears, but your account gets deleted every time as well.
I think people just have to make informed desicions on what servers they pick.
Using small servers run on a raspberry pi in a shed by a single person is fine if you are that person. But if that is not your server you’re better off picking a more established server that has a more proven presence.
This problem can be solved by education.
Using the email comparison, most people would pick a provider with good reputation (hotmail, gmail, protonmail). There are plenty of shite servers out there, I’m sure. But noone picks them.
E-Mail is now completely controlled by Microsoft and Google.
Cause if they don’t accept your mail, your mail server is useless.
Same here: It’s safest on lemmy.world, so everyone will go there.
Which is the complete opposite of the fediverse idea.
I really want municipalities to spin up their own instances (or at least pay for hosted instances.)
Imagine a world in which local (and larger) governments have their instances and don’t have to rely upon corporations like twitter. @[email protected], etc.
That’s a really cool idea. The internet has really done a number on local news, maybe a world where your social media infrastructure was run by your local municipality would change that. At minimum, it would give people an interesting way to interact with people in their community.
I thought about that for a long while really. Would be so amazing for your “Local” feed to be actually, well, local!
You could see the events from around the neighborhood, yet still use your account to connect to the outside world.
The Internet and big platforms have withered local social activity and organizing somewhat, distancing us from our immediate environments and leaving all of us scattered. Would be cool to reverse this, while still enjoying the freedom of connection to everyone around the world!
Oh don’t get me wrong, definitely donate to your instance. But it’s just not possible to keep running an instance if the one person with full control of the infrastructure disappears; feddit.de had the same issue, and feddit.de/feddit.org was AFAIK always doing well in terms of donations.
Sort of the Achilles Heel of the Fediverse generally speaking.
It’s a loss network of hobbyists, not a self-reproducing state agency or profit motivated business.
I chose to see it as a strength as well though.
Lemmy as a whole is still very much alive. We lose servers every now and then, but no server is the whole platform.
If your server disappears, look for a new one and pick one that will fit your needs better this time. Or help pay for costs if that’s why it disappeared.
It’s a real catch-22. The ability to spin up new servers leads to plenty run by your run-of-the-mill person with some knowledge about hosting. The downside is that it’s inherently unstable due to relying on your run-of-the-mill person with some knowledge about hosting to maintain a social media server, and it’s always easier to destroy than it is to create.
Each time a server goes down, there’s some percentage of users and communities that won’t return due to the effort of relocating and starting all over. Why go through the effort of finding a new server, especially one run the way you want, and start over when the same thing could happen within a month. It’s like when a Discord server disappears, but your account gets deleted every time as well.
I think people just have to make informed desicions on what servers they pick.
Using small servers run on a raspberry pi in a shed by a single person is fine if you are that person. But if that is not your server you’re better off picking a more established server that has a more proven presence.
This problem can be solved by education.
Using the email comparison, most people would pick a provider with good reputation (hotmail, gmail, protonmail). There are plenty of shite servers out there, I’m sure. But noone picks them.
E-Mail is now completely controlled by Microsoft and Google.
Cause if they don’t accept your mail, your mail server is useless.
Same here: It’s safest on lemmy.world, so everyone will go there.
Which is the complete opposite of the fediverse idea.
There are other reliable servers with big history, like sh.itjust.works, lemmy.blahaj.zone, lemmy.ca, lemmy.today, etc.
Besides, when you move to Fediverse, you already embrace impermanence.
I really want municipalities to spin up their own instances (or at least pay for hosted instances.)
Imagine a world in which local (and larger) governments have their instances and don’t have to rely upon corporations like twitter. @[email protected], etc.
That’s a really cool idea. The internet has really done a number on local news, maybe a world where your social media infrastructure was run by your local municipality would change that. At minimum, it would give people an interesting way to interact with people in their community.
I thought about that for a long while really. Would be so amazing for your “Local” feed to be actually, well, local!
You could see the events from around the neighborhood, yet still use your account to connect to the outside world.
The Internet and big platforms have withered local social activity and organizing somewhat, distancing us from our immediate environments and leaving all of us scattered. Would be cool to reverse this, while still enjoying the freedom of connection to everyone around the world!