Why charge $24 per year for my Mastodon instance?
(Feel free to share and boost this post for visibility.)
So I decided to open up my Mastodon instance. However, I’m asking people who would like to join to buy a subscription to it. What’s the deal here?
First, I’d like to turn away those cuckoo birds who would like to join, only to stir up stuff. Having to buy a subscription is going to turn some of those people away. I’ve seen in my timeline on the fediverse at least one person saying that moderating their server because too time consuming because of those cuckoo birds. I’d like to avoid this type of scenario. My server is for neurodivergent people.
Second, I’m incurring a cost running this server. I’d like to offset it. In order to offset it, I need money from my users. If nobody want to join, no biggie. I’ll just stay on my small server.
Third, I’d like my users to put their money where their mouth is. I think when you benefit from a server without contributing money, you run the risk of taking it for granted.
I think $24 per year is not too much asked.
What’s in it for you?
I think my first point above is to your benefit too. Neither you nor I want to be neighbors to those cuckoo birds.
In addition, I do have a degree in Computer Engineering, so I know my way around code and I can customize my server the way I want. That’s an advantage. Right now, my server is running:
- v4.2.5.
- I turned on the “Translation” button.
- I turned on search of posts.
- I turned on Authorized Fetch.
- I perform domain blocks.
- I defederated Threads.
- My custom code:
- With the customization that increases the post length to 5000 characters.
- With code that refreshes “Home” when you decide to hide someone’s boosts. This filters out the boosts immediately.
- With the code that keeps you where you were if you click “x new items” in slow mode.
- With a keyboard navigation fix.
- With code that collapses your own posts in your Home timeline. It merely hides the post, but does not remove it from your timeline. (See below.)
I’ll note here that I have nothing against the servers that already exist. If you don’t trust me, or if you want to avoid paying, you can definitely go to those servers. Here’s two that I know of:
autistics.life
neurodifferent.me
“It is a get rich quick scheme of yours, right?”
Haha, as if. I’ll be lucky if I even break even. If I manage to do better than breaking even, it will encourage me to use my time to improve Mastodon. I’ve already submitted the scrolling patch here:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/26380
You should definitely read the rules before joining:
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