Cosmetics.
Let’s offer paid cosmetics for users of your instance. Animated or custom banners, posts, new themes, etc.
It’s a model that works really well for Discord and League of Legends. Instances offering to sell aesthetic luxury to their user base could work for Mastodon too.
It’s non-invasive, it’s optional, it’s a great addition for some people, and it allows to raise funds to keep the hosted instances up and running.
Do you think it’s viable?
Nothing about profit goes against Mastodon, Fediverse, open source, etc.
It might go against most instances CoC or mission statements though.
> Nothing about profit goes against Mastodon, Fediverse, open source, etc.
I’m not sure from where you are reading this, but Mastodon is registered as a non-profit organization in Germany. That means the extra costs have to go toward providing a service to the community instead of making a profit.
I don’t understand how locking features behind monetization gives a choice to users, in fact, it’s the opposite, right?
Mastodon as a protocol/software, not Mastodon gGmbH
I mean you could interpret their post that way, but it isn’t clear that they are suggesting branching off of mastodon to something else, kind of like how truth social did.