this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
83 points (97.7% liked)

Fediverse

17722 readers
2 users here now

A community dedicated to fediverse news and discussion.

Fediverse is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe".

Getting started on Fediverse;

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Pretty straight question.

I see Lemm.ee is now the second most populated instance based on https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list, with 3634 monthly active users.

I also know that Lemmy devs said that

lemmy.ml is bigger than beehaw, and only costs 80 euros per month for a dedicated server.

https://lemmy.ml/comment/2372503

As lemmy.ml has 3561 monthly active users, should we consider that around 3,5k-4k users is the sweet spot for an instance population, and stop recommending the ones that reached that threshold?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] willya@lemmyf.uk 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From what I’ve seen on these larger instances, they’re taking in a lot of $$$ in donations.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Indeed, but what happens if the donations stop?

[–] willya@lemmyf.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well I’m not sure. I’d have to see the stats and specs used to run said instances. Lemm.ee alone has already generated enough cash to last quite a few years if they stopped today and kept the donations for the actual server/upgrades. sunaurus has already said he can pay it himself indefinitely.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. The costs of LW seems much higher, but also they have 20k more users

[–] willya@lemmyf.uk 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have they gave the specs used to run it? I’m really curious.

[–] MariaTacobellina@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] willya@lemmyf.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Weird that comment link is returning

{"error":"not_logged_in"} And damn that’s a beast for sure.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] willya@lemmyf.uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yikes, but this is a collection of multiple things being ran too. Mastodon/Lemmy/firefish

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago
[–] grue@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why would they stop? That revenue model has been working just fine for Wikipedia for over a decade now.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wikipedia has to ask for donations several times. I'm not sure it's 100% future proof for instances to have to rely on large donations

[–] ImOnADiet@lemmygrad.ml -1 points 1 year ago

wikipedia itself is more than fine, they just spend a ton of money on other projects thats what the donation drives are mostly funding (most of which suck tbh). Another org that does just fine funding itself through donation is the Organization for Transformative Works (i.e archiveofourown.org)

(if someone could repost this that's not on an instance blocked by sopuli that would be much appreciated)