An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:
Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto
If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name “Luigi”.
Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.
Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can’t go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.
They need users to test, and let people in to do so. The fact that the people here use the server is a necessary function for getting feedback and results from testing. Plus, the server costs are cheap, it’s the life costs that you would really be supporting.
They can pick a different instance, this is bullshit speak.
Wanna be a dev? Fine. Keep your authoritarian bullshit out of it. The devs for lemmy being known as authoritarians causes new people to avoid lemmy.
They literally created the platform. They can moderate their instance however they like. That’s the point of the platform.
And being “authoritarian” is when you moderate your own server how you see fit, like banning the equivalent of bad faith spamming of My Lai, Tulsa Riot, or the 1985 MOVE Bombing Wikipedia articles and pictures in obvious attempts at anti communism and stirring shit.
It’s not like they’re putting demands on .world to tone down the liberalism.
What “different instance?” Lemmy.ml has always been the test instance, you can block it if you don’t like dealing with Communists. You’re complaining about an anti-Capitalist, federated platform being developed by Communists, if you want a platform with everyone conforming to your views there are other platforms for you.
If they want donations, they can stop spreading bullshit authoritarian lies and request to work with other instance owners to be a test bed.
I’m not suggesting anyone conform to my views, I’m suggesting they do the right thing and remove themselves from admining and hosting tankie authoritarian instances that do nothing but show new users that the devs are just the lefts version of fascist.
So basically you’re just upset that the devs of an anti-Capitalist platform are Communists, and it’s not enough that they do free dev work on a platform used by many people, they must bend to your will to do so? The entitlement is off the charts.
Asking for donations is not free work.
This platform will start to shrink if it’s devs continue to promote their political beliefs.
They’re not communist. They’re authoritarians. Get it straight… it’s the same reason I’ve got you tagged as a tankie.
Asking for donations is free work. The product is free, paying is optional. You aren’t being fleeced.
Lemmy is stable, and many people use it because the devs are Communists, and quite a lot of us are Communists here.
Yes, the devs are Communists. All governments are “authoritarian,” what matters is which class is exerting its authority. Socialist states have expanded democracy for the Working Class. I really don’t care if you have me tagged as “commie,” “pinko,” “red,” “tankie,” etc, whichever pejorative for Communist you prefer doesn’t change it. I don’t need your personal approval.
Where did I say anyone was being fleeced?
The population of lemmy is no longer majority tankies. Sorry but it’s not, just like the majority of the world isn’t tankies. You just had your bubble for a bit here. The mass majority are not tankies. Those that are are on defederated instances, lemmy.ml stays around because of the devs.
I didn’t say I was giving you my personal approval, I just told you what you are.
You stated asking for donations isn’t free labor. Lemmy is FOSS, it’s free, donations are a common part for funding FOSS projects.
Lemmy doesn’t force anyone into being anything, you seem to hold the view that the devs being Communists is holding back Lemmy as a whole, despite Communists not making up a majority of users.
The world is increasingly Marxist though, outside of the West, countries like Burkina Faso are now being lead by Marxists and Marxists run the largest economy in the world by Purchasing Power Parity.
I already know I’m a Communist, Marxist, Marxist-Leninist, etc. You just wanted to throw a pejorative jab, that’s all.
If right-wing shits leave because if this, that’s great.
The worst thing to a lib is when number go down. Its a catastrophe. Never mind that the devs have been “promoting their political beliefs” since the inception of lemmy I believe and the platform has been onboarding the reddit refugees (for better or for worse) for all that time.
Lol tankie authoritarians calling progressives right wing ROFL. Yea cause murdering millions via labor camps and starvation is totally not right wing at all. Let me guess none of that shit happened and your saviors stallin were saints that clothed/houses/fed everyone and everyone was equal…lol