• VexCatalyst@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Sustainably? They don’t (mostly). Most are either pet projects, paid for out of pocket by the instance owner or run off donations. Neither are particularly sustainable long term, with rare exceptions like sdf.org.

    The SDF runs just about every federated service you can think of, and has done so since the 1980s, run almost entirely off donations. Started as a dialup BBS (still active).

    • CascadianBeam@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I enjoyed checking out the open collective link that was shared by another commenter.

      I pretty much knew the answer to my question but mission accomplished in the sense of getting more info.

      I suppose out of pet project versus donation, the latter is the less of two evils.

      • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s a good question to ask anyways just so more people see it and learn more how this all works. Myself included. Thank you.

  • emptyother@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you check out the opencollective link in lemmy worlds sidebar, theres a budget breakdown there. And how much they gain in donations.

  • Trapping5341@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Thanks for asking this. This is something I’ve been serious about for awhile. Turns out while it’s expensive in the grand scheme of giant website it’s not that expensive money wise. Though it is very time expensive.

    • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      IDK, I thought I saw they said it cost $300-400 a month to host, for a personal expense that’s pretty significant for most folks (plus the time, though it seems to be a labor of love).

      • Trapping5341@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh that’s for sure a big expense for most people myself included but if you go to the open collective link above the estimated budget for lemmy.world this year is only 16k ish. and thats to host one of if not the biggest instance right now. if every user donated a dollar the instance could run possibly for years.