cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29579005
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 somehow house the contradictory stance of wanting a federated platform but also wanting everyone to conform to their views.
If only there was a place they could go back to that conforms to their views. Somewhere they can read it every day.
If only…
Saw you trying to talk some sense elsewhere. Holy shit lmao.
If other devs were willing and able to do the tedious work of managing and developing a project they would. des and nutty are maintaining lemmy because nobody else wants to, not because they’re sending commisars round to shut down any forks.
Using lemmy while wanting it to become an unmaintained mess is… something.
Yep. I do agree on those calling out Nutomic for their transphobia, but all the red scare nonsense is endlessly silly. Liberals would rather shut the whole project down than use free software made by Communists.
I think Nutomic sucks, I also think he’s doing useful work and has material needs lol.
If someone wants to take over and were a cooler person I’d support that but like sheesh. Do these chucklefucks apply the same rules to the rest of their lives? I pay my electricity company which is owned by horrifying oligarchic ghouls for power, I buy food at a grocery store run by corporate monsters I think should be shot in the town square. I have Christmas meals with my neighbours who maintain the primary school garden for the kids and are also landlords.
This is life, it is messy.
I somewhat agree, but I think it’s good to get Nutomic to reconsider their stances regarding the trans community.
Sure, and like if someone wants to come forward as a candidate to lead Dev who isn’t transphobic I’ll donate to them instead. I am trans, I don’t like that people have transphobic attitudes and if someone wants lemmy to fail vs fund a transphobe I’ll hear them out.
It’s just like I have no reason to believe that reddit/HN etc is better for trans people and that the people that earn (way more) off those are better people.
Lemmy is an amazing resource for trans people to connect and help each other. We can like discuss DIY hormones and shit precisely because it isn’t a corporate controlled shithole run by people that just hide how crap they are.
Nutty is a transphobe, but at least he’s not trying to suppress trans people.