I'll start:

  • Some significant portion of funds go towards development of the Lemmy software. 80%? Rest goes to lemmy instance hosting.
  • Ads are reasonable and non-intrusive (no popups etc)
  • People can still browse w/ an adblocker

I personally would gladly turn off my adblocker if I knew the ads were supporting development. Hell, I might even click a few!

  • raptir@lemdro.id
    ·
    9 months ago

    There are no circumstances under which I would be okay with it. Including ads means there is a chance that content is removed to appease advertisers.

    I will happily donate to my instance once they start accepting donations.

  • 404@lemmy.zip
    ·
    9 months ago

    I'd be okay with devs promoting their own FOSS software, etc. And seeing donation buttons every now and then. No trad ads plz. We have enough of those.

  • Ech@lemm.ee
    ·
    9 months ago

    In my view, the problem isn't monetizing an instance, but that ads right now are fundamentally problematic. I don't know of a way to introduce ads that wouldn't be intrusive, invade user privacy, introduce bad motives for admins, and just be generally unpleasant. If money is a problem, I think a subscriber model would be better suited for the platform rather than taking any step to normalize ads.

  • nuez_jr@lemm.ee
    ·
    9 months ago

    Straightforward funding requests from the instance are just fine. Advertisements can gargle a cactus.

  • LoveSausage@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    9 months ago

    I am all for ways to increase revenue for devs, I have donated. However ads are anti privacy by default. A way for people that don't want to donate but still want to support? How about a list of referral links people can use? Good middle ground.

  • gabe [he/him]@literature.cafe
    ·
    9 months ago

    I think for a shitpost instance a custom ad network banner ads with memes and shitposts would be make sense. What I mean by that is that on geocities as well as some small internet sites there’s “custom ad networks” where they basically rely on donations and or just random people submitting “ads” that normally tend to be just links to their site, weird obscure memes, animal pictures, etc.

    I think real ads for the sake of advertising on lemmy wouldn’t really be acceptable in any form, but shitposting ads have potential imo

    • radix@lemm.ee
      ·
      9 months ago

      That sounds great. I remember seeing really old sites with these.

  • PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    9 months ago

    Any lemmy instance using ads instead of donations should be abandoned to wither and die. It should get globally defederated... because any users ok with ads are not users we want on the fediverse.

  • Grownbravy [they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    Despite how necessary it is to pay for hosting, ads have ruined nearly all browsing experiences save one site where the ads were maintained by the site themselves and could be purchased by the users to advertise threads.

    I doubt any of the instances have a mod team large enough to want to maintain dedicated “For Sale” comms and make sure nothing dubious is going on.