Sub.club aims to fund the fediverse via premium feeds | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

submitted 3 months ago by Fitik@fedia.io to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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Sub.club thinks premium feeds could also serve other use cases, like supporting helpful bots or generating funds to help maintain a community's Mastodon server, for instance.

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[-] FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz 39 points 3 months ago

“I think it’s important, for the ecosystem to thrive, that there be a way to have premium content to build businesses here,” he said. “That’s a fundamental belief.”

Hard pass.

There isn't a need, that's some bullshit. Maybe some want to monetize their platform, but certainly not all. Fuck this push for finding another way to charge people for shit at every turn being masked as creator support.

I hate it.

[-] Fitik@fedia.io 8 points 3 months ago

@FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz Yep, TechCrunch even addressed it in the article

Developed over the past few months, sub.club shares engineering and design resources with Mammoth, the Mastodon app backed by Mozilla, Long Journey Ventures and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff. Though some fediverse supporters don’t like the idea of VCs and for-profit businesses entering their space, Mammoth’s co-founder Bart Decrem thinks bringing money into the fediverse could help it to thrive.

[-] FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz 13 points 3 months ago

I saw, I was just venting frustration at that specific viewpoint.

It's annoying that the same tired tactics are being applied to every corner of the internet.

[-] Fitik@fedia.io 2 points 3 months ago

@FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz Eh, personally, I think that as long nobody forces anyone to use something it's fine, more variety is always good for the federated network

[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

You haven't been on the internet long enough. This is how it starts...for like, the billionth time

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 0 points 3 months ago

I mean, how else do you expect things to work? Internet platforms aren't free to operate. Isn't paying creators directly supposed to be the ideal solution, instead of infesting pages with ads?

[-] halm@leminal.space 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You're already free to support developers and instance owners financially if they've set up either Patreon, OpenCollective or LiberaPay 🤷 That's money going where it's needed.

If I understand SubClub correctly, it's monetisation on a user level, which in the past has only really given us influencers. I rather enjoy not having that kind of bullshit on the fediverse.

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 3 points 3 months ago

I'm not sure what the difference between SubClub or Patreon is supposed to be. Other than SubClub takes a smaller cut.

[-] astro_ray@piefed.social 4 points 3 months ago

That's exactly what I thought when I first saw this. The difference in that they market it as a fediverse extension.

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 2 points 3 months ago

You're already free to support developers and instance owners financially if they've set up either Patreon, OpenCollective or LiberaPay 🤷

Problem is, not enough people are doing it. Case in point: https://join-lemmy.org/donate

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 1 points 3 months ago

So how is your home instance financially sustaining itself? Surely you're helping it, right?

[-] astro_ray@piefed.social 13 points 3 months ago

sub.club is not aimed at servers but monetization of content from individual users. Opposing this doesn't mean someone oppose supporting their home instance monetarily.

[-] FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz 6 points 3 months ago

Idk if this is some misguided insult or a legit question.

There is zero need for monetization and corporate bullshit to infiltrate Lemmy. People see an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a newer social media and are quick to stink it up with the same old shit. Fuck that, I'm sick of it.

Lemmy does not have to be a carbon copy of the worst parts of the internet to survive. It is not a requirement to be a reddit clone or a cash generator or be profitable to be usable.

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 1 points 3 months ago

How do you expect your instance to cover its costs, then?

[-] FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz 5 points 3 months ago

The same way they are covered now.

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 1 points 3 months ago

Turns out you're actually the owner of your home instance. I didn't know that when I made my previous comments.

I'm guessing you're currently paying for your instance's upkeep out of pocket? I can't spot any donation links on your instance. This might work for you personally, but do you really expect other, larger instances to do the same? Even donations are only rarely sustainable.

[-] halm@leminal.space 28 points 3 months ago

Who the hell ever looked at the internet and figured, "The fediverse is really interesting, but it needs more annoying influencers who can be bought by corporations to peddle their wares"?

No thanks, please pack this up where it will not be found again.

[-] Linktank@lemmy.today 16 points 3 months ago

You know what this world needs? More subscriptions! - These assholes.

[-] JupiterRowland@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 months ago

Any bets this will only work with Mastodon because it was built and designed only against Mastodon?

I wouldn't even be surprised if other Fediverse server apps could simply circumvent sub.club if sub.club assumes that everything else out there works like Mastodon, too.

[-] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 10 points 3 months ago

Just what the fediverse needs, micro-transactions!.

[-] veeesix@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago

I think I could get behind an instance subscription, granted it wasn’t an obscene amount. I wonder what the upkeep on mastodon.social could be.

[-] sir@lemmy.xxxiver.se 11 points 3 months ago

Most instances, including yours (and mine), ask for donations. Maybe start there?

If you gave them even $1 a month it would probably cover the hosting costs, though not anybody's time.

[-] veeesix@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago

That’s a great point. Here’s the Mastodon donation link in case anyone was interested!

[-] wiki_me@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago

Some types of content might take days to research or work on and might not have the audience to allow monetization by ads . mitra exists for those types of things and is open source unlike this project (it seems).