@dorisweetie #mst210 what do you mean by benefits?
@rochehid the operating cost of Mastodon? I don't know if we should consider this or not.
#mst210 maybe it could be a sort of wikipedia or internet archive situation where people can donate if possible
@dorisweetie #mst210 we should definitely consider that! i meant what do you mean that we get benefits by using the platform i didnt understand i’m kind of confused haha
@dorisweetie I don't really know what you mean. But yes the costs are certainly an important factor. As a club, would we ask for membership fees? Or maybe we would need some sort of fundraiser #mst210
@teyplays @dorisweetie #mst210 wait i thought by the costs we meant operating costs like how much it is to run mastodon itself and how that affects usage of the platform? #mst210
@rochehid @dorisweetie sorry I'm unsure how that differs from what Doris is talking about? Do you mind explaining? Because Mastodon is not commercialized, it doesn't profit from ad revenues and such. As it is decentralized, the owner of each instance has to set up their own domain to host the instance on. Domains cost money and the rates vary significantly depending on your membership numbers, server type, etc. So instead of Mastodon being responsible for operating fees, users are. #mst210
@teyplays @dorisweetie ohhh okay i understand now i had misunderstood sorry everyone for the confusion. i stand by my earlier point about donations😅 #mst210
Maybe my expression is not accurate enough. What I want to express is that because Mastodon's biggest advantage is to protect users' personal data, we can't make profits the way Facebook or Twitter does. As you all mentioned, we can obtain Mastodon's operating cost in other ways.