The only real attempt at monetisation that I’ve seen is https://beetoons.tv/, but they use their own crypto - making it like Odysee. Why is that?
Edit: Please, before you answer consider this monetisation doesn’t mean ads!
Unpopular opinion: people who think federated platforms shouldn’t deal with money are just people who want someone else to pay for them.
I’m still doggedly working on Communick and on AP-based projects because I believe in open standards and because it is our best shot at us collectively take back the web. But if we continue on this idea that the Fediverse is somehow “better” because it discriminates against small business owners, or professionals who want an online presence to promote their work, or anything that resembles “profit-motive”, then this whole thing will forever remain a wasted opportunity, and we will be (once again) be giving it all away for Zuckerberg.
What we have now is just a Tyranny of the Minority. We need to grow the open web. That includes getting normies here. That includes getting people who are not part of your tribe. This includes getting people that you are able to ignore.
That includes getting normies here.
But normies ruin everything!
This is a matter of perspective.
That’s Western fediverse.
Fediverse instance in Asia often run ads or other kind of monetisation. Like the second biggest instance.
Misskey, which is Japanese-made ActivityPub-enabled social media software, has option to enable ads natively for instance admin.
In most cases, the ads are just non-tracking community ads, like promoting YouTube channel, indie animation, pop-up cafe event, or server hosting service. Usually the ads are matched to instance theme.
People realize that running instances needs money and letting the instance admin to make living from it is acceptable. Having monthly patron oftentimes not enough.
This is different case and country. There are plenty of dead fedi instance from Southeast Asia because the donation itself is not enough as the culture of donation is not the same as Western countries. Most people will just simply use free social media and thinking ads are good tradeoff.
