Choice. If an instance starts adding in ads, people will move to another instance. If they find a way to be invasive enough to be seen by users in other instances, they would probably be defederated.
Or they accept it as a way to pay for that instance. The servers aren’t free at the end of the day.
The choice is the thing, I think. It’s what made the whole Reddit thing a bit bizarre for me. Like they could’ve just passed the ads through the API and used personal API keys in 3rd party apps. Those content to take the ads take them and those who prefer to pay a fee can do so.
“We need to pay for this shit, it’s up to you how we do it” is a much easier sell IMO than “you’ll use our app and you’ll fucking like it”
The choice is the thing, I think. It’s what made the whole Reddit thing a bit bizarre for me. Like they could’ve just passed the ads through the API and used personal API keys in 3rd party apps. Those content to take the ads take them and those who prefer to pay a fee can do so.
“We need to pay for this shit, it’s up to you how we do it” is a much easier sell IMO than “you’ll use our app and you’ll fucking like it”