- Of course, people should donate to make Lemmy sustainable.
- I recognize that this is true of any website that is not enshitified or, more broadly, is designed to maximize profits. Websites made with libre software are the public libraries of the internet!
It’s like a public library that lets you borrow and read books from other cities’ libraries!
Yes, we have interlibrary loan.
Instant interlibrary loan!
Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization
-Jo Walton, Among Others
I’m pretty sure most libraries also have that.
That’s called interlibrary loan and it predates the internet by a long time.
1876 officially. Unofficially, centuries before.
But it doesn’t have lots of useful stuff that makes people want to come here :(
Hosting is not free.
neither is running a library
No but Lemmy is not publicly funded so people should send them a few bucks every now and then.
No one said it was?
Libraries are paid for by taxes
Imagine an international tax founded fediverse with Lemmy, Mastodon, peertube and others. My personal dream.
That’ll be good for freedom of speech… /S?
Do suppose in some countries it can be deemed unconstitutional and/or illegal to censor ideas if such an instance existed
Taxes are not direct payments and taxes would be collected regardless of the existence of libraries.
Taxes are not direct payments and taxes would be collected regardless of the existence of libraries.
I dunno about where you live, but where I live libraries are funded by millage. We vote to fund the libraries specifically with a tax. So if we didn’t have the libraries, we wouldn’t pay that millage.
Taxes would still be collected, but not THAT tax.
Do you think you would pay any less in tax if there was no library?
Again, where I live, yes. If we, as voters, decided not to approve the library millage, we would no longer pay that specific tax which funds the library.
The library would coast for a bit, but would eventually shut down unless we voted to start paying that tax again.
I know this is true because it literally happened a few towns over where a bunch of dipshits voted to stop funding their library over LGBTQ books. Fortunately the library was kept afloat by donations until a millage was eventually approved to keep it funded.
a rate of 0.4119 mills
I would suggest that the tax cut in that case is so negligible as to be essentially nonexistent from a taxpayer’s perspective.
Well, sure, but that’s not the point. I’m just saying the tax money that I pay to fund the library is something I specifically pay to fund the library. If we didn’t have the library, my taxes would be lower by the amount of my taxes that goes towards the library.
(Obviously, libraries are a fantastic use of tax money and I would never vote not to pay the meager amount I do to fund them.)
Even if we were to accept that at face value, it does not change the fact that libraries are paid for by taxes, which was my exact statement. My point was not what you seem to interpret in any case. My point, if any, was that we get a lot of really cool stuff for taxes… And also that, as most other things, they are not actually free.
“You mean it just exists so people can share shitposts and memes? No engagement goals to please advertisers and shareholders?”
It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.
(Self aware double entendre in that statement)
I just need a place to shitpost for stress relief, I get drawn into deeper discussions but my main goal is to be as thoughtless and as dumb as possible Wheeeeeeeee
You do need to donate
I agree! I donate so that Lemmy is sustainable and so that others who can’t donate have access to Lemmy for free.
Well no, otherwise it wouldn’t be a donation
We need tax money
God no
Well, if you want your instance to stay up you should expect to pitch in for operating costs…
I donate 12€ a year through OpenCollective. Donate here!. That’s 12€ more than any other social media site has ever gotten out of me. Donations also support mastodon.world.
If everyone donated 12€ a year then they’d be so flush with cash that it’d make the Wikimedia Foundation look broke.
You might however be watching ads. And probably not realize it.
(Although, to be fair, right now we’re probably much too small for anyone to bother doing much astroturfing)Even if there was astroturfing, I wouldn’t say that counters OP’s arguments any more than it would if some guy came in and started handing out coupons to a pizza place in the local public library.
Can I use the printer?
There are no Krishna people, either. Does anyone else remember seeing them outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square back in the early 80s?
Who are the Krishna people?
They were so sinister, but back in the 80s they were just randos. There’s a documentary out there about their cult. Really weird, from my perspective, because when I was like 9 years old, I thought it might be nice to be like them at the airport runnning around with a tambourine. I’m so glad I wasn’t. Anyway, look it up and read about them. Then, question everything. The Krishna people, in a nutshell, were worshipping a huge drug lord and it was a mafia, that brainwashed them. Back in the 80s, and even 70s, they were just hippy dippy people. John Waters even made a film about how the daughter wanted to run away from the mother to join the Krishna people. Hare, hare krishna!
There’s a temple of theirs very near me. I don’t see many around now but back in the 90s it’s was a big thing. But they were always very peaceful here, not remotely sinister. They just played that tambourine and chanted away and did their own thing
A group of them came by my college every week and provided a low cost, all you can eat vegetarian lunch. Don’t know much else about them, but that’s a point in their favor in my books.
Yeah, that whole documentary about them I saw 6 months ago was like something that blew my mind. That’s how I remember them. Just peaceful people chanting in public with their veils and what not. I’m fascinated by how there’s a temple near you of them! Some of them kept faith and continue their dedication to whatever they dedicate themselves to? I remember a loooong time ago when I was 12 I said to my mother in a heated argument, “I’m going to run away and join the Krishna people from the mall!” She won the argument (because age and wisdom) but I gave her a run for her money because she saw the same movie I did by John Waters.
Well now I just looked up the documentary and put it on! Whatever this faction is I don’t think it’s representative of the whole. The ones near me I think have always embodied peacefulness. The temple has its doors open regularly, I’ve never really walked in and looked around but it would be interesting. It’s also in an area that’s really blown up in value since they bought it, worth many millions today. I’m sure they’ve been offered buyouts by developers but clearly didn’t accept any if so. Just goes to show it’s not about the money for them!
…yet.
Wrong. You are expected to give me 10% of your wages via carrier pigeon or face consequences.
For now…
I am curious about a few of your worst case expectations.
Admins secretly taking money to inject stealth ads? I don’t know the mechanisms too well but it’d be nice to know where the cancer is likely to start from.
Well put
