Lemmy - Donate
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An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:

Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto

If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name “Luigi”.

Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.

Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can’t go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.

Donate

  • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    Update: For those of you who want to support Lemmy development without financing the hosting of lemmy.ml, know that the hosting is paid exclusively through OpenCollective. You can see the payment details at this link. This means donations through all other platforms (Liberapay, Ko-fi, Patreon, Crypto) are exclusively for Lemmy development, and not a single cent goes to lemmy.ml hosting.

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        I advise you to consider the weekly pledge over the one time donation. It would be a better course of action as it might help them plan ahead.

        Also, I’m a caveman, so I would advise against following my advice

      • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        The real devs are locked into a server room with appropriate supplies of food and caffeine. So dont worry about them.

        Yearly or weekly doesnt make a big difference so whatever works for you. Depending on the platform small donations may have higher fees though.

    • vxx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      Who are the developers and what instance are they affiliated with?

      • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        Then you can donate via Opencollective. But honestly it doesnt matter, because lemmy.ml hosting is already covered, and is very cheap compared to developer salaries.

  • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    I don’t really mind which way I donate but I want to ensure I donate by giving the most money to lemmy and not to whatever platform is hosting it.

    While I am not particularly interested in setting up crypto, aside from that which platform would you prefer I donated from?

    • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      Liberapay is the best option, because it doesnt take any fees beyond payment processing, and its also open source. Thanks for donating!

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I’m putting in a dollar a week for the second year now and i plan on keeping it up. If only 1500 people did what I do, we’re completely fine.

    If you host an instance, please give a dollar a week. If you spend more than 10 hrs on lemmy per week, please give a dollar. Its not that hard. Think what stuff you pay more for and spend less time o, have less fun on and learn less from.

    I also think that big instances should be funneling a portion of their donations to the devs. I send more than I get, which is my choice.

    Democracy requires participation.

  • LordWarfire@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I’ve been considering donating for a while (I already donate to my instance) so I’ve set that up now. ~$5 a month isn’t much but I hope if a few more people do it too it will start to add up.

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    .world and .ee must be benefitting financially from your work; are they helping at all?

    • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      Afaik they also donate a bit, but they also dont have a lot of money to spare after server costs.

    • Matth78@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      What do you mean? They are also free and if anything running lemmy cost them!?

      • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        They’ve developed mobile apps; got Google to prioritize search results for them; and their user bases are motivated & organized enough to share & curate lists of other lemmy users.

        They’ve gone well beyond what other instances do and that usually suggests that someone’s getting paid to make it all happen.

    • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      Exactly, this is how I retired at 26

      • setup .world
      • pay all costs myself
      • ???
      • profit

      Do you really think the people that setup instances make a lot of money?

    • Dessalines@lemmy.mlMEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      They do, but also donations are still entirely optional. We’re a soup kitchen providing a free meal; if people don’t want to eat the soup, or eat it but don’t want to (or aren’t able) to support the kitchen, that’s not a problem.

      • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        26 days ago

        i guess i just don’t like the fact that i’ve paid more than five-star-restaurant for my soup when there are clearly other groups that can afford more and there’s leverage that can be used to everyone’s mutual benefit.

  • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    I personally block hexbear, and de facto ignore lemmy.ml because I find it to be a hive of vitriol and unproductive toxic behaviour, but I still signed up to donate because imho, lemmy’s open and decentralized nature make it fundamentally valuable and a worthwhile piece of societal infrastructure.

    But please don’t abuse our trust.

  • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    I signed up for a medium donation.

    While I don’t agree with some things happening on .ml We should not discard imperfect allies. Thank you devs for the great work you’re doing.

  • Padook@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    27 days ago

    Thanks for the reminder, sometimes I forget to support these important pieces of software.

    I feel like us old people need to give a little extra to pay for the next generation of young tinkerers so things can continue to be free

  • walden@sub.wetshaving.socialEnglish
    0·
    28 days ago

    For someone like me who wants to see Lemmy be a place that’s owned by users, run by users, and moderated sensibly, what should I do? I have a problem with supporting the lemmy.ml instance.

    • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      27 days ago

      Don’t discard imperfect allies.

      If the development of Lemmy stops, all of this goes away and people end up back on Reddit or conventional social media.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      28 days ago

      The lemmy.ml instance costs like 30$/month to run. Your donation isn’t going to that; your donation is going to develop Lemmy itself

      • walden@sub.wetshaving.socialEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        Some fraction of my donation would go towards the $30. Any amount of money going from me to .ml, be it $10 or $.00001, is too much.

        I know $30 is “not much”, but the amount doesn’t change my principles.

      • Microw@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        28 days ago

        If they do not treat lemmy.ml server donations separately from lemmy development donations, that is a problem.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          28 days ago

          Lemmy.ml is how they test new features, it’s a tool necessary for development. You can block Lemmy.ml or use an instance defederated from it if you wish, but it’s necessary as far as development is concerned.

          • Microw@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            27 days ago

            I don’t want to block lemmy.ml, it’s not like I hate that instance or anything. But I don’t see why I should finance this server - it’s definitely not just a development server. I would like to finance development of lemmy without that money going into that server.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
              0·
              27 days ago

              They need users to test, and let people in to do so. The fact that the people here use the server is a necessary function for getting feedback and results from testing. Plus, the server costs are cheap, it’s the life costs that you would really be supporting.

              • SupraMario@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                27 days ago

                They can pick a different instance, this is bullshit speak.

                Wanna be a dev? Fine. Keep your authoritarian bullshit out of it. The devs for lemmy being known as authoritarians causes new people to avoid lemmy.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  0·
                  27 days ago

                  What “different instance?” Lemmy.ml has always been the test instance, you can block it if you don’t like dealing with Communists. You’re complaining about an anti-Capitalist, federated platform being developed by Communists, if you want a platform with everyone conforming to your views there are other platforms for you.

                • thoro@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  0·
                  27 days ago

                  They literally created the platform. They can moderate their instance however they like. That’s the point of the platform.

                  And being “authoritarian” is when you moderate your own server how you see fit, like banning the equivalent of bad faith spamming of My Lai, Tulsa Riot, or the 1985 MOVE Bombing Wikipedia articles and pictures in obvious attempts at anti communism and stirring shit.

            • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
              0·
              27 days ago

              By donating you are not financing the lemmy.ml server, because that is already long covered with a much lower donation level. Everything above that is exclusively for developer salaries.

              • walden@sub.wetshaving.socialEnglish
                0·
                27 days ago

                That’s not quite how a pool of money works.

                Once you fill the gas tank in a motorcycle, you can’t pick which molecules of gas go towards acceleration and which ones go towards idling at a red light.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      28 days ago

      Lemmy instances are already owned and run by their different instance admins and moderators. Regardless of how you feel about Lemmy.ml, development for Lemmy supports all who use different instances.

      The alternatives are doing the dev work yourself, or finding a different platform to use.

      • walden@sub.wetshaving.socialEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        There are other options… Lemmy development could stop and plenty of people would keep using it in its current atate. Maybe it’d even continue to grow.

        Or maybe the developers quit and another team steps in? Open source projects are never fully tied to a single developer team.

        The low server cost doesn’t change anything for me. I’m just a person who won’t donate if any amount goes towards keeping that place running under the current admins.

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        27 days ago

        “You have to donate to tankie transphobes to support the Reddit alternative” isn’t a great look though. And nutomic has stated that donations for Lemmy development also go towards supporting the .ml servers. That’s a massive issue with the way funding is handled, no matter how you look at it.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          27 days ago

          I’ve vocally criticized Nutomic’s transphobia, but I have no issue with them being Communists. Further, I already answered the bit about funding Lemmy.ml, let me copy and paste the relevant section:

          Further, as @[email protected] said, the Lemmy.ml costs are very low, it’s the actual life costs that allow development of much-asked for features and maintenance to continue.

          The donations pay the devs salaries. Donations pay for their video games, food, etc. What the devs do with their salaries allows them to continue developing Lemmy full time, how they choose to spend their salaries is on them.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    28 days ago

    Lemmy default UI should seriously consider a daily donation goal, similar to old Reddit. Implement a backend API to fetch the daily amount needed and the current amount donated, and stick it on the right hand side by all the trending communities. As a stats nerd, this would seriously motivate me to donate more.