I think it would be much more effective if we could organize so that as many diaspora users as possible pay $1 a year (or more if they want) to their podmin. This will finance most pods more than enough. All left overs (which in fact should be quite much) could be sent to the entity in charge (is it the Free Software Support Network?) and be used to finance D* development Also could pods that didn’t get any donations be supported in some kind of solidarity network.
If the podmins agree on this it would be an easy way of financing everything, I think!
I think you’re kinda missing the point. We’ve tried that and similar actions in the past with little to no result.
Diaspora and Podmins cannot continue to ask for donations, as people get sick of hearing about it. I feel for @davidmorley at the moment, he has one of the largest pods, and is struggling for income to keep it alive.
This way, the users are able to choose whether to help or not, and it is seemless.
There is little to no cost to the user, and there is a constant supply of income.
It has the added benefit of being a currency that is universal and can be transferred to any country.
Also, it means that a user can choose who to support, either development or their host pod.
If we make it seemless, people will not care that their computer is generating income for D*/Pods while they’re browsing D*.
@karthikeyanak while it works, it’s fine. Buts no longer term solution, and it leaves the podmins without any income. If anything, the podmins will even lose money, because they will contribute to the kickstarter as well as still have to pay for the server they host on.
Adverts. Its the problem that faces other social networks. how to monetize it. Adverts fail, because inevitably they are pushed more and more into the face of the user. Eventually the owner of the service starts prying into the way their users browse their services. Next thing you know, there are privacy concerns. Not ideal. Not at all.