It’s happening.
  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    My instance preemptively defederated from Threads, but I’m assuming those ads are going to be served to Threads users via API, right, and not federated out?

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      BlueSky has some novel monetization concepts but yes, I think they will eventually find that those are not sustainable and will introduce ads eventually.

      • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        How hard is it to run a platform charging a couple dollars a month so that you don’t need to turn into a ghoulish capitalist nightmare? Like, really. If even one of them went the “no ads, ever, just a tiny monthly fee” wouldn’t that be better? Wouldn’t everyone flock there? Is everyone so dumb that they think these huge sites will run for free?? No… wait I think I’ve answered my own question…

        • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          social media depends on having a critical mass of users, and that’s only going to happen with a free model.

          • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            10 days ago

            Yes. I perhaps should have stated the other way round.

            What about “ethical” social network. That’s free and ad based if you want that. And the ads are present but less manipulative because the goal is to cover costs not maximise profit.

            And then that’s a premium option if you want to have no ads and full control of your content feed.

            The reason Facebook and co don’t offer this is because they apparently make massive amounts from each user ($68). And that only because they engage in whatever ghoulish behaviour get people locked in enough to deliver that

            An ethical social network wouldn’t have to drive as much per user, because it would publicly limit itself to modest profit. Covering free use with ads presumably possible. Cost of premium being running cost + modest profit seems like it wouldn’t be that high surely?

            • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              10 days ago

              theoretically, sure it’s possible. but in practice, capitalism will win out in the end. this is pretty much what happened to reddit. first unobtrusive non-targeted ads, then reddit gold… you know the rest.

              • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                10 days ago

                I think capitalist ghoulishness dominates innovation at the moment. Because massive resources will always be ahead doing new things. But at some point - I hope - a fairly agreeable social network becomes a sort of ‘solved problem’. Perhaps some FOSS version becomes available that’s not cutting edge but gets the job done. It would lack the sophisticated needed to coerce people and milk their attention, but that’s not needed for our purposes.

                • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  0·
                  10 days ago

                  The appeal in popular social networks isn’t innovation, it’s the sheer quantity of other users. You don’t need resources just to do new things, you need resources to build and maintain the infrastructure to serve all those users. That’s why FOSS social media will always be niche like Lemmy and mastodon.

  • TomMasz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    I got out just in time, it seems.

    How much longer will Bluesky survive without doing the same?