The ways we keep the fediverse sustainable

Fediverse is in many ways an experiment. On one level, there are the technical challenges of running a social network that’s spread across thousands of servers.

Then there’s the challenge of a variety of internet cultures coming together and mixing. And also, how do you fund this thing?

While traditional corporate social media relies heavily on ads, we don’t have that option in the fediverse, at least yet.

In a recent poll, I wanted to learn a bit more about the ways fediverse admins fund their communities, and maybe find more fun fediverse merch.

Note that the poll got shared pretty widely, so there is a chance that the option to “sell user data” might have attracted votes from people who may not actually be selling user data, or even run a fediverse community.

Either way. As the fediverse grows, it’s crucial to find sustainable ways to support it financially without resorting to methods that damage it in the long term.

So, support your admins, your friends’ admins, if you have the means, and go buy some stickers and plushies!