- cross-posted to:
- fediverse@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- fediverse@lemmy.ml
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about PeerTube, Loops, Bandwagon, and other platforms in the Fediverse that are geared around artists. I might get flamed for this, and you’re welcome to disagree, but I think the network is in dire need of having support for commerce.
Not “Big Capitalism” commerce, but the ability for people to buy and sell things, support projects, and commission their favorite creators to keep making more stuff.
You must log in or register to comment.
Keep it away is my strong advice. Having to deal with banks will mean having to deal with regulations. Having to deal with crypto means having to deal with crytpo bros. Having to deal with paywalls is a barrier to entry
The internet was a better place without money touching everything!
I don’t have strong feelings either way, but money does touch everything, overtly or not, when it comes to civilisation. Time spent volunteering on Fediverse projects is effectively money spent (at least to some degree), and instances cost time & fees to maintain.
But I guess to argue against myself-- you have to think that without some kind of ongoing responsible oversight, then the worst aspects of capitalism might predictably find a way to screw it all up if left to its own devices. Then again, maybe the scale involved makes that less likely. *shrug*
Yeah, I get it. Volunteers’ time should be valued. But, there is more to valuing than money is my counter: authority, respect, community engagement, and a fraternal/paternal element
I salute all mods. And I pay for admins
I mean, you’re kind of lifting my point in to a broader area that I wasn’t speaking to at the time.
Of course I agree with all that you said. But I was talking strictly in the context of OP’s framework.
Having to deal with crypto means having to deal with crytpo bros
The internet was also a better place when people using it were more open minded
Open minded to being scammed? No thanks.
Your argument sounds like “pc are bads because of virus”
If 99.9% of PCs were solely made to steal your credit card info, then yes.
Most of crypto volume is done on bitcoin and ethereum network which are built to be less scammy than a bank. You could indeed argue that 99.9% of existing cryptocurrencies are scam because there are thousand existing projects that imitates bitcoin, similarly one could argue that 99.9% iphones copies are a scam
lmao, the blockchain that popularized NFTs is less scammy than a bank? touch grass
Bitcoin and ethereum blockchains are built to be open, public and decentralized. The difference between these and a bank could be compared to the difference between reddit and lemmy. Is reddit a scam? Perhaps not on a large scale but it has all the potential to become a scam once its executives decide to do so. Lemmy is not owned by a single person which makes it way more harder to “control”.
Bitcoin and Ethereum only have liquidity in the market because scammers use it for their pig butchering etc. scams. And all the major exchanges are complicit in that. Many Banks are scammy, yes, but not that scammy by a long shot. Sorry to burst your bubble 🤷
https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy?tab=readme-ov-file#crypto
You can support lemmy by donating cryptocurrencies, they are not only used by scammers.
Maybe this is a pipedream but I think mods should be paid for their labor.
It‘s a two sided blade, but I get what you mean.
On one hand monetization is the thing that ruins platforms for me because it invites grifters and even decent people are becoming obsessed with numbers. Most people see content creation only as a career path and not something to do for fun anymore. I find that depressing at times.
On the other hand we currently live in a capitalist world and have to play by those rules to some extend. I learned most of the things I do for a living from Youtube because professionals do Blender tutorials as a side gig or even for a living. There probably wouldn‘t be nearly as much knowledge out there without this motivator. Or at least not in this form that is easy to understand for me. The official Blender documentation usually isn‘t the first place I‘m searching through when I have a problem.
So I see where you‘re coming from but it‘s a fine line between helpful and loathsome.
What if there was a federated platform for supporting the channels you like? Maybe something like Patreon? Or how about some sort of merch store for people who can sell the things they make?
You would still need a payment processor, which takes a huge chunk of the cake in fees.
Maybe something like Patreon
Well we do have Liberapay. It’s not perfect in that it only addresses the payment angle (with the issue around processors noted by the other reply still present), and doesn’t allow for subscriber only content, but it’s something.
I think between something like this and a few other things (dunno much about PeerTube etc. or if ‘private’ posts are a thing where you could maintain a ‘mailing list’ of donor accounts and grant them access to exclusive stuff), it’s possible to cobble something together. Lot of management would be required in the backend compared to more mainstream approaches at this point, though.
Just thinking outloud, there’s probably stuff I’m not considering here. Re: an eStore…idk, only thing I can think of is a DIY webstore relying on emails and money transfer services if trying to avoid mainstream eCommerce stuff like Shopify or whatever (same way people used to sell pot on the clearweb back in the very early days, lol).
If Fediverse software starts encouraging monetization, I don’t think the userbase will even maintain the current strength.
Really happy to see this discussion here. Here is no “correct” path here, but is deeply important that the one we choose is intentional and thoughtfully considered by the folks these platforms serve
Both their audience and their contributors.
Where’d my other comment go? Editorial censorship takes this from “a really bad idea” to a super fucked up attempt at poisoning this beautiful place with the worship of wealth
I have high hopes for GNU Taler in that regard, as it is in theory super easy to include in any website and makes tipping small sums very feasible.
But in reality it is bogged down by bureocractic hurdles on the banking side, and I am starting to lose a bit of hope due to perpetual delays even after some banks promised to support it as part of an EU grant via Nlnet.
Non-Gated Microtransactions in Peertube would be pretty cool. I don’t know that it would amount to anything, but it would be a damn good start
If you allow artists to display their work in various communities along with the ability to post links in their profiles, but you restrict actual posts to disallow self-promotion, it’s the best of both worlds, IMO.
In other words, if you can’t include self-promotion in your community posts, but everyone knows you have the links in your profile, it attracts less grifters and keeps the feed clean, while allowing anyone interested to contact a poster directly or ask them promotional questions via DMs.
That said, hosting a full-fledged marketplace is not a good idea, IMO. There are laws and banks involved, which mean lawyers and taxes, and volunteer management does not work for that. There are already marketplaces that do that well, and allowing artists to post their own links of choice in their profiles will let them steer actual business to other platforms, while keeping the fediverse for display, review, share and critique. My opinion, anyway.
After seeing your post on akkoma, I think I understand your point even better.
I want to support artists and would definitely buy music on fedi. I would rather just watch hobbyist make videos for peertube and especially for loops. But if it means that it would help the platform stay afloat I am way more open to the idea of monetization beyond just donations.Been thinking similarly. Really think it would be the perfect place for crypto given its decentralised nature but the fediverse hates that. Also think we need to solve the portable identity problem first. We can solve the portable identity with did the same way ATProto solved it and blockchain are an excellent backend for that. Ideally we would use XMR as its objectively the best blockchain and objectively better than fiat.
You might be interested in trying out Nostr. I know it’s more Bitcoin Lightning focused, which admittedly is not for everybody, but they’ve managed to make a lot of stuff work when it comes to paying one another.
In the technical sense, Nostr is really great.
Client side support for a tipping link (Koffee, Patreon, crypto wallet, whatever the user’s choice is) that is built in to the UI would go a long way.
Like what peertube has?
PeerTube’s support button is, at best, a lightbox that holds a text string. It’s fine for highlighting links, but you still kind of have to dance around with having an account in another system to make the payment.
Nice, I dont use Peertube as often as I’d like because I haven’t found the right creators for me. Good to know they already have this, should be an example to the rest of the platforms
Agree, no need to over-engineer this…
Patreon kinda fits that, but I’m not sure about their open-sourceness
OpenCollective is a pretty solid open source contender in my experience. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely workable.
People pay money to the ISP. Usually too much money. ISP should distribute monies to content providers and leave the users alone.
A free and direct tip system that doesn’t force you to use credit cards would be quite useful
I tried to use a gift certificate to donate to dbzer0 last night. It didn’t work because of a zip code field. I just want to look at cat pictures and make a snarky comment every so often without a facist paramilitary kicking in my front door. Fuck me, right?
If you’re going to spend money at all then you’ll just have to give some of it (or all of it) to a totally overpowered construct of evil. If you don’t then they might start to lose power, and boy howdy they just can not have that happen. Oh, and make sure you continue to distrust your fellow man because if you all start working together you might decide that things should change.
Lemmy loves free labor and freedom washed exploitation. Not sure you’ll find a lot of support here.
