Esk 🐌⚡💜 (@esk@hachyderm.io)
hachyderm.io
@thisismissem @mekkaokereke @dma so stats, based on dec 2024 exit run rate (rounded for simplicity): #hachyderm costs about $1600/mo to run. this is up somewhat, as we've started to add some infra as part of our resilience plan announced in nov. we currently have about: - 55000 users - 9700 MAU - 3.7M toots yielding: - $.03/user/mo - $.16/active user/mo - $.0004/toot from a raw compute & storage perspective. again, this is based on 100% volunteer work. today, our mods and infra folk graciously donate their time to keep this thing going. hypothetically, if we paid them, say, $120k USD/yr (chose this to make the math cleaner), that would add $10k/person/mo to the cost. if we go with a staff of eight (mix of mod & infra), that adds $80k/mo to the run rate, for a total of $81,600/mo, yielding: - $1.48/user/mo - $8.41/active user/mo - the toot figure is silly, so i'm not calculating it again :blobfoxlaugh: orders of magnitude of difference. we could argue about the staff size - i went with roughly what we have today and assumed we made everyone full time so they could hachy for 32/hr/wk vs. calculating the number of hours we actually work. e.g. maybe we could it out at ~$4.50/user/mo, but still a multiple orders of magnitude bump from the raw infra cost.
  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    And because there are still so many people who are willing to run instances for fun/as a hobby, they are effectively pricing their own work at zero dollars

    Isn’t that a major point? If there are many people willing AND HAPPY to run it for free, presumably because they’re getting something intangible out of it, why not leave it to them?

    • rglullis@communick.newsOPEnglish
      11·
      3 hours ago

      I’m not asking people to stop doing things for free or to have hobbies. What I am saying is, simply, if we really want to get rid of the Elon Musks and Zuckerbergs of the world, we need to get rid of corporate-controlled social media for everyone and all of this “Fediverse” thingy will need a lot more resources than a handful of people doing it “for fun” and the users will have to understand that everyone needs to support them with more than “just enough to cover hardware costs”.

      Also, I want to say that I really believe in the Nassim Taleb’s “Skin In The Game” principle: you can only take someone’s opinions seriously when they are willing to take all the risks themselves that comes with it. I solemnly ignore anyone that just complains and/or asks for systemic changes without accepting to pay the price required for those changes. This includes anyone here that keeps talking about “Evil Corporations” and promoting the Fediverse without putting their money where their mouths and paying the full sticker price.

      IOW, I’m not upset at the admins that are willing to put a lot of work and time to do things for free, but I’m upset at the majority of users who think that just because someone is willing to work for free that they should not take initiative to help as much as they can. And I know that the majority of Fediverse users have the means to support the admins with more than “just enough to cover hardware costs”.

        • rglullis@communick.newsOPEnglish
          1·
          8 minutes ago

          Bluesky is only marginally better, just like every other startup that has not achieved a dominant position, if/when they reach critical mass they will become a rent-seeking player, just like every other VC-funded company.

          Their protocol is open, but not really decentralized. It is very clear that they want to become a single global indexer of the whole social web.