Let’s say Lemmy acquires the critical mass of users, continues to gain in popularity. Eventually someone will offer a large sum of money, the platform grows, new owners look towards an IPO, the goals shift, yadayada… How is different this time?
Let’s say Lemmy acquires the critical mass of users, continues to gain in popularity. Eventually someone will offer a large sum of money, the platform grows, new owners look towards an IPO, the goals shift, yadayada… How is different this time?
A cool thing with free software is that everybody can fork-it at any time, I am not sure who owns IP over the source code, but even if a proprietary fork happens, people will still be able to use/maintain the “free version”. It worked for GNU/Linux or for Mastodon so why not for lemmy ?
Moreover, it’s decentralized. One instance admin can decide to rely on ads or even sell some user data, and may-be it’s a valid way to fund an instance. However, user are free to choose another instance relying for example on donation.