Fediverse

I understand your point. But, I don't think anyone here is creating instances in the hopes of collecting money. They're just trying to keep the internet free (as in speech). And no, it probably doesn't cost that much for a server with 16k users, but it still costs something and someone is paying for that out of pocket.

We have to understand that we're at a crossroads right now. Most of the internet is dominated by GAFAM and they control the access to information and how it's provided. They control the narrative and have a huge bias in favor of unfettered capitalism and fascism. They not only use your own personal information for profit, but hey also benefit from government subsidies paid by taxpayers.

Meanwhile you have a government that's increasingly cutting funding for almost everything, including important organizations that fund critical open source projects.

If we want a free (as in speech) internet, we have to understand it comes at a cost and we can't rely on governments to fund these projects. It's up to us to put our money where our mouth is.

I'm by no means a whale. But, if us little fishes all band together, we can become even bigger than a whale.

unrealistic to get anything close to all active users donating

It is quite realistic to get 100% of your users to pay. Just make registration conditional on the payment.

$10, $20 or even the $29 per year that I charge at Communick is not a significant amount of money for the average user. It is mind boggling that we got so used to "free stuff" offered by Big Tech that now anyone saying "Everyone using the service needs to pay for it" is seen as an heretic.