This might be a hot take here, but I'd be open to instances running a limited number of ads with minimal tracking to generate enough revenue to keep the instance afloat.
It's why I did use the official Reddit app at first when I started using Reddit. They can't bleed money forever. But when they kept making the app worse and worse and worse that's when I switched to third party apps. And after they killed those, I didn't have any sympathy for Reddit because I was sick of their continued greed.
I don’t want any ads. But I’d pay money to a small Verein or something similar to keep a community instance running. Being a profitable customer to a social network works against the best interest to any mental health.
If Lemmy ever does have ads, I will tell everyone to avoid the platform like the plague. No ads. Ever. If your instance is too big to run on donations alone, it's too big to exist and its members need to branch out.
Future platforms need to be programmed with a max number of users.
I don't think ADS were ever the problem. The problem was the ratio. ORIGINALLY adblock plus, when it was a relevant adblocker had an option to allow less obtrusive ads to show. The rules they set for themselves there was pretty reasonable.
I used that for a while specifically because of that feature. But I switched to uBlock origin when I found out it could block those autoplaying videos as well.
When I became financially independent I got Reddit premium even though I didn’t really use any of the features. Already had adblock and RES. I just wanted to support the site I spent hours on.
Cancelled that when they killed Apollo.
But I do agree that limited ads aren’t an issue… except for the slippery slope that’s happened. Just a few more ads… just a little more intrusive…
just make the cost to run the server transparent and setup a monthly goal to cover the costs, none of this capitalist shit; with adverts come advertisers botfarms and astro turfing to boot.
