Not every Mastodon instance is a non-profit or run by volunteers.
Two examples of instances run by for-profit entities are:
* twit.social
* mastodon.cloud
Both instances are transparent about this.
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@atomicpoet Is there any Mastodon restriction on an instance charging to host members? At some point, scale will drive higher costs (people are expensive). I expect to see subsidized instances develop, similar to email services tied to other monetized business (e.g., iCloud). And instance hosting as a service for brands who want their own instance names.
@hbw No, Mastodon is just the software that some instances use. You can run other software if you want.