I have become anecdotally aware of several (smaller) mastodon instances that are considering shutting down because they cannot afford their server bills.
If you are a #mastodonadmin of an instance that is 1000+ users and considering shutting down please reach out to me.
We may be willing to take over your instance and save your users if you are compliant with the Mastodon Server Covenenant (https://joinmastodon.org/covenant)
@jeff okay this is probably a unpopular opinion but fuck it: I wouldn't mind to see ads if this means it would help to run the server. Mastodon should implement ads with a easy opt in/opt out model (for the users) that server admins can choose to use on their instance.
And maybe a easy one click donation implementation in the official app over the app store. Like I heard from a friend who works on apps: "With every additional click you will loose people that are willing to pay."
@Wabu @jeff re payments - I think there should be a built in standard way for a server instance to publish a payment link then apps (as well as browsers) could have an easy way to direct payments. I personally would be fine with a payment that split in some way between the app developer and my server instance.
Perhaps using the Payto URI ? (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8905/)
