Lemmy - Donate
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An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:

Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto

If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name “Luigi”.

Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.

Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can’t go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.

Donate

  • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
    61·
    10 months ago

    Update: For those of you who want to support Lemmy development without financing the hosting of lemmy.ml, know that the hosting is paid exclusively through OpenCollective. You can see the payment details at this link. This means donations through all other platforms (Liberapay, Ko-fi, Patreon, Crypto) are exclusively for Lemmy development, and not a single cent goes to lemmy.ml hosting.

    Edit: Liberapay is the preferable donation option, as it has very low fees and is also open source.

    • vxx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Who are the developers and what instance are they affiliated with?

      • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        The real devs are locked into a server room with appropriate supplies of food and caffeine. So dont worry about them.

        Yearly or weekly doesnt make a big difference so whatever works for you. Depending on the platform small donations may have higher fees though.

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.mlEnglish
        01·
        10 months ago

        I advise you to consider the weekly pledge over the one time donation. It would be a better course of action as it might help them plan ahead.

        Also, I’m a caveman, so I would advise against following my advice

    • null@slrpnk.netEnglish
      01·
      10 months ago

      This update is what made me setup a recurring donation.

      • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
        31·
        10 months ago

        Then you can donate via Opencollective. But honestly it doesnt matter, because lemmy.ml hosting is already covered, and is very cheap compared to developer salaries.

        • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
          0·
          10 months ago

          I realize that it was a mistake to post that. The transgender topic is much more complex and more controversial than I knew at the time. So I will refrain from commenting on it in the future. In any case I’m happy that there are so many transgender people on Lemmy.

          • marcie (she/her)@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Did you also unban and apologize to the person that posted that DM?

            Also, transgender people are people, not a topic. Imagine for example describing some sort of debate surrounding black people as “the black topic”.

          • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            I just found out about this and honestly this is a disappointing response. Apparently this happened a while ago from what I gather, but your response right now is to say it is a complex and controversial topic? No one is born knowing, but this is something you as communist should be well informed about. The fact that Hexbear has a ton of transgender users alone should be enough to reevaluate such position. Please go about doing proper research and asking trans people for resources they can provide for debunking your transphobic views. Do not refrain from talking about in the future, you need to genuinely engage in this to be able to change such views. If you’re truly willing to learn and change, you need to demonstrate that. I doubt any trans communist, specially on Hexbear, wouldn’t be willing to help you come around on your views.

          • communism@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Do you also think that eg when corporations celebrate Black History Month that the bourgeoisie is also pro-Black? Capitalism has a vested interest in neutering and subsuming liberation movements so that they cannot pose a threat to capital itself, and also of course, as groups such as LGBTQ+ people become less socially stigmatised, it becomes worth it profit-wise to market towards these demographics specifically as the financial hit from bigots becomes less. We can see this reverse in real time in the US as it becomes more profitable to appeal to social reactionaries, showing that any appeals to “pride” were, as queer people have been saying all along, a marketing campaign and nothing deeper.

            I don’t think this comment at all suffices. If you’re going to be a communist, then you need to put the effort in to engaging with all struggles for emancipation, and that includes trans people’s struggles. You shouldn’t “refrain from commenting on” liberation struggles; you should be supporting them.

            • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
              0·
              10 months ago

              You make some good points. But keep in mind that I dont live in the United States, and I have never even met a transgender person irl. For me this is something which is only discussed online, so Im missing a lot of context and information. Case in point, I had no idea what “Black History Month” is and had to look that up. Anyway if I discuss this topic further it will be through an anonymous alt account, to avoid any further drama.

              • communism@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                I also don’t live in the United States; do you think trans people only exist in the US? Transfemicide is an even bigger issue in the global south; for instance, Brazil, a global south country, is notorious for its high transfemicide rates, and has a strong transfeminist movement as a result. There will be trans people in all countries who face transphobia, and the countries lacking a particularly noticeable trans liberation movement will be because transphobia is so bad there that trans people feel the risk of speaking out is too great.

                I do suggest that you put some effort into educating yourself and engaging with trans and LGBTQ+ struggles where you are, which will not just be “online”. I don’t know where you live, but at worst it will just be the case that the trans people where you are, are not inclined to become political militants because of both transphobia in general meaning they put an even bigger target on their heads, and transphobia on the left that is common across the world meaning that trans people feel unwelcome in organising spaces. This is not related to the original topic of donations, I mean this just for the sake of your politics. If you really can’t find any kind of organised political activity around trans issues where you are, you could at least read transfeminist texts, and tbh feminist texts in general, since feminist theory (including Marxist feminist theory) has discussed the issue of gender, gender essentialism, and transphobia for decades now. For instance, in relation to your screenshotted dm above, it has been a feminist demand for decades (rescinded upon only because some feminists decided to jump on the anti-trans bandwagon) to desegregate sports, and I think anyone who knows anything about women’s sports knows all the ways in which the gendered segregation of sports harms women athletes’ careers.

              • TheOubliette@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                You have certainly met a trans person if you’ve met, say, 100 people. You just didn’t recognize them from their appearance or voice, either because they are closeted or because they convinced you they were cis from their appearance and voice. Presumably your country is so oppressive towards trans people that they are too afraid of being out, there are no trans events for you to attend in solidarity, or you are just making excuses for reactionary positions.

                Trans visibility is not just in the United States. Out and self-identifying trans people are visible around the world, including the two largest countries, China and India. You can’t visit either imperialized county without meeting someone that is self-identifying themselves as trans. And one of those countries is run by a communist party.

                These responses just sound like a reactionary unwilling to self-crit. And I don’t see much in the way of any alt accounts: the people criticizing thoss non-apologies and continued ignorant statements generally don’t have any replies.

                Do open self-crit and try to learn from those who know better.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Nutomic has also stated that donations for Lemmy development also go towards server costs for .ml… Yeah, no thanks. That’s a massive issue with the way funding is handled.

    • dullbananas (Joseph Silva)@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Refusing to make someone’s financial situation easier until they stop being transphobic is not a convincing argument against transphobia. Think about how your actions affect your side’s reputation from the other side’s perspective.

      • marcie (she/her)@lemmy.mlEnglish
        01·
        10 months ago

        I don’t give a fuck about convincing transphobes, I believe they should all be thrown off a cliff along with every other kind of bigot. Obviously, I will not pay a transphobe if I can avoid it.

    • TheOubliette@lemmy.mlEnglish
      01·
      10 months ago

      Exactly.

      I will consider contributing financially to Dessalines but not nutomic so long as they spread and maintain reactionary positions against trans people. To be honest I’m even on the fence about Dessalines for maintaining a public relationship with nutomic in light of this.

      “Give money to a transphobe so we can have open source Reddit” doesn’t have a great ring.

  • Dessalines@lemmy.mlMEnglish
    31·
    10 months ago

    If I didn’t respond to anyone below, thank you. It means a lot, and makes the years of work I’ve spent on lemmy feel worthwhile and important.

    • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      It absolutely is. You also inspire people to get into foss and take up the good fight. Thanks for doing this.

      • Gloomy@mander.xyzEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Underrated point. I started out with all the usual bloatware and, at best, a rudamentary feeling why that might be bad. I ditched Windows by now and are activly trying to get rid of Google and their likes, replacing more and more apps with foss alternatives. Trying to pull my family in too. That simply not would have happend without beeing exposed to this by Lemmy.

        • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Thats me a year ago. Now i run pretty much 100% foss, have converted some family, run a foss it business and help activists stay safe on electronic devices. I’m not joking. Lemmy was a big part in that.

  • irelephant [he/him]🍭@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    From what I can see, what’s stopping a lot of people donating is the fact that donations cover .ml as well, I personally think this is a non-issue, because .ml doesn’t cost much to run (from what I can see).

    Would it be possible to split donations for lemmy development, and donations for lemmy.ml?

    • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Yes it would be possible. The question is if people would really be more willing to donate in that case, or if they would look for a different excuse instead.

            • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
              0·
              10 months ago

              I already updated the description on Opencollective to mention this. Other platforms only cover developer salaries like the descriptions say.

                • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  That seems unnecessary because most people dont care. There is a vocal minority which keeps complaining but they dont need to be appeased any more.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Lemmy.ml is the dev test instance, for one, and for two, the donations are to pay the devs wages, which allows them to dev Lemmy full time. You’re essentially saying you want to control what the devs of Lemmy can pay for with their salaries at that point.

        • Dessalines@lemmy.mlMEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          We always put out calls before (major) releases, but very few ppl actually help test. This means a lot of bugs only get spotted when more eyes see them in production.

          All of these issues are solved in the corporate world by paying quality assurance / testing teams, but open source projects don’t have those resources.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      01·
      10 months ago

      There’s also the fact that Nutomic is a known transphobe, and donating to lemmy’s development means supporting said transphobe. If we could get non-problematic devs, that would be ideal. But until then, the only real options are “use Reddit” or “support a tankie transphobe.” And neither is a great choice.

  • AccountMaker@slrpnk.netEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Donated on Liberapay.

    As others have said, this is financing software development, not a political campaign. I first learned of the fediverse when Reddit removed 3rd party apps, and I felt like my eyes were opened. This is what I want the internet to be, decentralized and running on open source software, and I’m sure I’m far from being alone in this, so thanks to the devs for that.

    Also Jerboa is great!

  • grapemix@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I love lemmy the project. But there has too much political arguments in some communities and they will hate you if you aren’t 100% agree with them. Even the post and the group/community are not political, comments will turn it to political. I am kind of tired(although I know some ppl are thrilled with political arguments). There is not much the devs can do, but the content does affect the user experience quite a lot.

    Nevertheless, thanks for all the hard work, nutomic and dessalines. I will donate.

  • Rexios@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I gladly doubled my monthly contribution. Thank you so much for working on Lemmy! I had no idea you worked on it full-time. That’s insane! It is the first fediverse software I ever used, and it opened my eyes to a whole other side of the internet I didn’t know existed.

  • milicent_bystandr@lemm.eeEnglish
    21·
    10 months ago

    To those who don’t want to give because of the devs’ political views, I’d like to say this goes into improving the Lemmy software our communities here are based on, not making some political podium for the devs in particular.

    There’s a lot of rubbish on Lemmy… because it’s the internet. Like the Great Garbage Patch of the Pacific, it collects; but I still like the Ocean. Some people look down particularly on .ml, but personally I think this is unjustified.

    In fact, before joining Lemmy I heard some rumour of the controversy and went looking. I certainly disagree strongly with certain things I found, but my impression was of Dessalines and Nutomic treating the Internet as a forum for respectful debate and this Lemmy as a technology project not a personal political force - as many see Reddit as becoming. Well, that was my impression, so I was happy to join, and I’ve not been disappointed.

    On this Lemmy software we have many communities, some which vehemently hate each other, but we’re all supported by this foundational software. If it’s too awful to you, you could of course use a different platform, and still federate with the Lemmy communities you love! But we’re still here.

    Because, after all, in any real community there are people you don’t get on with, and part of life is about learning what it means to love each other and live together even so. And that goes for every software project too - somewhere, hiding in the dark recesses, is something quite unpalatable intrinsically linked in. If your ideology says you can’t use anything built with such problems, you’d better start building everything yourself.

    So, you don’t have to support Lemmy. Even if you use it. You don’t have to agree with my take on it. But I’d like to encourage most of you to consider supporting Dessaline and Nutomic to continue this development work, and not just the bare minimum they need - let it overflow with blessing, since we have received such blessing from them!

    …Or you can all send me angry replies for ranting too long on the Internet about something you disagree with ;-)

  • walden@sub.wetshaving.socialEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    For someone like me who wants to see Lemmy be a place that’s owned by users, run by users, and moderated sensibly, what should I do? I have a problem with supporting the lemmy.ml instance.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    10 months ago

    Lemmy default UI should seriously consider a daily donation goal, similar to old Reddit. Implement a backend API to fetch the daily amount needed and the current amount donated, and stick it on the right hand side by all the trending communities. As a stats nerd, this would seriously motivate me to donate more.

    • Shadow@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Donation nags to users were added in a recent update. I think it shows up in a year from the last popup, so about 11 months away

      • Nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        The timing is randomized for each user, but everyone see it within a year after the update. Main problem is that Google and Apple are very strict about donations inside apps, so we cant show it to mobile users.

        • glaber@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Wouldn’t be many users, but would having a separate version on F-Droid be a way to be able to reach some of them?