Visualized results from the 2024 Self-Host User Survey
d00phy
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431M

I think this is pretty troubling. Including myself in the sentiment that the self-hosting community needs to do better. Aside from funding individual projects, are there any organizations that help fund self-hosting projects?

Possibly linux
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31M

I also think that it is up to the developers to make it sustainable

If they want funding they need to seek it. It has been shown that when a project has a one time donation popup they can raise a significant amount of money. They aso could sell products or services.

@helenslunch@feddit.nl
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41M

There’s a fundamental problem with FOSS culture that anyone who asks for money is seen negatively. Which I get, but also, I think the other edge of the sword, depending on donations, is worse, because ad-driven and freemium companies like Google and Meta have created a culture of entitlement. Ideally they would set up a 501c3 like Signal or Ghost, but obviously that can be cost and time-prohibitive.

Possibly linux
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21M

I wish there were more commercial services around Foss. (And I don’t mean proprietary)

They could do all sorts of things like sell swag and support.

@helenslunch@feddit.nl
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11M

Exactly. Pop OS is funded by hardware sales (though they do accept donations as well).

Possibly linux
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11M

I’m pretty sure that Pop OS isn’t the product but I absolutely see what you are saying. I’m talking about things like commercial support for companies and maybe some sort of user facing service but I’m not sure how that would work.

@helenslunch@feddit.nl
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1M

Yeah that works as well. Matrix is supported that way. As does Rocket Chat and I’m sure plenty of others.

Possibly linux
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11M

The sad part about Matrix is that it isn’t supported, it is used. I think the blame is about 50/50. Users should donate and the leadership shouldn’t of assumed that companies would give them money.

Derin
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11M

Yeah, really don’t get this one. As an example, I’ve been supporting the guy who writes most of the software I use via Github sponsors for a while, now. It’s nice to get access to additional support chat rooms and perks and stuff, but just the feeling alone is satisfying enough.

Feelsgoodman.jpg

I genuinely recommend those with gainful employment to consider supporting the people who make the software and media you like (E.g. Patreon).

Issue reports and the likes are nice, but they’re really not a substitute for cash (in my opinion).

@DrDystopia@lemy.lol
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11M

100% of my self-hosted projects are run exclusively by my recurrent donations.

Good thing nobody’s asking about what I’ve donated to the software projects I’m using to self-host.

I’m in the no-bucket, but instead i spend time on issues, helping the community and sometimes code contributions to self hosted projects instead.

This is not taken into the account of the question, however, but should be considered as contributing.

(I also consider donating to be contributing.)

d00phy
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21M

Agreed. I’m not much of a coder, so the best contribution I can give is probably $$. At least until I get off my ass and learn something new!

How so? 40%-ish is actually pretty good!

I’m also in the “no” bucket, but I’ve contributed bug reports and do intend to donate soonish now that I use more visible projects (used to just be minidlna, BTRFS, and openSUSE). I only added Jellyfin a few months ago, and I do intend to donate since I don’t intend to report bugs or contribute code.

d00phy
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41M

True, it’s a good percentage, and probably better than most free software. That said, given the communities the self hosted apps support, their excitement for the products, and for some the essential nature of some of these apps, it would be nice to see the yes/no number more 50/50 at least.

I don’t wanna ask if and how much individuals contributed to the ones that host their instances ;)

I’m more interested in dollar amounts. Are people sending $5 every now and then, or is there more consistent funding?

@Alk@sh.itjust.works
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41M

I have subscribed to a couple projects on github (the recurring payment thing) and purchased the optional immich license. I think the immich license is a great model, and more projects should do it.

Agreed. Grayjay has something similar, though it’s not actually FOSS (it’s source-available though). I’m happy to pay for software, but donating somehow has a different feel to it and doesn’t feel as “necessary.” So yes, an optional license fee would be awesome for more projects and could encourage more people to actually pay.

@Alk@sh.itjust.works
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21M

I love that it doesn’t unlock any features, but it does prominently display in the app as “activated” or whatever. It feels like “yeah, I have paid my portion, I am now entitled to use this forever guilt-free”

Are people sending $5 every now and then

That’s still better than nothing I guess

Sure, but it doesn’t really pay the bills.

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