Monetization is often a struggle for big open-source projects, donations are nice but I think they often fall short.
Something to consider is to add Rewards people get if they donate, which they can then hand out to posts or comments that they like. I feel this could add a lot to PieFed and is a great feature to have.
The potential extra income from people buying rewards could be used for better servers, more storage, to cover dev costs etc.
I have no clue how Federation would work around this it’s probably complex. Thoughts?
Edit: We could have a option to hide badges for those that don’t want this feature. It’s purely cosmetic
I’m proposing it purely for cosmetics, it won’t boost your comment or post with default sort.
And users can opt out of seeing any rewards.
It’s just a nice fun thing to have, and something small you get for making a donation
visual flare will influence how people subconsciously vote. if somebody gave a comment gold then they obviously thought it was of greater value, which will influence others to find it more valuable too, resulting in more upvotes which repeats the cycle. that’s why comment awards are an excellent catalyst for mimetic desire and in turn social manipulation.