@xj9 @nepfag @bksmgglr my 2 cents worth is this. With the latest influx of Twitter refugees it is pretty clear that the desire for independent internet services not beholden to advertisers and where emphasis is on the users rather than the whims of share holders is quite real. So in terms of business there probably is opportunity for things like sponsoring a server or selling server hardware with the relevant software preinstalled. The conventional wisdom from the dot com years was that users wouldn't pay for internet services, but it might be that sufficient time has passed that this is no longer true. Certainly the down sides to funding everything with advertising is much more apparent now than it was in the previous decade.