So being open source and federated means server space will be free forever? Interesting hypothesis.

I don’t know if that’s the best way to frame the argument. It’s not about keeping this place “small and unimportant”, it’s that by now we’ve all seen what happens when websites like this get big.

Reddit started out as “it will always be free, and we’ll never mess with your personal data or shove ads down your throat” too. That’s just not sustainable when you start dealing with tens of millions of users and billions of page views a day. Hosting the servers capable of supporting the traffic alone will cost tens of millions of dollars per year.

In other words, if Lemmy gets as big or as popular as Reddit, it will get just as shitty and corporate as Reddit. Guaranteed.