@dansup ... The idea makes sense, if you can keep the price low.

@dansup
Sorry but definitely no, it goes against a philosophy of decentralization and free software. I am happy to volunteer contributions, not to pay a fee to a central authority. Just my pick, sorry if I sound harsh but it's definitely against my principles.

@dansup I'd rather go with some other form of supporter badges as there is already the verification mechanism from Mastodon in the fediverse and that could be confusing

@dansup Y?

@dansup Hello.

As long as the application clearly states the centralized list is sponsored, it should be a good option.

Keep in mind that prioritizing and even adding a "verification mark" to them only for just paying it's the same as X / Twitter has made.

If you choose this path, ensure to personally validate the instances and that they act according the guidelines of the community, to avoid bad actors and review them from time to time again.

Honestly there are Pixelfed instances around that have been supporting the project for quite a long time and probably can't pay for the verification and will lose visibility against a new instance who pays.

This is a double-edged sword so be very careful.

In my opinion you can just add two separated lists: "Sponsored" instances and "Community" instances.

For the verification mark, don't attach it to a paid verification process.

@dansup Could the price maybe scale with the user's geographic location and account type? (Large US business vs freelance photographer from a small country in Eastern Europe?)

Otherwise this seems fair, definitely want the fediverse to explore ways to stay sustainable.

@dansup I'd say if the purpose of verification is trust, it should not be a paid feature. Otherwise it's only possible for people/orgs with enough money.

I can imagine other forms of monetization. More branding/customization features for instance. Or a special "I donated" badge. A "donaters" page where your name is listed. Things like that?

@dansup I'm not against it, but if pixelfed should also get other types of verification, like the one mastodon uses, it might get confusing.

@dansup you can have supporters and give them an indication but for Pete’s sake don’t touch the blue check symbol with a fifty foot pole.

@dansup no. I don't think paying is a way of being "verified". Make merchandise, custom emojis, custom themes for the app or put in advantage donations in the apps.

A thing that don't have software in Fediverse is account analytics. Make that available for Pixelfed users with a small paid subscription for example.

@dansup can you maybe first share what you want to fund? And where the underlying problems are you want to get financed? Since I have not enough context to actually give good advice.

@dansup I'd love if verification on the fediverse was based on domain names (though not everyone will host their own instance) but as long as there's a good verification process I wouldn't mind this.
Also the list could be made decentralized anyway, though then that'd kinda go against the goal of you getting the money. :P

@dansup without real vetting (and do you really want to be the arbiter of hard identity verification?) all you can really say for sure is you’ve verified this user paid you money, which is not nothing, but it’s closer to a project supporter badge than verification

@dansup will it be similar to instagram's verification mark that are given only to a certain set of publicly identifiable people? if yes, how similar your criteria will be for people who are eligible for the verification mark?

@dansup not against it.

@dansup Combining identity verification and paid project support doesn’t have a great history in social media.

I’d think about the details and your commitment to users (and your legal liability) before mixing the two.

Also, it would give a financial disincentive to doing identity verification via any other path, including ones that are more scalable, more accurate and more acceptable to users.

@dansup I believe a better option would be premium hosting. Basically allow users of #Pixelfed to host content under their own domain, & you could throw in the checkmark as a bonus. 😉

Similar to how @matt provides premium hosting to #WriteFreely via Write.as & @photomatt provides premium #WordPress hosting via WP.com (are there any other examples‽).

It would benefit the community plus encourage other hosts to take a second look at Pixelfed.

@dansup I’d prefer to have the option of a general subscription, where one option is being able to have some kind of symbol denoting I was a paid user. Let’s not conflate payment with “verification”, and be explicit about what it entails for content visibility or promotion.

@dansup what about feature bountys ?

@dansup Calling it a verification program heavily undermines what you're actually trying to do, which is gather financial support for this project. Branding it instead as a supporter program will definitely increase the reach of the initiative as well as find more willing participants. Twitter completely devaluing what verification used to mean has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and it'd be better to steer clear of it.