On the Fireside Fedi interview with Jerry ( the admin of Infosec.Exchange Mastodon instance ) a scary truth was suddenly revealed ( on 34:11 ): Just to keep the instance up and running he needs to spend up to $5000 a month, pretty much out of his pocket. Donations to the instance barely cover any of that. And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.
Again, I’m sorry. This is not “optimism” but baseless wishful thinking.
If you want to talk about actual strategies to get people to see the value of a free Internet and how to educate them, I’m all ears. But I’m not interested in continuing the conversation if you are just arguing what you wish would happen.