I’m fairly new and don’t 100% understand it yet, but instances are run on servers that require money. Are we heading towards seeing ads or subscriptions to raise funds instead of relying on donations to cover overhead?

Especially with the influx of new users. Hardware upgrades are needed.

    • cogman@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      In a quest to kill spam, email has become somewhat unhealthy and centralized. Setting up a new email provider is a lot more difficult today than it was years ago. Sending a message to the established providers from a new provider will often end up in spam.

        • cogman@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          You can spin up your own email server tomorrow and start communicating with the world through the email protocol standards.

          You can, but as I said, because you aren’t a know provider every message from your server will end up in the spam folder of everyone using Gmail.

          You won’t have a functional system unless you back it with either Gmail or Outlook.

            • drphungky@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 year ago

              It’s interesting to hear your take as someone experienced, because on hobbyist forums like /r/selfhosted I used to hear the complaint above all the time. Maybe people aren’t doing things correctly. I’ve never messed with my own email server and have no dog in this fight, but I’ve definitely heard that complaint a ton.