meta, Twitter, funding
I think it would be a worthwhile development for Mastodon to support a way to mark profiles as supporting the server, like “Twitter Blue” verified, but per-server.
We (rightly!) give Twitter and its new owner a lot of crap for the way things have gone down, but the idea of “pay to support the service and get a badge to show it” is neither new nor a bad idea. Telegram, Signal, and other successful apps do it. Open platforms like GetTogether do it. THAT part is… a good idea.
This implies it must be automated not to burden the admins and being automated implies supporting different payments methods and recurring donations platforms... it's a lot of work just to please supporters.
Not to mention it may discriminate people that for whatever reasons can't donate and get what would be a status symbol.
The reasons don't have to be just economic, inducing people to create a trace that leads to their real identity can be risky in many countries.
People should feel welcomed anyway and do not swap safety for a false sense of belonging to a community.
So for me it's 👎🏻
