The developer behind Pixelfed, Loops, and Sup, open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, respectively, is now raising funds on Kickstarter to fuel the apps’ further development.

The trio is part of the growing open social web, also known as the fediverse, powered by the same ActivityPub protocol used by X alternative Mastodon. The latter saw increased signups and use after the company formerly known as Twitter sold to Elon Musk in October 2022 and during the X exodus that followed the U.S. presidential election.

In the months and years following that sale, open source and decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky (which uses the newer AT Protocol), have continued to grow their user bases, as people sought alternatives to centralized social media apps controlled by billionaires like Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

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Edit: Link to the kickstarter

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[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Btw, you can also donate on Patreon, OpenCollective, and Liberapay.

[–] loopy@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I’m guessing using Kickstarter has the benefit of adding hype as a new thing. I’ve always been curious about Open Collective and Liberapay. Have you tried it? Was it a smooth process?

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

We use Open Collective to fund the instance and it has been pretty smooth sailing. Would definitely recommend to anyone running an instance.

[–] astro_ray@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

I donated with open collective before and it was a pretty smooth experience

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I went with Patreon. The CEO seems like a cool guy that just wants to support other creatives. Hope he’s actually as cool as he comes across.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Heard they take a bigger cut tho, do you know how much was it when you donated?

[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

No idea, but good to know. I’ll consider switching my next contribution to a different service. Thanks!