While a video instance shares some load with others, it still has to host all of it itself.

I think services like gifycat / imgur will pop up eventually to flatten out the data storage problem. Storing copies everywhere doesn’t seem too sustainable (both economically and ecologically). I guess time will tell.

What funding do communities need? Unless we’re talking about paid moderators, I think the instance pays all the bills.

I don’t know, it’s a long term goal. Moderators have been volunteers for forever with reddit and that worked out, but having some fund to give awards or compensations seems to be a good thank you. That’s all not part of a first release.

My first version will likely be a “how much you want to donate” and a system that considers that input a full payment, giving the user an “invoice” in the end just to show where their theoretical donation would’ve gone.

From there we’ll let the public debate decide if this is usable, sustainable and reasonable.