I mean it’s really just giving you a choice on how you want to support the dev. Either by having ads or paying for the application directly. If either of those are too much then head to another app. There are literally quite a few free apps available,which is fantastic, without ads. Free as in freedom to choose doesn’t mean though you should be a mooch and just take and not contribute anything back to the community that you’re a part of.

Why wait and not just start a community up?

I played around with Friendica years ago, it wasn’t at the time much to get into. The idea was to setup a Facebook like server that we could use for our family only. Ended up tearing that instance down as we didn’t really like it at the time. I’m really excited about Lemmy though, so much so I again, went and setup my own corner of the lemmy-verse. The ideals this is built upon are the ideals that grabbed me into the internet so long ago, freedom and resiliency and the ability to discover something new, not have some algorithm throw it at you. I look forward to seeing this platform continue to grow and being a more active participant in it. Go LEMMY!