@Gargron may I ask a slightly strange question... maybe.
So far, I haven't seen any ads here, but... a few companies are pre-orientating towards ad-free apps. And... I really, really like Mastodon. I literally ran away from Twitter. And I also hate the ads I am constantly seeing (elsewhere). If you consider monetizing Mastodon, would you also consider an ad-free version, like YouTube, for example. (Irrelevant ads/fraudsters/lies/ often even abuse and harassment,i.e. lie masked as an ad.)

Mastodon will never and can never be monetized. It’s impossible. Mastodon.social may run ads and Mastodon’s source code may even be edited to allow for ads, but Mastodon / the Fediverse as a gobal interoperable network functions without ads for now, and will so forever. Even if ads would be implemented as an option, there will always be instances that choose against it and forks of clients that won’t display the ads (such exist for centralized platforms too, Barinsta for Instagram, Infinity for Reddit, Nitter for Twitter, etc. etc.)

@Erik @Gargron
Wonderful! If you are able to pay your bills and certify a legitimate source of income for the spending you have.
What is your source of income anyway. I apologize for this. I hope you don't mind asking. Asking how you pay your bills is like asking who you work for.

Oh, that’s simple! I’m the CEO of my Cybersecurity company. Running this Fediverse server is a side project that doesn’t consume much money - however, many big instances like mstdn.social are funded through donations!