You are to be compared with tech billionaires, with their immense wealth and layered support systems, but with none of the money or resources. It manifests in what people expect of you, and how people talk about you.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/11/my-next-chapter-with-mastodon/

People need to realize that open source projects don't create billionaires. In fact, they actually block billionaires from forming.

Tech deci-millionaires get rich by creating a moat around something, then put a toll booth at the drawbridge. Tech billionaires do that but make sure to enclose something essential they have a monopoly on within the moat, and then capture any and all regulators who might try to interfere. Open Source software either makes it illegal to build a moat or allows anybody who's interested to build their own drawbridge. It's orders of magnitude harder to get rich with open source or free software. You basically have to put up a toll booth that's fully optional and somehow still get people to pay.

We should all thank #JohnMastodon for his selfless acts, both starting Mastodon but also now knowing when to step down.