What It Really Costs To Run Somethiing Like This?

There’s a tendency to underestimate the cost of running platforms that aim to be fair. So, from a non-accountants overview, these factors play a huge part in the running of a platform like this.

Not just financially, but operationally. Time. Attention. Ongoing decision-making. The quiet work of maintaining consistency when shortcuts are available.

Some costs are obvious — infrastructure, development, maintenance. Others are less visible. The cost of not monetising attention aggressively. The cost of saying no to features that would generate revenue but undermine trust. The cost of moving more slowly than the market expects.

We think it’s important to be honest about those trade-offs.

Running something like this isn’t free, and it isn’t effortless. But pretending it needs to extract maximum value to be viable isn’t true either. Many systems become expensive because they choose complexity early and then have to service it forever.

Keeping things lean isn’t about austerity. It’s about control. And control is what allows principles to survive contact with reality.