You can host it yourself if you worry about it going away, instructions are available on GitHub [1] and support is available in #mediacrush on irc.freenode.net
That being said, we've tossed some ideas around. We might use ads if we can find a privacy-friendly way to do it. We also have some thoughts on other routes for monetization, but we aren't working on that much.
We can support it out of our own pockets, and intend to do so for the foreseeable future.
I was aware but thank you for the reminder. I just don't have a need for an image hosting service that meets the"worthy of financial expenditure" qualification. :)
Have you considered ads that don't do retargetting, etc? They would not be as profitable but if it was simple CPM/CPC display ads with the level of transparency you've shown to date, I'm not sure how that would conflict your privacy principles.
Seems reasonable to me. If you feel it isn't, I'd suggest you just try to start your own ad network. It would be more work...but you'd have complete control.
That being said, we've tossed some ideas around. We might use ads if we can find a privacy-friendly way to do it. We also have some thoughts on other routes for monetization, but we aren't working on that much.
We can support it out of our own pockets, and intend to do so for the foreseeable future.
[1] https://github.com/MediaCrush/MediaCrush