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@WiteWulf@cyberplace.socialThe #fediverse has a problem, and I’m going to be very unhelpful in not having an idea how to fix it.
Once an instance gets popular, it’s processing, storage and traffic costs get prohibitive for the people running it.
I regularly see reports of #mastodon instances shutting down because the admins can no longer afford the hosting costs. This will only be worse when #pixelfed and #loops spin up.
The home instances of those applications will have higher costs than mastodon due to being so media rich, and mastodon instances that federate with them will be similarly impacted in the amount of media they receive and need to cache.
The software is free, but hosting and time isn’t 
Possible solutions:
- strictly limit the number of users on your instance?
- better tools for managing caching of media?
- more efficient/lower quality (eg smaller) media
@WiteWulf I don't know if there's a benefit to the archiving of old posts. Perhaps a rolling 6 month deletion point, with the option for user export prior to that?
@InTheseHeels I think that’s a move in the right direction, definitely. The length would need to be dictated/balanced by the number of users, volume of data, and costs.
6mos might work for smaller instances, but I suspect much shorter would be needed for larger ones running on a tight budget.
@WiteWulf
I am working with my local community to move my instance to a co op funding and management style. I think we might need to accept that spreading the cost across as much of the userbase as possible is more sustainable. I personally see parallels in how taxes are assessed and how living more closely together means that physical infrastructure is cheaper to build and maintain. Subsidizing fedi accounts in a co op instance for those who otherwise couldn't contribute is just like any other social service in my mind.
@WiteWulf I’d say the easiest solution is to close your instance for new users when the burden becomes too much. That would drive new users towards instances which still have capacity for more. It’s probably not a perfect solution, but it is easy to implement and somewhat self regulating.
@WiteWulf I just self host and am happy in my bubble - each to their own.
@russ “just” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. You have the skills and infrastructure at your disposal such that it’s a trivial task for you.
@WiteWulf Nah - I pay https://masto.host/ as it means I don't have to manage upgrades, of which there are many. Plus, they seem like good people, so I am happy to contribute to them in a small way.
@russ ah, didn’t know that was a thing.
@WiteWulf there is also my biggest lesson learned from working in and writing about tech: just because you can doesn’t mean you should 
