AsI understand it someone is paying for me to use this so should I try to limit my time here to keep their costs down? Should I avoid leaving it open casually? Is there a way to support instances that I enjoy?

  • SJ0@lemmy.fbxl.net
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    1 year ago

    Decentralize.

    With federation, there is no reason why you need to be crowding onto the most popular instance. If you find a much smaller instance and then just federate the communities that you want to it, then that’s going to spread out the load of you as a user and everyone else as a user.

    Besides being better for the individual instance operators who don’t need to carry the load of the entire fediverse, decentralizing is better for the health of the fediverse. Imagine if two or three of the biggest instances went down today, how many people would be completely incapable of using Lemmy anymore?

    This isn’t big tech. Somebody is paying for this, and sometimes those people just decide that they don’t want to pay for it anymore. Big instances do go down. So that being the case, decentralize. And that way even if a certain server is overloaded, you will be fine. And even if a certain server decides to go down, you will be fine. And you’ll be doing what’s right for the rest of the fediverse.

    • Epicurus0319@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s not sustainable to just flock to one instance to the point of there being no real competition. Lemmy.world now hosts nearly 3 times as many user accounts as lemmy.ml- the second-largest instance and a much older one too, and has gotten big way too fast.

    • Dandroid@dandroid.app
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      1 year ago

      Is being on my own instance helping or hurting? Because now all the other instances need to send federation messages to my server. Is it a net positive for getting me off their instance, even after considering that?

      • SJ0@lemmy.fbxl.net
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s a net positive. Plus, others may want to join your instance if they’re happy with your vibe.

    • EhList@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks, Im new to this and less tech inclined than some so your reply is exactly what Im looking for.

    • bron@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I wish kbin had other instances…
      Easy to find a lot for Mastodon however. Is there a migration guide to transfer accounts somewhere?

    • islandofcaucasus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you find a much smaller instance and then just federate the communities that you want to it

      What does this mean? If I’m on a small instance will I still see the same posts if I filter by All as of I’m on a big community?

      • yimby@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        You’ll see content from any community that a member of your instance is subscribed to. So on very small instances that haven’t yet “discovered” other communities, the All page will be sparse.

      • SJ0@lemmy.fbxl.net
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        1 year ago

        Keeping in mind that an instance is the specific server you’re on, and a community is equivalent to a subreddit:

        If you’re on a small instance, then you’ll be able to see all the posts from any community you join as if you’re on the bigger instance. The local “All” will show all the posts from any community anyone has subscribed to on your instance.

        On my instance, I’ve got posts from communities on many different instances.

  • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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    1 year ago

    Try using external services for pictures. That’s pretty much it, no need to limit yourself. You can leave it open casually as well. Some instances accept donations if you want to support them.

      • SJ0@lemmy.fbxl.net
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        1 year ago

        No. Many images are stored locally, using a built-in service called pict-rs. Anytime that you directly attach an image to a post without linking to an external service like imgur, it’s uploaded to the local server, and then hosted by that service anywhere it’s displayed.

  • kglitch@kglitch.social
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    1 year ago

    A lot of non-tech communities just need one or two people to post a couple of links in them each day, to get the ball rolling. Then they have a chance at growth.

    Don’t just read and reply, share new content. You can find links on mastodon, your RSS reader or even Reddit.