redditrefugee here
So, Lemmy.world is just one instance of lemmy… it maybe the biggest one, but its just one right? And it agrees to federate with other lemmy instances (like lemmy.ml)… got it. But at the end of the day, each instance is running on someones computer right? Whats the traffic like between these two? If I ran an instance, and federated with this site, what would that cost me? How much traffic does this instance produce?
Are we suppose to divide into our own instances to reduce costs, and then link them together through lemmy.world? wouldn’t that make it centralized? And then who is paying for THIS? How much is being a central hub between instances going to cost?
Sooner or later, we have to realize that these wonderful free things are usually a bubble that eventually pops when they have to start running ads.
Who is paying for this?
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I changed it to a question. Sorry it took so long, not used to checking in here HAHA
Sooner or later, we have to realize that these wonderful free things are usually a bubble that eventually pops when they have to start running ads.
Textual data is surprisingly lightweight to host if you keep to core features. Traffic is quite light if you don’t bundle half of npm, all the trackers ever and a whole bunch of ads.
A few days ago I saw lemmy.ml publicise the instance specs it was running on, and it was surprisingly sane for the size of the instance.
I myself could easily afford the rent for that instance, and I’m not rich. I’ve seen bigger (gaming) servers funded by donations from like 12 people. It also has nothing pushing it to produce profit.
Lemmy’s fundamentals with regards to tech seem to be great, if not the most feature-rich. It will be fine.
it maybe the biggest one, but its just one right?
Yes, just one of the many.
And it agrees to federate with other lemmy instances
Yes.
each instance is running on someones computer right?
Yes. Big instances are run on server hosting services, it would be too much for just someone’s own computer at home, not the mention the risk of attacks that are better dealt with by hosting companies that have experience about it.
You can setup an instance on your own PC for learning/testing purposes if you wish, just don’t open it to public use unless you really know what you’re doing.
Whats the traffic like between these two? If I ran an instance, and federated with this site, what would that cost me? How much traffic does this instance produce?
There are a couple of posts in which those things are discussed:
- Curious, what % of redditors can the current fediverse instances handle?
- How much storage is used on average for a Lemmy instance?
link them together through lemmy.world? wouldn’t that make it centralized?
No. Being able to talk to each other doesn’t make it centralized.
Centralized is when you have all the data in a single place, like reddit. On lemmy things are spread out, so if a lemmy server dies the rest live on nonetheless.
And then who is paying for THIS?
Donations, there’s a link on the instance home page.
Alternatively host your own instance on a VPS like Linode. Costs me $20 a month for my box that runs a lot of tasks like Lemmy, Mastodon, matrix, and a couple smaller task. I split the cost with the 8 or so of us that use the service so it’s not too expensive
Definitely not a stupid question. I don’t understand any of this.
Have a look at this starter guide :)
Just like the old world internet, whoever owns (or rents) the server and pays for the connection pays for it. The frontpage has a “Donations” section that lists an OpenCollective link and a Patreon link if you want to send money to the operator. It’s https://opencollective.com/mastodonworld which sounds like they also run a Mastodon instance.
I don’t know the traffic questions, hopefully someone that does comes by or looks it up. It probably varies a lot. You could run your own private instance that would go out and fetch the content you subscribed to but no one else could join. Your comments would go out to the federated instances to be shared if you so choose.
There is no central place. As I understand it if Lemmy.world or Beehaw is destroyed permanently, all those users and and the content is gone but every other instance that shared those communities (the common ones, like this) they will still exist just without the content coming from the disappeared instances.
I’ll look around for an explainer vid because now I’m curious, I doubt most of my guesses are right
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I doubt most of my guesses are right
Your guesses are right :)
Really hoping the other instances grow too. They would probably help a lot.
Well, there are schisms happening already. My local city not only has a community here on lemmy.world, but also one on the instance hosted in my city. Communities will be split and people won’t find each other.
It’s definitely a problem. It can be partially mitigated by searching for the specific identical community you are looking for on a different instance, and subscribing to it from the instance you are using, but that is certainly not a sustainable long term plan. It would rely on everyone always subscribing to every other identical community on every notable instance that comes up, to reach the same level of users as it would on one centralized platform. And that’s just a cost of decentralization.
Are servers able to monetize via ads if they wish?
The real answer is I don’t know.
I don’t think lemmy’s code has any space for ads. But its open source and anyone can change it. Anyone who runs an instance has full control over it, and i’m sure they could inject some ads somewhere.
