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Stop. Running a large instance for people you don't tangentially know for hundreds of people or worse yet thousands of people is a bad idea. The Fediverse has
by simfree 4y ago
Stop. Running a large instance for people you don't tangentially know for hundreds of people or worse yet thousands of people is a bad idea.
The Fediverse has had plenty of instances come and go, the last thing needed is a large, poorly moderated instance costing you significant money for servers, S3 compatible storage, etc.
Participating in an existing community run instance to make use of your community management skills would provide much more value to the Fediverse, and coincidentally you won't be the single point of failure with no backup (which causes burnout).
Doing both server maintenance and moderation at scale is unreasonable for one person IMO. But I've only spent half a decade on the Fediverse now...
- CharlesW 4y agoI really appreciate the direct and honest feedback. I've moderated a community of thousands and so have some understanding of the work involved in that part. My expectation is that the community would grow slowly, but you're absolutely right to bring it up as a foundational concern. My larger concern from what you said is that the Mastodon server stack may be a nightmare to manage. Any personal experiences you can share?
- simfree 4y agoThe stack can take time and effort to manage, but the infrastructure costs to run the stack are noteworthy, and the last thing needed are ephemeral inatances run by one person supporting many users.
- CharlesW 4y agoA great point, but I’m not as worried about costs since it’d be backed with community donations. Any thoughts on architecting for efficiency?