Correct me if I’m wrong. I read ActivityPub standards and dug a little into lemmy sources to understand how federation works. And I’m a bit disappointed. Every server just has a cache and the ability to fetch something from another known server. So if you start your own instance, there is no profit for the whole network until you have a significant piece of auditory (e.g. private instances or servers with no users). Are there any “balancers” to utilize these empty instances? Should we promote (or create in the first place) a way how to passively help lemmy with such fast growth?

  • solidarity@suguha.netEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    I’ve created my own instance in order to not create more load on others and it took a minute to realise I needed to populate it myself, would be nice to have a default view aggregating popular posts etc. across instances. But maybe I’m just asking for too much hehe

    • claymedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      That’s an interesting idea. Maybe you could even choose the “default subs” for your instance from across lemmy.

    • SmugBedBug@lemmy.iswhereits.atEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I did the exact same thing. Ended up looking up the more popular communities on the bigger instances and searched for them on mine to index them.

      I wish there was an easier way, but for now there isn’t.

    • Debo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Seems to me that this is the ONLY way that a user (let’s call them creators for the sake of this convo) can guarantee that their efforts are always both protected AND remain available as the creator sees fit.

      If I start my own lemmy server and I’m the ONLY user, it would stand to reason that if I deprecated that server that all of my posts EVERYWHERE would instantly cease to exist (with exception of quoted posts in other’s comments). That gives me 100% of control over MY specific content contribution to this platform. So, if in the future lemmy goes the way of reddit, it’s as simple as us staging a walk-out just like we did to reddit, except NOTHING would show up on reddit anymore.

      Am I missing something here? For true creators, spinning up a cheap server to host is acceptable if not expected if you want any type of control after the “Post” button is pressed.

      • Terrasque@infosec.pubEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        If I have understood how lemmy works, the post and comment would be on the instance hosting the community. Your server would just post it to the community’s server on your behalf.

        • Debo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          2 years ago

          Right? Imagine having EVERYTHING you EVER contribute online be 100% controlled by YOU and YOU alone. There’s a framework here for a whole host of businesses…

          Imagine just one where a subject matter expert can sell their ‘membership’ to a platform based on the strength of their history with other platforms…. Almost like a paid Wikipedia where the value of the platform is conveyed to the users that created the content. huh, imagine that.