this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Spreading out is definitely the way to make this thing work. I'm sure there is more that can be implemented to help with federation speed, making sure you have all comments, etc. Those are solved with a monolith instance, but as we see you need a monster server to do it. I think instances averaging less than a few thousand users each will be the way to move forward.
Yep, if we had a way to migrate users between instances (technically possible, but not implemented) there could possibly even be a way to shuffle users off overloaded servers automatically in the future, like a form of load balancing.
Allowing users to migrate as seamlessly as possible between instances is just an important part of making decentralization really effective too โ it only really means something that it's possible to move to a different instance with a different culture and set of rules, norms, moderation style, etc, without losing access to the network as a whole if it's easy to do so, because only then does it become a real possibility for counterbalancing the power of any given instance.
Love that idea. Servers could distinguish if they want to be a general 'home instance' for users, and those that opt in could communicate with each other and push accounts around as necessary. Servers could calculate their likelihood to accept a new incoming account based on some heuristics the admin could set, with sensible defaults. That way the system would self-balance itself as new instances appear and as mature ones reach capacity. Of course for that to work there would have to be some central authority keeping track of account locations for login purposes.
That sort of functionality would be a long way off, but it would be very good for balance if the federation exchanges could be better optimised to make it more seamless.
The problem is that the entire point of instances is not just to spread the costs/load of hosting the network, but to allow people to find places where the culture and norms (and thus the moderation style and block lists) align with what they feel comfortable with, so they can rely on being able to find a place that will have a nice experience for them. For instance, I choose explicitly LGBTQ-friendly and anti authoritarian instances on the Fediverse. Automatically moving people around based on heuristics has the chance of really fucking that up for people. I don't want to wake up one morning and find myself on an instance that federates with whatever rightwing shithole instance will crop up in the next few months and have to avoid the platform or be harassed with dick pics and transphobia.
Additionally, having a centralized server for anything kind of defeats the point, no?