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Would there be any benifit to host another instance?

As the question states. I have the skiils and know how to setup a new instsnce and from looking through the documentation its relatively straight forward. Im just wondering would it actually help the fediverse and lemmy as a whole? There seems to already be plenty of instances to choose from. What are your guys thoughts?

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  • I created mine because I am a systems engineer by trade and I moved on from Reddit. Nobody else has used my instance except for me, but I think it's worth it. I like being in control of my own account and can be assured my instance wont impose rules that i dont agree with or worse, just disappear. If other people find it useful, then that's even better.

    • How much storage does it take to host your own instance that’s federated with large servers? I am really curious about hosting my own instance but I don’t really understand how the storage works and don’t want my computer filled with thousands of strangers comments.

    • @bionicspud, I've been thinking of doing the same thing for the same reasons. How much storage does your instance use? I haven't looked in to how asset caching works yet. It seems like it could easily get out of hand.

      • Running the Instance for 3 Days now. Added multiple new Subs and cleared pictrs (but not Postgres) folder yesterday. My instance is mostly used by me.

        87M ./pictrs

        335M ./postgres

        Edit: Small update. Original Post was posted ~9AM. Now its ~11AM

        112M ./pictrs

        351M ./postgres

        As far as i know, images shouldn't be stored locally if not posted from the local instance. This looks to be a proxing problem as far as i understood.

        • what happens when you clear pictrs? you mean just deleting the folder? does that break stuff?

          for comparison, my instance is only communities and no users (FAQ here: https://programming.dev/post/442419 )

          it's about 5 days old but not much activity

          # du -h --max-depth=2 ./
          73M     ./volumes/postgres
          7.8M    ./volumes/pictrs
          8.0K    ./volumes/lemmy-ui
          81M     ./volumes
          81M     ./
          

          the latest backup is only 7.4 MB zipped, I use this backup script

          #! /bin/bash
          # https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/backup_and_restore.html#a-sample-backup-script
          now=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H.%M.%S")
          
          cd ~/lemmy && (docker-compose exec -T postgres pg_dumpall -c -U lemmy 1> dump.sql 2> dump.errors)
          cd ~/lemmy && zip -r9 ~/bak-lemmy-$now.zip ./ --exclude "volumes/postgres/*"
          rm -f ~/lemmy/dump.sql
          

          like I said though, not much activity

          and here's how my backup zip files have grown in size over time

          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_03.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_06.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_09.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_12.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_15.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_18.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-08_21.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_00.00.02.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_03.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_06.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_09.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_12.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_15.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_18.00.01.zip
          6.6M bak-lemmy-2023-07-09_21.00.01.zip
          6.7M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_00.00.01.zip
          6.7M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_03.00.01.zip
          6.7M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_06.00.01.zip
          6.7M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_09.00.01.zip
          6.8M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_12.00.01.zip
          6.8M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_15.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_18.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-10_21.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_00.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_03.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_06.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_09.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_12.00.01.zip
          7.0M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_15.00.01.zip
          7.4M bak-lemmy-2023-07-11_18.00.01.zip
          
          • Tested deleting the pictrs/files/001 which was at that point at ~150mb. And yes, it broke stuff. For example my Avatar and a local test community logo. To "purge" it, something would need to compare it to the database i guess. My size probably comes from /c/memes 😅
            I thought remote images aren't cached localy 🤔

            • I think it might just be thumbnails that are cached locally? And obviously your own banner and local images

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