What is the maximum number of active users on an instance before the financial burden gets too high for the admins?

posted 1 year ago

Blaze (he/him)@sopuli.xyz

fediverse@lemmy.ml

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Pretty straight question.

I see Lemm.ee is now the second most populated instance based on https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list, with 3634 monthly active users.

I also know that Lemmy devs said that

lemmy.ml is bigger than beehaw, and only costs 80 euros per month for a dedicated server.

https://lemmy.ml/comment/2372503

As lemmy.ml has 3561 monthly active users, should we consider that around 3,5k-4k users is the sweet spot for an instance population, and stop recommending the ones that reached that threshold?

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poVoq@slrpnk.net

0 points

1 year ago

Very many. It’s a fun hobby and I know a lot of people that would rather contribute in hours and hardware they already have (or rent anyways for other purposes) than forking over hard earned cash.

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14th_cylon@lemm.ee

1 point

1 year ago

people who already own their own server are not at all representative sample of general population.

so i am not going to say you are straight up lying, but you are definitely obfuscating a lot ;)

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poVoq@slrpnk.net

1 point

1 year ago

The point is that this doesn’t have to be a “representative sample of general population”. It is sufficient if one in a thousand users or so is willing and able to host a small instance, which is pretty much a given.

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14th_cylon@lemm.ee

1 point

1 year ago

which is pretty much a given.

no, it is not given, it is number you just pulled out of your ass. that may be true for people who joined some solar punk or open source instance, but it is absolutely not true for general population. there wouldn’t be 126k people on lemmy world if that were true.

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poVoq@slrpnk.net

1 point

1 year ago

The number is based on how many people are needed, not how many there are with such a skillset.

It is hilarious that you assume that there are not one in a thousand with such a skillset as spinning up a a small fediverse instance on a cloud host takes literally one afternoon and anyone that knows how to use a computer can learn the needed skills in less than a week.

But I can easily proof that there are enough people willing and able to do this, as right now there are more than enough small Lemmy instances online to take over all of the Lemmy.world users if each of them had about 1000 members. You can easily look it up yourself.

The problem is uninformed users like you that flock to the largest instances and thus actively repeat the same mistake they already did on Reddit.

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14th_cylon@lemm.ee

1 point

1 year ago

anyone that knows how to use a computer can learn the needed skills in less than a week.

if you really think that, i am happy i am not on your instance 🤣

But I can easily proof

no, you can’t

that as right now there are more than enough small Lemmy instances online to take over all of the Lemmy.world users if each of them had about 1000 members. You can easily look it up yourself.

well thank you for your permission.

there is at this moment 532 instances with open signup - https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list

so while your statement is technically true and that would be enough to take in 126k lemmy.world users in your arbitrary ratio, it is not enough to take in the 1,1M total lemmy users. this is quite illustrative to your creative approach to facts.

and all ofthis is not accounting for the fact that if you sort the instances by uptime, the list starts at 65%. are these the people who obtained their admin skills during 1 week crash course?

and to be clear i am not trying to insult anyone for having a toy and learning new skill, but these are simply not instances for public use.

also let me remind you, that even if you somehow managed to prove this nonsense you are trying to prove, it would in no way help you to establish your original claim:

If you want to ensure that the Fediverse stays a healthy, non-corporate and humans-first environment, then being able to run (small) servers out of the admin’s pocket is the only working solution.

you chose weird hill to die on and i wish you good luck with it. you don’t have to reply to this, i don’t think that further debate between us can bring any utility to either one of us.