@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

Zetaphor

@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc

Developer, 11 year reddit refugee

https://github.com/Zetaphor/

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Advantages to selfhosting a Lemmy instance?

So, as any self-respecting datahoarder and selfhoster, I have my server rack populated with a few machines, churning along as they tend to my hobby-related projects. Now that I’ve started using Lemmy I’m toying with the idea of selfhosting an instance, as I have both the hardware, bandwidth, and skillset for it....

Zetaphor,
@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

Additionally it’s going to cause you headaches if your server is low spec. The federation queue is not well optimized for GIGANTIC subscription counts like this. There is an active draft PR working on it, but using that script is still a bad idea.

Zetaphor,
@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

The only algorithms here are for sorting posts based on activity and recency, rather than trying to maximize engagement so you see more ads. Also it's all completely open source.

Zetaphor,
@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

You're also forgetting that with a centralized platform everyone is stuck under the same roof. If we do reach that level of saturation then the communities can always splinter into a different instance or group of federated instances.

The problem with reddit was once we reached the point of everyone being there and the overall quality lowering, there was no refuge for the more engaged users to congregate and reform the communities that focus on quality over quantity. You could try and flee to more niche subreddits but it's really not the same, as demonstrated by OP making this post.

And then as you pointed out, the financial incentives are very different here, which will change how users engage with the platform and how the platform evolves as a result. Centralized platforms do everything to drive engagement to increase ad impressions and potential value to ad distributors. We have an opportunity to build communities with entirely different business models where growth is not an imperative.

Zetaphor,
@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

We're not all trapped in the same building anymore. You can just move to a different instance and still have the same software experience but with the community you prefer.

Zetaphor, (edited )
@Zetaphor@zemmy.cc avatar

Lemmy is a platform managed by a disparate group of operators all with different levels of experience and commitment.

Verifying identity online is both a hard problem and a legal/security nightmare. It involves validating and possibly storing things like government identification or other sensitive personally identifiable information.

There is no way this will ever be implemented in the core platform. All existing solutions today are outsourced to third party companies with the expertise in validating different forms of identification as well as the legal insurance required to warehouse it.

And all of this is setting aside the obvious fact that you should not be required to doxx yourself in order to view pornographic content online. Minors will just go somewhere else outside of the jurisdiction of these rules and still get access. Hell, just turn off safe search on Bing and you can find porn.

Measures like this don’t actually stop minors from accessing pornography. They only put law abiding citizens at risk by forcing them to trust private companies with their identification and hope their government doesn’t decide to further police their morality, or use their revealed sexual preference against them.

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