this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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I was told that I should post this here.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/932750

Say you decide to self-host a Lemmy instance. When you create that instance, do you immediately need to download and store all the data that has ever been posted to all federated Lemmy instances? Or perhaps you only need to download and store everything that is posted to the federated Lemmy instances from that point forward? Or better yet, do you only store what the users on that instance do (i.e. their posts, and posts to the communities hosted on that instance)?

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[–] hawkwind@lemmy.management 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (29 children)

When you create that instance, do you immediately need to download and store all the data that has ever been posted to all federated Lemmy instances?

Run my own instance. @Candelestine@lemmy.world is right but there are more details. Federation is not a "sync." When your instance needs to fetch from another instance it will, but it does not get history. You can get a specific comment or post from any time however.

Or perhaps you only need to download and store everything that is posted to the federated Lemmy instances from that point forward?

This is not by default either. Only communities that your users subscribe to will be updated by their "origin" instances.

Or better yet, do you only store what the users on that instance do (i.e. their posts, and posts to the communities hosted on that instance)?

This does happen, but it also stores what your users do on remote instances as well as "copies" of what they interact with. Images (currently the only media hosted by lemmy servers) are linked to thier "origin" as well. So you are storing text of posts and comments.

[–] captain_samuel_brady@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (21 children)

So let’s say I’m on lemm.ee and I decide that I want to see “All.” Does that mean I’m only seeing what other users on lemm.ee are subscribed to?

[–] hawkwind@lemmy.management 25 points 1 year ago (20 children)

That is exactly what that means and it's frustrating to say the least, because it's not clear that's what's happening.

[–] burtek@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would you say it makes sense to have accounts on the 2-3 instances that you're most interested in rather than 2 account and being dependent on federation?

[–] Spzi@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's no general answer, it depends on your personal preference.

If you want to have most content available, register on an instance which has an according policy; which federates with anybody and is federated by everybody (both directions can make a difference).

The downside however is, this also opens the door to all sorts of bad actors, including bots and spam.

So I personally tried to strike a balance and am so far quite happy on lemm.ee.

This tool is pretty handy to make informed decisions: https://fba.ryona.agency/ It allows you to check federation status both ways.

[–] norgur@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for that link. Really interesting.

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