John GruberJan 31, 2023

I like the fact that mastodon.social is the biggest instance, but I would leave for an instance that is paid only, say $10/month, has a cool domain name, and thus can afford to raise the rate limits.

Mastodon.social feels like early Twitter both culturally (good), and fail-whale-wise (not good).

Show threadTim Bray

@gruber

I'm working with some people who trying to set up an instance which is a member-owned co-op. A bit of spreadsheeting suggests that for a large-ish instance you could run just fine on $5/month.

Jan 31, 2023 at 10:22pmWeb
Show threadGlenn FleishmanJan 31, 2023
@timbray @gruber I’ve been hoping that within another few months, membership organizations that already run some technical resources (like email boxes or forwarding) would add "Mastodon instance" to their package. I expect only a small %age of members would want it, but it would a great tool to encourage sign-ups if run professionally.
Show threadPaul McGraneJan 31, 2023
@glennf @timbray @gruber It would be nice to see it as part of iCloud+ but that would necessitate a big client software change on System Settings & etc (should Messages support fediverse? Mail? neither seems quite right) … so MacOS 15 & ilk? Quite a waiting period.
Show threadStan SeibertJan 31, 2023
@glennf @timbray @gruber I’d love it if a company like @fastmail offered Mastodon hosting. They’ve had my email business for more than a decade, and this feels like a natural extension for them.
Show threadJohn GruberFeb 1, 2023
@seibert @glennf @timbray @fastmail Something akin to Fastmail is exactly what I'm thinking. If it were actually run by Fastmail, all the better.
Show threadGlenn FleishmanFeb 1, 2023
@gruber @seibert @timbray @fastmail Fastodon
Show threadjden redden Feb 1, 2023
@glennf @gruber @seibert @timbray do it @fastmail
Show threadJason Petersen (he)Feb 1, 2023
@glennf lol I left this thread hours ago with this same idea in my head
Show threadDavid WheelerFeb 1, 2023
@glennf @gruber @seibert @timbray @fastmail I’ve been paying to support xoxo.zone for this reason.
Show threadEhler Feb 1, 2023
@glennf @gruber @seibert @timbray @fastmail offering their own Mastodon server would push me over the edge to finally start using Fastmail.
Show threadtheromitFeb 1, 2023
@glennf @gruber @seibert @timbray @fastmail have you seen omg.lol?
Show threadMikeFeb 1, 2023
@gruber @seibert @glennf @timbray @fastmail there are some paid Mastodon hosting services out there, and presumably there’s about to be a lot more. Would that appeal? Your own instance, but pay to make the actual care and feeding someone else’s problem.
Show threadTim BrayFeb 1, 2023

@mikemacleod @gruber @seibert @glennf @fastmail

Exactly. But there's also the hypothesis that if you find the right instance with the right crowd on it, you've got a sort of neighborhood. Thus instances like tech.lgbtq - I've seriously considered a tiny instance just for myself & nuclear family but the jury is out.

Show threadMikeFeb 1, 2023

@timbray @gruber @seibert @glennf @fastmail am I weird in that the local timeline on almost any instance holds no interest for me?

I guess it might be fun to run a hometown instance for a group of friends or something, but social graphs don’t usually have firm edges.

A bunch of small instances with some relays might be a better fit?

Show threadScannerJan 31, 2023
@timbray @gruber mmm. I over speccd my instance at $24/mo but now I am using it to lift multiple things. Helps that I am ancient internet era so this is trivial compared to running your own sendmail service. The trickiest thing is deciding how much I want to open it up to other people.
Show threadketanFeb 1, 2023

@scanner @timbray @gruber

Do you spend $24 a month on a cloud-provided machine?

I ask because I instead chose to run a 32 GB machine at my house and that achieves the same purpose: add new services (such as Mastodon and, most recently, Ghost) with minimal incremental cost.

Show threadScannerFeb 1, 2023
@ketan @timbray @gruber I am moving almost all of the services I run out of my house to cloud providers. Costs more but at my age I am looking to reduce stress and stuff I have to maintain myself for all the services I run. Tailscale also helps me blur the line between those environments where I feel like I can handle the personal load.
Show threadketanFeb 1, 2023

@scanner @timbray @gruber

I get the sentiment but I am still curious why you think managing 1 machine in the cloud is simpler than 1 at home?

Power maintenance? Or is there something else?

Show threadScannerFeb 1, 2023
@ketan @timbray @gruber @timbray I have 10 hours of battery and it is not enough. System maintenance. Hard drives failing. Business quality network to my house is expensive. When I am traveling and anything happens I am screwed. All our email is down. I have five servers and two clusters at home and over 40tb of disk. Just getting out of the business of hardware in the house potentially failing. It is not one more server. It is yet another production service in my home.
Show threadJeff AtwoodJan 31, 2023
@timbray @gruber at Discourse, it was originally $10/month to get a machine to host a "small" community, but over time it crept down to $5 due to competition in the space. So this is accurate based on my lived experience.
Show threadJohn GruberJan 31, 2023
@timbray That jibes with my gut feeling that $10/mo would be profitable for someone.
Show threadDouglas PatriarcheJan 31, 2023
@timbray I registered my interest in cosocial.ca a couple of months ago and had been wondering how it was going. Any status info you can share?
Show threadJay 🆘Jan 31, 2023
@timbray @gruber social.coop is a co-op
Show threadMichael LabowiczFeb 1, 2023
@timbray @gruber opportunity for REI? 🤣
Show threadJohn GruberFeb 1, 2023
@timbray I think I'd prefer a straight-up for-profit paid service, but a co-op model is tempting too. But either way, something that is clearly and obviously sustainable simply through paying users. That's the key.
Show threadJason Petersen (he)Feb 1, 2023
@gruber agreed
Show threadRui CarmoFeb 1, 2023

@gruber @timbray a small community Mastodon server, where patrons get a special tick mark next to their usernames? 😬

Seriously now, I am very wary of smaller instances due to opinionated admins. And I’ve been running a test instance for a month now, but hesitant to self-host or run a community one because I don’t want the admin overhead (or the legal hassles in case something goes south).

Show thread: j@fabrica:~/src;  Feb 1, 2023
@gruber @timbray I’ve been wondering how many folks would pay for a server with transparent expenditures, paid content moderators and documented appeal/due-process.