veproJul 4, 2023

(Controversial) Should lemmy.world close registrations at a certain user count?

https://lemmy.world/post/1019637

(Controversial) Should lemmy.world close registrations at a certain user count? - Lemmy.world

To support decentralization and spread, should lemmy.world close registration at some point to prevent a performance overload due to too many users? Of course, if registration is disabled, there could be a hint placed somewhere near that from other instances you can interact with content on lemmy.world just like you had registered on it. There could be a link to join-lemmys instance overview.

Show threadzkfcfbzrJul 4, 2023

I think no.

I’m having the same issues with pages not loading as everybody else - but this is a critical moment for Lemmy. A site like this only works if it has a lot of users - the more signups the better.

I understand that new users can sign up for other instances, and still see and interact with lemmy.world content - but I think adding any barrier to entry at all will potentially discourage a huge number of new users. As a rule, new users have no idea how lemmy, federation, instances, etc work - and telling them they can’t sign up and to consider another instance will probably end with a lot of them just giving up and sticking to reddit.

The server issues will pass, but stunting our growth at such a critical stage might not. It’s bad enough that beehaw defederated at a time like this.

Show threadPacers31Colts18

I honestly think during the sign up the registration to a server needs to be randomized to spread the load. That and allow the user counts to be global and not just to your instance and you then have user load balancing.

If we could also migrate our data between servers with a backup server option. When lemmy.world goes down, just switch to a different randomized backup server.

Jul 4, 2023 at 11:52amWeb
Show threadCoelacanthJul 4, 2023

The danger in randomizing servers is that some smaller servers not only have less than 99% uptime but are also just run by random regular people who couldn't handle the increased load and/or have no desire or ability to keep the servers running long term. It could maybe work if the randomization occurs from within a vetted list.

Account migration is a feature that has been noted for the future and would indeed be very important since it would essentially make the entire network bulletproof. Being able to move instances and/or link accounts across multiple instances would create the necessary redundancy and reduce fears of choosing a smaller instance as home.