KenHow do you feel about toots auto-deleting after a certain number of weeks? Otherwise instance owners may be facing exponential increases in hosting costs, and some may eventually be forced to pull the plug, leading to lesser diversity that Mastodon is so good at. https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/1847#issuecomment-296493619
[ABANDONED ACCOUNT]@ken I don't really like the idea of it as a rule, but giving instance admins the option could make sense for the very reason you say: small, self-funded instances may not last if they grow beyond what the admin is willing to pay to support a hobby.
@ink_slinger I like what you suggested on giving instance owners the option to decide how long data persists on their instances (and maybe making it clear on the about).
This topic if not addressed may be a factor that deters the network size or diversity from growing. Simply because the costs are compounded and mostly self-funded by instance owners.
Even if an instance owner stop accepting new sign-ups. Existing and new connections can make data grow exponentially too.