If I were to create my own instance federated with all the other instances, as of today, how much data would I be storing, since I would make a copy of all the content?
I know this will vary a lot, but I’m looking for a ballpark figure to have an idea. I don’t think it would be a lot, but I can’t find an estimate anywhere.
Reposted from https://lemmy.world/post/55030 as I think this community is probably a better fit
Do you plan on allowing other users? If so every image they upload anywhere will be hosted from your instance. You would need a long term plan for continued storage if you do.
If it’s only yourself then not much. You would need space for your uploaded images and the database. Worst case you have to purge communities to free up DB space and re add them. It only tracks communities from the moment you add them. It doesn’t pull the entire history, and associated db size, into your instance.
I can pull the real numbers when I’m not on my phone but my database and maybe 150mb now. You can see all the communities I follow here so get a relative idea: https://lemmy.cablepick.net/communities My instance has been up for 4 days. I should start tracking db size growth to give others an idea of what to expect.
If I follow through with this, it won’t be very soon. I’m just gathering information to see whether it’s worth it.
Anyway, I was thinking of keeping it only for me and a few more users, maybe (definitely not open for everyone).
One thing to note is that pictrs supports hosting your images on in object storage (e.g. AWS S3 or Backblaze B2). That can save a lot of money on storage costs. 1TB of images on B2 only costs $5/month.
Can one set up their instance to delete posts amd associated media after x number of days?
You would have to run raw database commands to clear followed communities’ posts. It would be possible with some experimenting. The only local media associated with non-local communities is generated thumbnails so those would have to identified and purged from pict-rs.