Lemmy and my Switch to PieFed; Threadyverse software alternatives
jeena.net

TLDR: The main reason was Lemmy hogging server resources.

Last year, during the Reddit 2023 API controversy I finally deleted my account and moved on to Lemmy. Here’s a look at my experiences and why I eventually decided to switch to PieFed.

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
    12·
    5 months ago

    Interesting! Any insights or comments on what’s increased the resources of lemmy over the recent updates?

    • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netOP
      8·
      5 months ago

      Sadly I couldn’t figure it out. It seems it’s something with the database for sure but what exactly I don’t know.

      • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
        10·
        5 months ago

        Yea I did a quick search through the GitHub issues, and it seems like there are some growing pains with updates they’re making to the way things work and the load it puts onto the database. Sad to hear for smaller instances as my impression was that lemmy had pretty good performance for smaller instances. Architecturally, it makes sense that there are different tradeoffs for bigger and smaller instances. It’d be good to see things mature to the point that you can tune things for your instance size. In the end though, picking the appropriate platform but with the assurance that migration can occur when you need to change platform may be a good way to go.

        • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
          8·
          5 months ago

          Anecdotal evidence: I run two instances, a private and a public one. Neither uses a lot of resources.

          But I get the database thing. Its spiking every couple minutes and a lot every hour. It’s not a big deal if you have 2 threads at least but I can see how it doesnt work for everyone in every scenario.

          I‘m glad alternatives exist and I‘m much more positive on AP alternatives than protocol exiles.

          • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
            4·
            5 months ago

            But I get the database thing. Its spiking every couple minutes and a lot every hour. It’s not a big deal if you have 2 threads at least but I can see how it doesnt work for everyone in every scenario.

            Yea database management seems to where the growing pains are right now (with the core devs welcoming help from anyone with DB/PostreSQL expertise) … and indeed it seems to be a perennial issue across the fediverse platforms.

            If I may ask (sorry, probably annoying) … what sort of resources would you recommend for a small personal lemmy instance? (let’s say 1-5 users, ~200 community subs and a few local communities?)

            • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
              3·
              5 months ago

              Not annoying at all.

              I‘m running a public instance on two threads and I think 2 gb of ram. A private instance shared with other services on 6 threads and 8 gb of ram. Make of that what you want. :)

              I would probably rent a vps which you could extend if needed but start small. With 2 threads and 4 gb of ram at least.