The fediverse's decentralized nature poses a vexing file hosting conundrum - how can we sustainably support the community's voracious appetite for shared media?

Disclaimer: I wrote this article and made this website.

There was some talk of this issue in the recent fediverse inefficiencies thread. I’m hopeful that in the future we’ll have a decentralized solution for file hosting but for now I deeply believe that users should pay for their own file hosting.

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    11 hours ago

    Is a p2p system for media with the instances just hosting magnet links too slow for fediverse purposes? To me this seems like the most resilient way to handle media in a decentralized system

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      11 hours ago

      If a social network is to take off, it must be accessible from mobile devices behind CGNAT (carrier grade network address translation).

      • 56!@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        p2p from behind a CGNAT works just fine as long as a single server is accessible and can mediate connections between other peers. Most non-servers are behind some sort of NAT these days.

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          11 hours ago

          Because that’s where all the users are. The “social” aspect of a “social” network. Anyone can host a forum but it’s useless without users.