For example, if I run loop instance, I will reshare stories through my instance, the content will be downloaded from my node, not the parent one. Am I right?

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[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I am not sure if Loops mirrors content like that, but probably not (since video content is much larger).

Mastodon for example does mirror images, but it only really lowers the bandwidth use from users on your instance, hence a single user instance causes the same miniscule one time download of the image as a single client connected to the original instance.

Overall if you want to help the Fediverse network with load balancing you need to take on additional users on your instance, with all the responsibilities that entails.

Single user instance are nice for other reason like data ownership and being able to decide your own defederation policies and such.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I host my own Lemmy instance. Single user. I do it for owning my posts and comments, and to keep memory.

Does that help the fediverse? I am not so sure. Probably many smallish instances are better than a lot of individual instances or a few big ones.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 5 points 1 day ago

From what I read on discussions on the matter, apparently the resources needed for instances to talk to individual ones is proportionally much higher.

However, I'd argue most people using the fediverse seem to be fine using medium to large instances, so the impact seems to be a diminishing one.

And agreed it's a form of independence. Besides and extrapolating from owning what you share, censorship, if/when it happens, at most is done at federation level, not on instance level, meaning it's much harder for someone to sabotage the single-user for wrongthink or a potential (and if the user is honest, accidental) fuck up.

[–] MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hosting my own as well as of a couple weeks ago. It's been an adventure getting things to work right, but it's nice owning my data.

[–] PapaSkwat@lemmy.wtf 0 points 12 hours ago

I may have to start doing that too. I don't like knowing that if an instance I'm on get mad at me, they can just delete all my stuff.