https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3245
I posted far more details on the issue then I am putting here-
But, just to bring some math in- with the current full-mesh federation model, assuming 10,000 instances-
That will require nearly 50 million connections.
Each comment. Each vote. Each post, will have to be sent 50 million seperate times.
In the purposed hub-spoke model, We can reduce that by over 99%, so that each post/vote/comment/etc, only has to be sent 10,000 times (plus n*(n-1)/2 times, where n = number of hub servers).
The current full mesh architecture will not scale. I predict, exponential growth will continue to occur.
Let’s work on a solution to this problem together.
You got a lot of heat in this discussion, but let me be one of the few to applaud you for actually making a proposal. Saying No is easy, but suggesting something and writing it down and putting it out there is hard.
I am a Principal Engineer by trade, and i do what you did here all the time. I put out suggestions to my team and let them absolutely wreck it. This is how you advance and enhance your idea. Listen and learn from the feedback and suggest another thing based on what you have learned. Rinse and repeat.
That’s how you get to a great proposal. Keep at it. Well done.
I put out suggestions to my team and let them absolutely wreck it.
I know the feeling- I am used to it. My day job is being a combination consultant, project manager. (With some software dev, every now and then). I get to sit down and help design and architect things, and solve problems. There generally isn’t a solution everyone likes or agrees with, but, if you can check off more issues than you cause- it’s generally a step in the right direction.
People are absolutely stomping on the idea for the most part, but, I do think a few good points have came out of the discussion.
And- a few good points, is better than no points at all!
Yeah, as one of the people giving you “heat”, I think it’s great that you put forward this proposal and took feedback on it, and my goal was a productive discussion, not shaming. Not every idea is good, and very, very few of them are good right from the jump, but you never find good ideas without putting them out there.
But, just to bring some math in- with the current full-mesh federation model, assuming 10,000 instances-
That will require nearly 50 million connections.
Each comment. Each vote. Each post, will have to be sent 50 million seperate times.
Well your whole premise is just utterly wrong.
The way federation actually works:
A user on lemmy.ml subscribes to a community on lemmy.world. Say, !funny@lemmy.world
Assume that this user is the first lemmy.ml user to do so - basically what happens is the lemmy.world community sees that a member of a never before seen instance just subscribed. !funny@lemmy.world then adds lemmy.ml to its list of instances it needs to tell whenever something happens in the community.
No matter how many users of lemmy.ml subscribe, this only happens once.
Now when a user of sh.itjust.works upvotes a post on !funny@lemmy.world, the sh.itjust.works instance then tells !funny@lemmy.world of this change. It accepts the change, then tells everyone on its list of instances that have subscribers on them.
So essentially, sh.itjust.works talks to lemmy.world, lemmy.world tells everyone else. There is no “full mesh”. The instance hosting the community is the “hub”, everything else is a spoke.
So if there’s 10,000 instances, and they all just so happen to have at least one subscriber to some community, each change will be sent out 9,999 times. Your “50 million” premise is just completely wrong and I’m not sure where it’s coming from.
