RE: https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/116122824981352296

Yeah, and it's not uncommon to have Mastodon servers with hundreds of thousands of users, that does require some level of engineering above "just installed the software on a VPS"

Currently mastodon.social runs a server for 3.1 Million users.

That creates a huge power imbalance within the network, which has real effects for moderation and safety.

For AT Protocol, yes, if you *want* to run a full network relay, that is bandwidth intensive. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO. We share that infrastructure for a reason.

We don't need to duplicate all that network traffic needlessly. The relay API also has the ability to be deployed in other configurations, such as being for a partial network or being for a specific region, reducing resources needed.

There is also the Jetstream, which can provide filtered streams of data, with some trade-offs. https://atproto.com/guides/streaming-data#jetstream

So relays? Yeah, you can make them smaller if you want to. You can also not use them entirely.