Ship It! Cloud, SRE, Platform Engineering

Hosting Hachyderm

Nov 15, 2024

Preston Doster, an Infrastructure Architect at Twilio, discusses the challenges of managing a Mastodon server with 55,000 accounts. He shares insights on the technical hurdles and growth of Hachyderm, touching on CDN implementation and legal complexities. The conversation also explores the balance of moderation in federated networks and the importance of user behavior management. Doster emphasizes decentralized social networks' role in shaping online communities while also highlighting the personal connection to technology. A fascinating blend of tech and nostalgia!

01:10:34

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Episode guests

Preston Doster

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Sentry's new metrics approach integrates traces to enhance debugging, reflecting a strategic shift towards user-focused problem-solving.

The rise of decentralized social networks like Mastodon demonstrates a growing preference for user control and connectivity over centralized platforms.

Effective moderation strategies are essential for maintaining community standards on decentralized platforms, impacting user satisfaction and reputation.

Deep dives

Transitioning to Tracing Metrics

Sentry has shifted its approach to metrics by moving from a traditional model to a more integrated traces-connected system. This change was driven by feedback from users who found disjointed metrics insufficient for rich debugging contexts. The new system allows developers to construct metrics that are intricately connected to the code structure, which, while requiring some upfront thought, ultimately saves time and enhances problem-solving capabilities when issues arise. This strategic transition reflects a commitment to refining user experience and providing sophisticated debugging tools.

Intro

3min

Decentralization and Nostalgia in Social Networks

16min

Optimizing Infrastructure with CDN and Automation

11min

Navigating Cloud Infrastructure Choices

14min

Navigating Legal Challenges and Embracing AI with Postgres

5min

Moderation in the Fediverse

13min

Navigating Content Export and Data Ownership

6min

Exploring Hachyderm and Personal Hobbies

2min

Preston Doster joins the show to tell us what it takes to run a Mastodon server with 55,000 accounts and 11,000 monthly active users.

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Sponsors:

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System Initiative – The future of DevOps automation (is here!) — System Initiative is an intuitive, powerful, collaborative replacement for Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The free tier is awesome (no credit card required) and you can get started in 3 clicks.
Timescale – Purpose-built performance for AI Build RAG, search, and AI agents on the cloud and with PostgreSQL and purpose-built extensions for AI: pgvector, pgvectorscale, and pgai.

Featuring:

Preston Doster – GitHub, Mastodon
Justin Garrison – GitHub, LinkedIn, X
Autumn Nash – GitHub, LinkedIn, X

Show Notes:

Interview

One correction about the cost to run Hachyderm. Preston said it’s about $600/mo and after the interview emailed me to let me know it’s closer to $1000/mo

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

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