The announcement of botsin.space's upcoming shutdown has sparked discussions about the sustainability challenges faced by federated social networks, with community members expressing both sadness and understanding about the difficult nature of maintaining such services.
The Growing Pains of Federation
The federated social media landscape is experiencing a reality check as community members discuss how running instances like Mastodon or Lemmy requires significant resources and commitment. As one user points out, these shutdowns might become increasingly common in the federated space, where individual instance operators bear the burden of maintenance, costs, and technical challenges.
Why Botsin.space is Shutting Down
Despite its relatively small user base of a few thousand accounts, botsin.space generated an astounding 32 million statuses - a unique usage pattern that created specific technical challenges. For comparison, mastodon.social's 2 million users generated only about 110 million statuses, highlighting the unusual demands placed on the botsin.space infrastructure.
The Real Costs of Running a Federated Instance
The shutdown brings to light several critical expenses that instance operators face:
- Server infrastructure costs
- Database storage (currently 191GB for botsin.space)
- File storage and bandwidth (the highest monthly expense)
- Time investment for maintenance and management
The Sustainability Question
Community members are exploring alternative approaches to ensure longevity of their online presence. Some users mention moving to paid services like the omg.lol ecosystem, believing that a financial model based on user subscriptions might provide more stability than donation-dependent instances.
Looking Forward
The shutdown, scheduled to begin with read-only mode after December 15th, 2024, and extending into March 2025, represents a thoughtful approach to helping users migrate their content. It also serves as a reminder that even successful community spaces need sustainable operational models to survive long-term.
For those affected by the shutdown, the instance operator will continue supporting account migrations and archive generation, with users able to contact @colin@muffin.industries for assistance.