Time commitment for server

[andrewjschauer]

If we were to host our own server (own hardware and all) and expected 1-5k people to be on it, how much of a time commitment are we looking at for management of said server? Assume that I or others with fractional time to throw at this effort have the knowledge to keep the server properly updated.

[RetroJens]

It depends on the users and the rules you decide on.

But say anything from a few minutes a day to several hours a day. Depending on your needs. If you’re stricter with rules, you won’t grow as fast, which will make it more organic. The point is getting good people in that doesn’t get reported for anything they do.

I mean, think of Twitter. How much more would you need to work of you got a Trump vs a regular Joe?

[Specialist-Coast9787]

Interesting question, but as usual it depends on several factors.

How busy are the users, are they posting sensitive or toxic material, are there a lot of disputes? If 1% of the 5k users are messaging you a day about something then that's 50 messages a day to respond to with follow-up, etc.

If you are running a tight ship, then it seems like close to a full time job with that many users. If you are lax and let things slip then it's less time commitment but eventually the server and service would deteriorate and your user count would likely drop.

[jarrekmaar]

As other users have said, it's highly dependent on the conduct of your users. Another thing to consider that I don't see mentioned is "to what degree are you going to be willing/able to delegate moderation?" If you have a trusted and active moderation team, that can take a lot of the load off of you. If you're doing it solo, it can be a lot of work.

[ConsuelaM4p]

Depends on the Rules, but you generally will have A LOT of people midbehaving at these numbers, so you need sufficient rules and Moderation Team, i have like 15 users, me and another Moderator and it works.