We have a bunch of instances hosting basically the same images multiple times. Using IPFS we could increase the availability of images for users with almost no cost to instances. I have heard rumors that pict-rs can’t be easily scaled up due file system based storage and would need a rewrite.

I think Fediverse is major thing where using IPFS on the decentralized network makes sense.

  • Rikudou_SageAEnglish
    15•1 year ago

    The images that don’t originate on your instance are only temporarily cached. Pict-rs can use object storage which provides virtually unlimited space and is cheaper.

    • hitagiEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      How long are they cached for? I still have cached images from over 2 months ago.

        • kopper [they/them]English
          5•1 year ago

          i don’t actually think lemmy uses pict-rs’s caching functionality. afaik it uploads remote images just like it does local ones. that’s for if you want to use it stand-alone as the imgur clone it was intended to be (and not what lemmy shoehorned it into)

        • hitagiEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          I see. I’m guessing this is only for v0.5.0 alpha because I don’t see these options in the v0.4.2 release.