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@Friendica Admins @Friendica Developers @Friendica Support What is the consensus on adding relays in #friendica, do they actually help #federation, do they reduce it, speed it up, slow it down, increase it, as a concept I understand it as say #hamradio relays, it allows your reach to go further, but since my instance is federated, how much further do relays actually deliver my posts, and again does it actually help to have them? I have tried a few, with mixed results and I am rather baffled by their existence and usability in relation to my instance, any clear answers would be appreciated.
#friendica #Federation #hamradio
Mark
To understand what relays do you need to understand how federation works. Your posts can't reach every server because your server doesn't even know that most of them exist, so initially they'll only go to servers where at least one person there follows you. If someone reshares or replies it then it'll also go to the servers where they have followers.

Relays exist to fill in the gaps since all your posts are sent to them and then sent on to every server subscribed to them. With a lot of followers you'll have a wide enough reach without them, but until then they're useful for getting out there.
pasjrwoctx👽
@Mark Currently this node is aware of 34,160 nodes (3,800,250 active users last month, 3,921,889 active users last six months, 25,988,935 registered users in total) so I am clearly mis-understanding alot of this, trying to learn.
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