Bit clickbait. tldr: ffmpeg used it in their github actions, which pulls from gmp. They also use 100 builds to do simultaneous testing. Forks also run the actions, and it all pounds the gmp servers.

For my personally, I'm hosting an instance so that I can play with it, but also so that I can test new functionality, and help fix issues.

So I think if you are concerned about being a burden, then actively use your instance for the betterment of lemmy!

And I get that, but I feel like there might be better options than an old boys club that requires endorsement to get in. For instance, maybe levels of trust? a newly federated instance gets rate limited or something, so that it can't suddenly start spamming 1000s of posts or whatever

I've only recently setup my own lemmy instance, to test new stuff, fix a few things, whatever. Something like this would prevent me from federating with the content I want to see, and I'd have to go try and be buddies with a trusted instance admin to get endorsed?

I think this may be something we want to discuss more as a community, and see what better solutions might be out there