@sedawk probably… maybe threads can be closed and then some data can be removed.
This is a culprit of the Fediverse players, they’re unlikely to keep all data forever (as some services do, at least until they’re gone for good like Google Waves). Storage costs money, the need will grow forever, maybe some more cost effective storage can be used for old data/posts/threads/media, just like internet archive does, they don’t used fast storage, so it takes seconds to load old website versions. But that also seems like a big leap for amateur technology enthusiasts (like most admins of Fediverse systems are).
@pimeys @knighthawk0811 yes, that sounds more privacy friendly, #Friendica also has a proxy function, it is also important that the proxy is just accessible for logged in users… so it get’s more complicated. Otherwise bad people will posts media some place and link it in scam pages/emails and such.