Roaming Centipede (@twoHollowFangs)

If you make memes and media uploads a paid feature, it will destroy Gab. This should only be a temporary measure as last resort. The better (or least bad) solution is pruning and re-encoding past media based on indicators of quality and notability. • Remove older media with little or zero engagement as measured by bookmarks, reactions and replies, replacing images and videos with a statement of media policy. • Re-encode older media with medium to low engagement at low resolution and high compression. This at least maintains some record of what was posted. Noteworthy posts often contain information as text or screenshots and may be useful as reference even at very high compression. • Limit user storage space according to account age and reputation. This helps prevent the bot abuse described and incentivizes users to use 3rd party media hosting or make decisions based on space efficiency and importance. Also, a lot of people re-upload the same images. At the least, a hash should be generated for each file and only a single unique instance stored on the server.