To be clear, $3k is an accurate, but unacceptable amount.
As in that’s what it’s actually costing us, but it’s not what it should be costing. I’d imagine more like $250 is what we should be paying if I wasn’t using AWS in the silly way I am.
I’m admitting up front that I’ve been more focused on developing rather than optimising operating costs because I could afford to be a little frivolous with the cost in exchange for not having to worry about doing server stuff.
Even when the Reddit thing happened I was wilfully ignoring it, trying to solve the scaling issues instead of focusing on the increased costs.
And so I didn’t notice when Lemmy was pushing a terabyte of data out of the ELB a day. And that’s what got me.
About half that $3k is just data transfer costs.
Anyhow the notice was just to let our users know what is going on and that there’ll be some maintenance windows in their future so it doesn’t surprise anyone.
We have a plan and it will all work out.
Don’t panic or have any kneejerk reactions, it’s just an FYI.