Yeah I'm kinda in the same place. I'd like to see a fully mastodon compatible (like I can use a third party client like Ivory) but designed, and I'm not sure how to say this, to be less scalable and thus simpler. I'd like to run more than one account out of it, but less than maybe 20.

So far it hasn't been too much of a nightmare to run the 'full meal deal' but as someone that managed to avoid ruby for their whole career I find that I do not fully understand all the intricacies. Like I'm not sure a more svelte mastodon really needs a redis server, etc.