Scaling the humans (Elf-vengers, Assemble!)

Yesterday's blog post was heavy on the technical details re scaling our infrastructure for growth. Ironically, after bragging about how we're "ready" for growth, today we had an an issue affecting multiple users, which looks like it was caused by utilization / saturation

However, I can't confirm this, because.. the latest Grafana / Kube Prometheus Stack update broke graphing, and we've been flying blind for the last few days while I try to fix it while also adding new apps, welcoming new users, and handling routine support!

So the real problem here is the human (me) isn't scaling under load, which is why I've assembled you all to present my new initiative...

The Elf-vengers Initiative

As our platform grows, the community is only going to grow, and I'm looking to recruit, from our existing user base, a team of experienced volunteers who will:

• Help onboard new users and support existing ones, so that private tickets don't go unanswered for hours, while I sleep
• Debug and solve edge-cases which require careful testing (i.e. "Latest Sonarr + 4K + TRaSH Guides + RDTClient = ?")
• Represent ElfHosted in related channels (other Discords, Reddit, etc), supporting existing users and recruiting new ones

In my head, I've named this team "The Elf-vengers", and I've given some thought about a regular user might progress into a mighty hero..

Becoming an Elf-venger

You'll find more details, including "user stories", here, but here's the process in a nutshell:

flowchart TD
    A(be regular elf) -->|#elf-venger-plz| B(become trainee)
    C1[free ElfBuckz for learning] --> B
    A1[Access to #elf-venger-hq] ---> B
    B --> C(train in #elf-venger-dojo)
    C -->|Yes!| D[Debrid Demon]
    C -->|Meh| E[Torrent Titan]
    C -->|Ooh yeah!| F[NZB Ninja]
    D -->G(Graduate)
    F -->G(Graduate)
    G -->|have interview, be vetted|H(Be Elf-venger)

Process

1. Become a trainee (automatic), by visiting #elf-venger-plz, and clicking on the emoji reaction
2. Get access to the #elf-venger-dojo, with behind-the-scenes resources, and coupon codes for free apps for testing
3. When confident, "graduate" (be vetted in a 1:1 DM) in your chosen disciplines,
4. Get elf-venger role

Assemble!

So that's it. The whole pitch. This may not go as planned, but it's a start - if you're interested in helping out, get in touch, or just jump in, at #elf-venger-plz

New Toyz

Stremio-Jackett

We do have a new pair of apps today - introducing Jackett and Stremio-Jackett. Stremio is popular with the Debrid crowd, because it runs on heaps of older devices (like little old $20 Android TV boxes that Plex wouldn't touch with gloves on!), and can basically play anything, with the help of an expansive ecosystem of addons.

Combining Stremio with torrentio is a common way for non-technical users to enjoy the wonders of streaming torrents via Debrid providers, but the typical (free) "torrentio" addon is becoming increasingly overwhelmed and rate-limited, and lots of slightly geekier users are looking for alternatives.

Stremio-Jackett is a one-and-a-half-week-old project which adds a stremio-compatible API in front of Jackett, such that you can basically fulfill your torrent-streaming requirements from your own selection of public (or even private) trackers.

This is not a Zurg-like solution, where traffic is proxied via ElfHosted, and thus only appears come from one IP from the provider's perspective. This is simply a searching-and-serving design intended to help existing Stremio users expand their selection of content, or the reliability of their addons.

There's a detailed guide here, and the end result looks something like this:

Today's scoreboard

Metric	Numberz	Delta
Total subscribers	170	-2
Storageboxes mounted	17	-
ElfStorage in TBs	49	+1
Rclone mounts	99	+1
Tenant pods	2211	+88
Elf-vengers	1	-
Trainees	4	-
Bugz squished	-	-
New toyz	2	-

Summary

As always, thanks for building with us - feel free to share suggestions, and your own ideas for new apps to add!