This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Luciano Menezes
Currently, I’m a 16-year-old student, and since January 2024, I’ve been developing DayKeeper on my own — a social network with a different proposal: turning each day into a meaningful memory. Inspired by platforms like Twitter and Instagram, DayKeeper lets users make daily posts with text, images, and videos.
Over time, the idea has gone through many changes. A lot has changed: the project’s vision matured, features were redesigned, and the code… well, most of the code has been rewritten several times. One of the biggest challenges so far? Supporting video uploads in a scalable, secure, and affordable way.
DayKeeper’s Environment
To understand the problem, you first need to understand the project’s environment:
- Database: MongoDB
- File storage: AWS S3 (images and videos)
- Content moderation: Amazon Rekognition
- Video verification notifications: Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)
Of course, along with many other things, like nodemailer for emails, passport for third-party login, firebase for mobile app notifications, etc.
To understand what happens when a user creates a post, here’s the route:
router.post(
"/create",
checkTokenMW,
multer(multerConfig("both")).array("files", 5),
handleMulterError,
createMediaDocsMW,
detectInappropriateFileMW,
postValidation,
createPost
)
Or explained:
-
checkTokenMW: Makes sure the user is authenticated. -
multer(...): Middleware to upload files (images or videos). -
handleMulterError: Handles upload errors. -
createMediaDocsMW: Creates documents in the "media" collection, separating files from the post. -
detectInappropriateFileMW: Uses Rekognition to moderate files. Images are moderated instantly; videos go through asynchronous analysis. -
postValidation: Validates post data. -
createPost: Creates the post with references to stored files.
The Problem
1. Storage structure
Originally, images could be embedded in the post objects. But videos require asynchronous moderation. So a unified structure was created: all files (images and videos) are now stored in a separate "media" collection with fields like status: 'pending', public, or rejected.
2. Verification time
Images are analyzed in milliseconds, but videos take minutes. The system sends the video to Rekognition, waits for processing, and gets a notification via SNS when it’s done. During this time, the post stays pending.
3. Costs
This is the critical part.
-
Images:
- Cost: $0.001 per verified image
- 1,000 images/day ≈ $1/day = $30/month
-
Videos:
- Cost: $0.10 per minute
- 1,000 videos of 5 minutes ≈ $500/month
- Not counting multiple videos per post
-
S3 Storage:
- $0.023 per GB/month
- PNG 1080x1080 ≈ 500 KB – 5 MB
- 1080p Video (5 Mbps) ≈ 1.5 GB
- $100/month in S3 gives:
- ~4.4 million PNG images
- ~2,400 five-minute videos
Result: Supporting video content is dozens or hundreds of times more expensive than images.
Possible Solutions
1. Having funds ($$$)
The obvious but least accessible solution for solo developers. If you have investors or a big budget, you can afford full video moderation. For me, a 16-year-old student without capital, this isn’t viable.
2. Imposing limits
Strict limits might be necessary:
- Max video length: 3 minutes
- Size limit (e.g., 700 MB)
- Automatic compression for all files
- Daily upload limits per user
These reduce video costs and let you store more content in the same space. Of course, this might affect user experience, so it must be implemented carefully.
3. Trust-based moderation system
Currently on DayKeeper, not every file is automatically analyzed by Rekognition.
- Trust Factor: New users have low trust and all their files are checked. If they follow rules and aren’t banned, they gain trust and can post without automatic checks.
- Report System: Any file can be reported. If reported multiple times, it’s reanalyzed, even if it passed automatically.
- Manual moderation: Admins can view reports, ban users, and manually moderate content.
On top of that, random moderation of unchecked files will run in the background to keep the app safe. If a malicious user tries to bypass thumbnail analysis, and the post gets many reports, a full video check is triggered and the user may be auto-banned.
4. Partial video verification
Analyzing every frame is expensive — and often unnecessary. DayKeeper only checks a few:
- 2 frames at the start
- 2 in the middle
- 2 at the end
- 2 random frames
This equals about 1 frame every 18 seconds for a 3-minute video. If a video is reported, it’s reanalyzed in full. This also varies depending on Trust Factor.
Use Queues with Redis and BullMQ
Creating and verifying thumbnails takes time, and handling thousands of simultaneous requests could overload the server. DayKeeper uses a moderation queue with BullMQ to manage tasks in a scalable and safe way.
5. Video compression
A clear way to cut storage costs is by compressing every file before uploading to the server. This lets you store more videos in less space, with little quality loss — massively reducing storage costs.
DayKeeper’s Solution
DayKeeper combines a trust-based moderation system with admins and reports, partial video verification, task queues, and file compression, all alongside clear limits on daily stories, posts, and uploaded files.
Imposing limits also opens the door for a premium subscription. While it might seem controversial in a social network, I believe it’s more acceptable than selling user data or spamming ads. If done right, it won’t hurt free users too much and can help monetize the app.
Conclusion
Building a video-friendly social network isn’t impossible — but it’s a real challenge, especially for solo developers. Costs, moderation time, and technical complexity are tough hurdles.
In DayKeeper, we’re overcoming them with:
- File compression
- Partial video checks
- Trust and reporting systems
- Human moderation
With creative solutions and scalable thinking, even a solo project can reach a professional level. The key is balancing user experience, security, and costs — all while building something you believe in.
If you want to learn more about DayKeeper, you can check the code here or visit our website.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Luciano Menezes
Luciano Menezes | Sciencx (2025-08-05T04:18:11+00:00) 🎥 Why is it almost impossible to create a social media with videos – Daykeeper. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/08/05/%f0%9f%8e%a5-why-is-it-almost-impossible-to-create-a-social-media-with-videos-daykeeper/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.