haven't seen from this perspective, but you convinced me on the cost part 🤔

but i still wish there were services were ppl would co-op and rent private relays with some limitation (the amount of members/ limited post per day or smth like that)

i also think free relays eventually would cease to exist bc of monetisation: donations won't be enough and advertisements could be destroyed by custom content algorithms (which would sort and hide them)

multiple contact lists makes so much sense, and I had some memories of talking/reading about it. haven't you written about it before?