diff --git a/bookwyrm/activitystreams.py b/bookwyrm/activitystreams.py
index 42f99e209..0009ac7a3 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/activitystreams.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/activitystreams.py
@@ -139,14 +139,14 @@ class ActivityStream(RedisStore):
                 | (
                     Q(following=status.user) & Q(following=status.reply_parent.user)
                 )  # if the user is following both authors
-            ).distinct()
+            )
 
         # only visible to the poster's followers and tagged users
         elif status.privacy == "followers":
             audience = audience.filter(
                 Q(following=status.user)  # if the user is following the author
             )
-        return audience.distinct()
+        return audience.distinct("id")
 
     @tracer.start_as_current_span("ActivityStream.get_audience")
     def get_audience(self, status):
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ class ActivityStream(RedisStore):
         status_author = models.User.objects.filter(
             is_active=True, local=True, id=status.user.id
         ).values_list("id", flat=True)
-        return list(set(list(audience) + list(status_author)))
+        return list(set(audience) | set(status_author))
 
     def get_stores_for_users(self, user_ids):
         """convert a list of user ids into redis store ids"""
@@ -183,15 +183,13 @@ class HomeStream(ActivityStream):
     def get_audience(self, status):
         trace.get_current_span().set_attribute("stream_id", self.key)
         audience = super()._get_audience(status)
-        if not audience:
-            return []
         # if the user is following the author
         audience = audience.filter(following=status.user).values_list("id", flat=True)
         # if the user is the post's author
         status_author = models.User.objects.filter(
             is_active=True, local=True, id=status.user.id
         ).values_list("id", flat=True)
-        return list(set(list(audience) + list(status_author)))
+        return list(set(audience) | set(status_author))
 
     def get_statuses_for_user(self, user):
         return models.Status.privacy_filter(
@@ -239,9 +237,7 @@ class BooksStream(ActivityStream):
         )
 
         audience = super()._get_audience(status)
-        if not audience:
-            return models.User.objects.none()
-        return audience.filter(shelfbook__book__parent_work=work).distinct()
+        return audience.filter(shelfbook__book__parent_work=work)
 
     def get_audience(self, status):
         # only show public statuses on the books feed,
diff --git a/bookwyrm/migrations/0200_status_bookwyrm_st_thread__cf064f_idx.py b/bookwyrm/migrations/0200_status_bookwyrm_st_thread__cf064f_idx.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..daca654c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bookwyrm/migrations/0200_status_bookwyrm_st_thread__cf064f_idx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.25 on 2024-04-03 19:05
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ("bookwyrm", "0199_status_bookwyrm_st_remote__06aeba_idx"),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddIndex(
+            model_name="status",
+            index=models.Index(
+                fields=["thread_id"], name="bookwyrm_st_thread__cf064f_idx"
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/bookwyrm/migrations/0201_keypair_bookwyrm_ke_remote__472927_idx.py b/bookwyrm/migrations/0201_keypair_bookwyrm_ke_remote__472927_idx.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3d27a11b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bookwyrm/migrations/0201_keypair_bookwyrm_ke_remote__472927_idx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.25 on 2024-04-03 19:10
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ("bookwyrm", "0200_status_bookwyrm_st_thread__cf064f_idx"),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddIndex(
+            model_name="keypair",
+            index=models.Index(
+                fields=["remote_id"], name="bookwyrm_ke_remote__472927_idx"
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/bookwyrm/migrations/0202_user_bookwyrm_us_usernam_b2546d_idx.py b/bookwyrm/migrations/0202_user_bookwyrm_us_usernam_b2546d_idx.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d8666fe3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bookwyrm/migrations/0202_user_bookwyrm_us_usernam_b2546d_idx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.25 on 2024-04-03 19:14
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ("bookwyrm", "0201_keypair_bookwyrm_ke_remote__472927_idx"),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddIndex(
+            model_name="user",
+            index=models.Index(
+                fields=["username"], name="bookwyrm_us_usernam_b2546d_idx"
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/bookwyrm/migrations/0203_user_bookwyrm_us_is_acti_972dc4_idx.py b/bookwyrm/migrations/0203_user_bookwyrm_us_is_acti_972dc4_idx.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b07f1c8a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bookwyrm/migrations/0203_user_bookwyrm_us_is_acti_972dc4_idx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.25 on 2024-04-03 19:22
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ("bookwyrm", "0202_user_bookwyrm_us_usernam_b2546d_idx"),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddIndex(
+            model_name="user",
+            index=models.Index(
+                fields=["is_active", "local"], name="bookwyrm_us_is_acti_972dc4_idx"
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/bookwyrm/models/status.py b/bookwyrm/models/status.py
index a9c678cb5..546a8d6c8 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/models/status.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/models/status.py
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ class Status(OrderedCollectionPageMixin, BookWyrmModel):
         ordering = ("-published_date",)
         indexes = [
             models.Index(fields=["remote_id"]),
+            models.Index(fields=["thread_id"]),
         ]
 
     def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
diff --git a/bookwyrm/models/user.py b/bookwyrm/models/user.py
index 89fd39b73..0ec2c6529 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/models/user.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/models/user.py
@@ -198,6 +198,14 @@ class User(OrderedCollectionPageMixin, AbstractUser):
     hotp_secret = models.CharField(max_length=32, default=None, blank=True, null=True)
     hotp_count = models.IntegerField(default=0, blank=True, null=True)
 
+    class Meta(AbstractUser.Meta):
+        """indexes"""
+
+        indexes = [
+            models.Index(fields=["username"]),
+            models.Index(fields=["is_active", "local"]),
+        ]
+
     @property
     def active_follower_requests(self):
         """Follow requests from active users"""
@@ -509,6 +517,13 @@ class KeyPair(ActivitypubMixin, BookWyrmModel):
     activity_serializer = activitypub.PublicKey
     serialize_reverse_fields = [("owner", "owner", "id")]
 
+    class Meta:
+        """indexes"""
+
+        indexes = [
+            models.Index(fields=["remote_id"]),
+        ]
+
     def get_remote_id(self):
         # self.owner is set by the OneToOneField on User
         return f"{self.owner.remote_id}/#main-key"
diff --git a/nginx/development b/nginx/development
index 2c3a1d02f..f7443968c 100644
--- a/nginx/development
+++ b/nginx/development
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ server {
     # directly serve static files from the
     # bookwyrm filesystem using sendfile.
     # make the logs quieter by not reporting these requests
-    location ~ ^/static/ {
+    location /static/ {
         root /app;
         try_files $uri =404;
         add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
@@ -72,15 +72,14 @@ server {
     }
 
     # same with image files not in static folder
-    location ~ \.(bmp|ico|jpg|jpeg|png|svg|tif|tiff|webp)$ {
-        root /app;
-        try_files $uri =404;
-        add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
-        access_log off;
-    }
-
-    # block access to any non-image files from images
-    location ~ ^/images/ {
+    location /images/ {
+        location ~ \.(bmp|ico|jpg|jpeg|png|svg|tif|tiff|webp)$ {
+            root /app;
+            try_files $uri =404;
+            add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
+            access_log off;
+        }
+        # block access to any non-image files from images
         return 403;
     }
 
diff --git a/nginx/production b/nginx/production
index 841ed8afa..a5e910b4b 100644
--- a/nginx/production
+++ b/nginx/production
@@ -96,23 +96,22 @@ server {
 #     # directly serve static files from the
 #     # bookwyrm filesystem using sendfile.
 #     # make the logs quieter by not reporting these requests
-#     location ~ ^/static/ {
+#     location /static/ {
 #         root /app;
 #         try_files $uri =404;
 #         add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
 #         access_log off;
 #     }
-
+#
 #     # same with image files not in static folder
-#     location ~ \.(bmp|ico|jpg|jpeg|png|svg|tif|tiff|webp)$ {
-#         root /app;
-#         try_files $uri =404;
-#         add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
-#         access_log off;
-#     }
-
-#     # block access to any non-image files from images
-#     location ~ ^/images/ {
+#     location /images/ {
+#         location ~ \.(bmp|ico|jpg|jpeg|png|svg|tif|tiff|webp)$ {
+#             root /app;
+#             try_files $uri =404;
+#             add_header X-Cache-Status STATIC;
+#             access_log off;
+#         }
+#         # block access to any non-image files from images
 #         return 403;
 #     }
 #
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index d46bc017f..030973885 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ opentelemetry-instrumentation-django==0.37b0
 opentelemetry-instrumentation-psycopg2==0.37b0
 opentelemetry-sdk==1.16.0
 packaging==21.3
-Pillow==10.2.0
+Pillow==10.3.0
 protobuf==3.20.*
 psycopg2==2.9.5
 pycryptodome==3.19.1