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I had a mastodon.social account but deleted it after the admin power tripped and started to ban instances he didn't like.

by sandov 7y ago

andypants 7y ago
The great thing about the fediverse is if you still want to use mastodon, you can find a better instance that suits your needs, or run your own instance.
- olah_1 7y ago
  > you can find a better instance that suits your needs, or run your own instance I understand that this is the concept, but in practice, it's a laughable recommendation. Accounts aren't portable and running your own instance is an insurmountable task for most and the cost of it is not nearly worth it.
  - tsukurimashou 7y ago
    you can export all of your account data, and you can host mastrodon on a raspberry pie, what are you talking about
    - detaro 7y ago
      But you can't yet import that data in your new instance and have it seamlessly continue to work from there, because your identifier obviously changed.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - tangent128 7y ago
        Moving accounts is supported; your old account posts a machine-readable "moved to x@y" message, which tells your followers to automatically switch to the new location. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/
        detaro 7y ago
        Oh cool, missed that being added. That covers a good chunk of the issue.
    - olah_1 7y ago
      > you can export all of your account data And then what? Write a script that systematically re-posts it all on your new account? > and you can host mastrodon on a raspberry pie, what are you talking about The amount of time and dedication required to do such a thing is not just outside of the ability of most people, but it is also not worth the effort for such a trivial thing as tweets.
  - otachack 7y ago
    So let's make it portable? There should be an easy way to transfer your account/content to another verse without losing data. Then keeping a mapping from the old@firstverse -> new@secondverse and verses only allowing a limited amount of immigration transfers per some period to prevent abuse.
  - lokedhs 7y ago
    There is an account migration feature. If you create a new account on a different instance, you can migrate the old account to the new one. This basically sends messages to your followers instructing them to follow your new account instead. This is all transparent to both you and your followers.
    - olah_1 7y ago
      That is not the same as moving your old account to a new instance. If your old server actually dies, your old account data is just gone. And if it dies before you get a chance to migrate, then you're really out of luck. I just don't understand why people feel such a strong desire to cling to the federated servers model when these problems are solved in decentralized protocols already...
      - progval 7y ago
        > when these problems are solved in decentralized protocols already... which ones are you thinking of?
        olah_1 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22341801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22341801
        thulecitizen 7y ago
        http://developer.holochain.org http://developer.holochain.org http://dat.foundation http://dat.foundation http://scuttlebutt.nz http://scuttlebutt.nz
      - lokedhs 7y ago
        The original question to which I replied were not talking about the case where the server goes offline. If Facebook were to go offline, you'll have the same problem, only worse. As for your final remark, I really can't see a good way to handle such a situation at all. And I've never heard about any protocol that can handle it. What protocol are you talking about?
AsyncAwait 7y ago
It's not really a 'power trip' is it? It's his instance and he can do whatever he wants. Aren't most of the folks claiming censorship also claiming to be for 'individual freedom'? Also, not that hard to spin your own instance.

I had a mastodon.social account but deleted it after the admin power tripped and started to ban instances he didn't like.

by sandov 7y ago

I had a mastodon.social account but deleted it after the admin power tripped and started to ban instances he didn't like.

andypants 7y ago

The great thing about the fediverse is if you still want to use mastodon, you can find a better instance that suits your needs, or run your own instance.

olah_1 7y ago
> you can find a better instance that suits your needs, or run your own instance I understand that this is the concept, but in practice, it's a laughable recommendation. Accounts aren't portable and running your own instance is an insurmountable task for most and the cost of it is not nearly worth it.
- tsukurimashou 7y ago
  you can export all of your account data, and you can host mastrodon on a raspberry pie, what are you talking about
  - detaro 7y ago
    But you can't yet import that data in your new instance and have it seamlessly continue to work from there, because your identifier obviously changed.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - tangent128 7y ago
      Moving accounts is supported; your old account posts a machine-readable "moved to x@y" message, which tells your followers to automatically switch to the new location. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/
      - detaro 7y ago
        Oh cool, missed that being added. That covers a good chunk of the issue.
  - olah_1 7y ago
    > you can export all of your account data And then what? Write a script that systematically re-posts it all on your new account? > and you can host mastrodon on a raspberry pie, what are you talking about The amount of time and dedication required to do such a thing is not just outside of the ability of most people, but it is also not worth the effort for such a trivial thing as tweets.
- otachack 7y ago
  So let's make it portable? There should be an easy way to transfer your account/content to another verse without losing data. Then keeping a mapping from the old@firstverse -> new@secondverse and verses only allowing a limited amount of immigration transfers per some period to prevent abuse.
- lokedhs 7y ago
  There is an account migration feature. If you create a new account on a different instance, you can migrate the old account to the new one. This basically sends messages to your followers instructing them to follow your new account instead. This is all transparent to both you and your followers.
  - olah_1 7y ago
    That is not the same as moving your old account to a new instance. If your old server actually dies, your old account data is just gone. And if it dies before you get a chance to migrate, then you're really out of luck. I just don't understand why people feel such a strong desire to cling to the federated servers model when these problems are solved in decentralized protocols already...
    - progval 7y ago
      > when these problems are solved in decentralized protocols already... which ones are you thinking of?
      - olah_1 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22341801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22341801
      - thulecitizen 7y ago
        http://developer.holochain.org http://developer.holochain.org http://dat.foundation http://dat.foundation http://scuttlebutt.nz http://scuttlebutt.nz
    - lokedhs 7y ago
      The original question to which I replied were not talking about the case where the server goes offline. If Facebook were to go offline, you'll have the same problem, only worse. As for your final remark, I really can't see a good way to handle such a situation at all. And I've never heard about any protocol that can handle it. What protocol are you talking about?

AsyncAwait 7y ago

It's not really a 'power trip' is it? It's his instance and he can do whatever he wants. Aren't most of the folks claiming censorship also claiming to be for 'individual freedom'? Also, not that hard to spin your own instance.