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> Is Mastodon really decentralized? Yes. There is no central Mastodon server. Anyone can run a host and federate with other hosts at will. > If you use YourNa

> Is Mastodon really decentralized? Yes. There is no central Mastodon server. Anyone can run a host and federate with other hosts at will. > If you use YourName@SomeMastodonSite and SomeMastodonSite deplatforms you - how do you keep your posts, likes, comments and contacts? The Mastodon interface makes it easy to export/import your information so that you can copy it over to a new host - if you worry you might get deplatformed and get cut off without warning, you can do a periodic local backup to be safe: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ The export includes your posts, but that document does say "Mastodon currently does not support importing toots or media due to technical limitations, but your archive can be viewed by any software that understands how to parse ActivityPub documents." I'd be curious what those technical limitations are. Presumably you could write a script to re-post the archived posts since it's just stored in ActivityPub JSON. Edit to add: The most sure-fire way to avoid deplatforming is to run or pay for your own host. Other hosts may decide not to federate with you, but you'll at least be guaranteed a platform for those who do decide to engage with it.

ArtTimeInvestor 5y ago
Export/import does not let you "keep" posts, comments, likes and contacts. Everybody can copy everything. When SomeMastodonSite no longer states that you posted something at a certain date, user2 liked it on a certain date and user3 commented on it on a certain date, all that info is lost. Just copying it does not help. Everyone could copy anything and claim it is "real". You also lose your identity when you get deplatformed from SomeMastodonSite. That is the benefit of decentralized solutions. Your identity and history can not be deleted or changed by a single actor.
- indigochill 5y ago
  A fair point regarding exporting/importing, though again, self-hosting is the real answer if you're concerned about deplatforming in that context. > That is the benefit of decentralized solutions. Your identity and history can not be deleted or changed by a single actor. Yes, in consensus systems, but how much this is a benefit is an open question. Perhaps you find yourself in a situation where you actually do want to modify/delete your identity and/or history (cleaning up a drunk post, for instance?) and now it's technically impossible. In this case, having it stored somewhere mutable by a trusted host gives you the ability to make that change. On the other hand, maybe (the rhetorical) you are okay with these being immutable because it's more honest about what really happened and doesn't let people artificially clean up after themselves. I think an argument could be made for both approaches depending on what someone wants from their decentralized Twitter clone.
  - ArtTimeInvestor 5y ago
    Is self-hosting really a solution? On a self-hosted instance, how do you prove to people that you are displaying the truth? That you really wrote that great prediction last year and not yesterday? That some popular person liked your post? That your post got 10000 likes and not just 3? That it really was Paul Graham who commented on it? And if you lose your domain, you lose your identity. There are horror stories out there, where businesses are destroyed because incompetent registrars gave the domain away. Again, you would need a decentralized solution like ENS to prevent that. There are decentralized solutions which allow the author of a piece of data to update or delete it. It is just a matter of incentives. When the protocol has a way for the author to update or delete content, that just means storing the old version of the content is not incentivised anymore.
    - mariusor 5y ago
      > On a self-hosted instance, how do you prove to people [...] Generally the ActivityPub protocol disseminates a user's actions to a number of other users. On Mastodon specifically all users mentioned in a post will receive copies. Activities generated by users on other servers can be double checked against their own servers for validity, I think there's very few things that you can game when you're running your own instance without people being able to verify based on what these other instances have received.

ArtTimeInvestor 5y ago

Export/import does not let you "keep" posts, comments, likes and contacts. Everybody can copy everything. When SomeMastodonSite no longer states that you posted something at a certain date, user2 liked it on a certain date and user3 commented on it on a certain date, all that info is lost. Just copying it does not help. Everyone could copy anything and claim it is "real". You also lose your identity when you get deplatformed from SomeMastodonSite. That is the benefit of decentralized solutions. Your identity and history can not be deleted or changed by a single actor.

indigochill 5y ago
A fair point regarding exporting/importing, though again, self-hosting is the real answer if you're concerned about deplatforming in that context. > That is the benefit of decentralized solutions. Your identity and history can not be deleted or changed by a single actor. Yes, in consensus systems, but how much this is a benefit is an open question. Perhaps you find yourself in a situation where you actually do want to modify/delete your identity and/or history (cleaning up a drunk post, for instance?) and now it's technically impossible. In this case, having it stored somewhere mutable by a trusted host gives you the ability to make that change. On the other hand, maybe (the rhetorical) you are okay with these being immutable because it's more honest about what really happened and doesn't let people artificially clean up after themselves. I think an argument could be made for both approaches depending on what someone wants from their decentralized Twitter clone.
- ArtTimeInvestor 5y ago
  Is self-hosting really a solution? On a self-hosted instance, how do you prove to people that you are displaying the truth? That you really wrote that great prediction last year and not yesterday? That some popular person liked your post? That your post got 10000 likes and not just 3? That it really was Paul Graham who commented on it? And if you lose your domain, you lose your identity. There are horror stories out there, where businesses are destroyed because incompetent registrars gave the domain away. Again, you would need a decentralized solution like ENS to prevent that. There are decentralized solutions which allow the author of a piece of data to update or delete it. It is just a matter of incentives. When the protocol has a way for the author to update or delete content, that just means storing the old version of the content is not incentivised anymore.
  - mariusor 5y ago
    > On a self-hosted instance, how do you prove to people [...] Generally the ActivityPub protocol disseminates a user's actions to a number of other users. On Mastodon specifically all users mentioned in a post will receive copies. Activities generated by users on other servers can be double checked against their own servers for validity, I think there's very few things that you can game when you're running your own instance without people being able to verify based on what these other instances have received.