• CliveRosfield@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So who actually owns the server this instance runs on? Doesn’t it just mean they do whatever they want? So confused

    • jawknee530@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There are a ton of Lemmy instances that all communicate with each other and each instance is ran on hardware by different owners. So if one instance goes to shit your account will still work on all the other ones.

      • s38b35M5@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So if one instance goes to shit your account will still work on all the other ones.

        My understanding is that (at present anyway) since accounts are not federated, your account on that “gone to shit” instance will be gone. Your content will still be on many federated instances, but not your account. That would be lost.

        • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, one thing Lemmy needs to solve is account migration. Instead of creating a new account on a new instance you move your existing account from one instance to another. It won’t save the account if the instance is already removed, but it at least gives an option to move if you feel like there’s a better instance for you.

      • CliveRosfield@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ah… dope. So it’s currently just running through donations I presume. Another dumb question: If an instance owner goes rogue and just nukes it are your posts gone too or is it archived somewhere?

        • PhileosopherB
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          1 year ago

          Technically, anything can be scraped (e.g. Internet Archive), but that doesn’t mean it’s interactive.

          I’d say the volatility of computer data means someone could theoretically nuke it whenever they want, though there may be remnants on other instances.

          I’m curious enough to enforce Cunningham’s Law: It’s not on blockchain, so it’s deleted if the instance is deleted.

      • GalacticRobot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So if a Lemmy instance goes down, all of the communities and comments go down with it? Seems almost worst than having a CEO?

        • CliveRosfield@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Seems like the saving grace is anyone can either start or move to a different lemmy instance whenever. It’s not like someone can just host their own copy of Reddit if spez ever went nuclear.