FediTips has moved!

If you're currently on a massive server like mastodon.social, you might want to consider moving your account to a smaller server.

You can keep your followers when you change servers, here's how to do it: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107939441820299376

You can find reliable servers at https://joinmastodon.org/communities (all the servers listed there agree to the covenant at https://joinmastodon.org/covenant). Try to pick one with fewer people.

There are lots of good things about smaller servers:

-Better moderation, because there are more staff per member.

-Smaller servers tend to have more personality, with a village feel.

-The local timeline on smaller servers is much more readable.

-Smaller servers protect the Fediverse as a whole from being taken over, because lots of smaller servers are harder to buy than a few big servers.

-It's easier to make a difference on smaller servers. It's easier to discuss things with the admin and other members.

#FediTips #MastoTips #Fediverse #Mastodon

Fedi.Tips (@[email protected])

UPDATE: If you want to transfer your account to another server, here's how to do it: ➡️ https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server This guide is a bit longer than other guides as it includes moving your followers, follows and blocks/mutes/bookmarks. (By the way, sorry for people seeing notification of this post edit. I had to edit as the original contents were somewhat out of date. As this post now links to my website instead, you won't get any future update notices for this post.)

Mastodon 🐘
May 14, 2022 at 4:07pmWeb
Show threadPaweł ŚwiątkowskiMay 14, 2022
@feditips whoa, cool that it's now possible to fully migrate the account. Does it only work between Mastodon instances or others (like Pleroma) too?
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 14, 2022

@katafrakt

At the moment it's only Mastodon -> Mastodon, as far as I know.

But Mastodon is an open platform, so I guess in theory other Fedi platform developers could add support? It may be more complicated to do that though (I am not a developer! 😁 ).

Show threadCharlineMay 14, 2022
@feditips Bad for people if they posted a lot, because Toots are the only thing you can't transfer to the new account. 😆
Show threadJulian Andres Klode 🏳️‍🌈May 15, 2022
@feditips It also causes a lot more issue due to federation being not exactly optimal when viewing historical posts from other instances - larger instances are usually better connected, and hence have more history for accounts on other servers.
Show threadPaul Wilde  :dontpanic_nobg:May 15, 2022
@feditips Worth saying you can only keep your followers if you move to another *Mastodon* server...
Pleroma, Misskey, etc. Which are all equally part of the fediverse do not have this feature (to the best of my knowledge)

That's OK though, I've found a nicely worded message from your old account makes people follow your new one so it's all good!
Show threadJPMay 15, 2022
@feditips everyone reading this should know that account migration isn't fully working until post migration is implemented - all your posts will go away when you migrate to a new instance. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423
Support Post Migration · Issue #12423 · mastodon/mastodon

#177 – Support Account Migration – was closed after implementing follower migration, but this is only one small part of a true migration. To really be able to change instances, you need to be able ...

GitHub
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 15, 2022

@jplebreton

Your posts don't move to the new server (yet), but I think as long as you don't delete your old account the posts stay on the old server, and clicking on the username redirects to your new account.

Show threadJPMay 15, 2022
@feditips Sure, but that doesn't help in cases where the old instance shut down entirely, which happens a fair amount given that running instances takes time and money and energy that people sometimes run out of. I'm glad the migration features that do exist are there, but there is not enough user awareness of the features that don't exist yet and will be difficult to implement.
Show threadOnTheFenceDevMay 16, 2022
@feditips It does make sense but even as a new user I'm not keen on losing the few Toots I've already posted.
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 16, 2022

@onthefencedev

As long as you don't delete your old account, the toots will remain where they are.

Clicking on those toots' old profile link will redirect people to your new account.

Show threadOnTheFenceDevMay 17, 2022
@feditips I think the only thing really stopping me and the reason I opted for this server was that I thought it would be less likely for it to shut down. What would happen if I signed up to another, smaller, server and it went away - is this the payoff for federation?
Show threadLPSMay 17, 2022
@onthefencedev @feditips the best case is to self-host or use a hosted option. This way your history until now is safe on this large instance, but your existing followers/connections will be pointed to the new server. Now your instance will never go away as long as you keep paying for it;)
Show threadOnTheFenceDevMay 17, 2022
@lps @feditips I've self hosted a lot of things in the past but am getting too old for all that these days - I just want an easy life. A hosted option is interesting and something I'll need to look into.
Show threadLPSMay 17, 2022
@onthefencedev @feditips it's not a bad strategy to build up a good amount of people to follow before you move however. Otherwise it'll be lonely with no one on your local timeline obviously. I'd argue that it's much cleaner though since you've curated what you will see and you existing links will be seeds for future follows.
Show threadJarredJun 8, 2022

Thanks @feditips, your quick guide helped me migrate to a smaller and more local instance!

The only issue was I was only able to migrate my follower/following lists, and my bookmarks. My posts and settings weren't able to be transferred.
Aside from the individual csv lists, I exported my whole account (in tar.gz format), but there doesn't appear to be any way to import it into the new instance.