Dr. Casey FieslerNov 5, 2022

I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly: If you switch Mastodon instances, it's easy to transfer your network/follows over (I did this), but NOT your content. Is this right? If you change instances you can't move your toots to the new one?

This makes the "don't be held hostage by a platform!" benefit less compelling doesn't it? Like what if someone just doesn't pay the bill for your instance? All your content's gone?

Am I missing something?

Show threadJo / Jojo Nov 5, 2022
@cfiesler That's correct, it does not move your toots, and it did move my followers but not my followees (though it did let me download those as a CSV and re-upload to the new location). To be honest, I didn't feel a 'hostage', I don't need to always keep everything forever. We cannot hang on to IRL conversations either. What I want to keep, I can back up
Show threadNickNov 5, 2022
@jojowiththeflow @cfiesler This could lead to a lot of broken or half-deleted conversations in the future if there's a large exodus of users from a big Mastodon server. I guess the question is how transient the content is expected to be.
Show threadJo / Jojo 
@nanovad @cfiesler True, but that's no different to the half convos on Twitter with people deleting their accounts/content or folks like me who from time to time delete their past tweets (including our halves of conversations)
Nov 5, 2022 at 3:43pmWeb