Fritz AdalisJul 14
sponge (Mike Rubits)

if mastodon is about user freedom, then why am i trapped?

i've been running a server on my domain since 2018, and i'm tired of keeping up with the updates. i'd love to try a simpler piece of server software to make maintenance easier, so i took a look at gotosocial, and at the top of their guide is this:

"It's not supported across the Fediverse to switch between implementations on the same domain"

...excuse me? so now this domain is permanently tainted?

so what are my options?

- transfer my account to some other site. be part of all the drama and defederating and dealing with mastodon HOAs. lose my fun domain account domain name. don't bring along any of my data/pictures/posts, which frankly is the thing i care about more than my followers/following. i can download my data but who gives a shit i can do that on twitter.

- keep running tootsuite until the end of time, and having to computer janitor it to not get my shit hacked. i don't even want to host a web ui, i only use external clients, so i'm spending god knows how much resources on my vps just to run this stack i'm not using.

- buy/use a different domain, setup a new server there, hope i picked a good one that i won't regret using! transfer my following/followers, and lose all my post history

- delete everything and stop using this piece of shit thing.

the people who came up with this design are fucking stupid. not only is my data trapped inside tootsuite in any meaningful way, but my domain is also now permanently locked to this install.

May 23 at 1:42amWeb
Show threadKateYagiJul 14
@sponge what I've seen some sites do is a subdomain, like mk.example.site for misskey, pl.example.site for pleroma, etc... also it could be the word "across" means just not universally supported yet.
Show threadPeter StolmeierJul 14
@sponge Are you sure it's linked to domains? Like, what if you moved to dot social, nuked your server, installed the new thing, the moved back?
Show threadA Part of BeeJul 14

@sponge from what I can tell transferring the posts in and out of different bits of server software isn't very portable, I've heard rumours of a few people doing it in hacky ways but yeah. the standard is the user/server protocol not the storage stuff.

If the main issue is finding the updates a PITA you could contact a few mastodon hosting providers and see if any of them offer importing content then you could pay them to janitor the updates as it were?

Show threadNatasha Nox 🇺🇦🇵🇸Jul 14

@morix @sponge It's indeed a shortcoming of the ActivityPub protocol, nothing the services can do anything about. The only way to "move" your posts would be to recreate them all, which is the equivalent of a DDoS for other instances. The W3C didn't think this far ahead when first creating this spec. 😐

People do work on a newer protocol revision that eventually supports it though! However that will take years to come…

Show threadA Part of BeeJul 14

@Natanox @sponge I've seen a couple of people who bodged in methods of recreating but not propagating old posts from memory but its been years since I've heard of it talked about.

So its theoretically possible I guess, just kinda scary being as you'd also bust all the old URL references and several other things.

Show threadNatasha Nox 🇺🇦🇵🇸Jul 14

@morix @sponge That'd bust both the old URLs as well as make all those posts inivisible on any instance but yours. 🫤

It really is an issue that requires fixing, unfortunately doing so properly takes time. Even more so since AP 2.0 (or "AP Extended" aa some apparently called the efforts) has to stay backwards-compatible, a monumental task.

Show threadFritz AdalisJul 14

@sponge @mavica_again
I found a discussion about it at https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/switching-ap-server-software-on-the-same-domain/4508. It looks like Masto (Activitypub?) uses the uri as an identifier. Replacing the software will make all those objects invalid, so trying to tell others that you've moved would be challenging.

As someone mentioned, using say sponge@really.goodass.dog for a new instance would work, you'd just want to leave the old instance up until most of your followers have moved over. And the post history, unless there's a way to migrate.

Switching AP server software on the same domain

Hi all, I’m considering setting up my own single-user (or possibly family and friends) instance of a lightweight AP server such as GotoSocial or Mitra (other recommendations welcome). However, I’d like to be able to switch server software in the future if I find something I like better. I’ve read (in the GtS docs) that this can cause major federation problems. I wonder if it would be possible to switch if my server is hosted on a subdomain (social.example.com, etc), even if the handles use t...

SocialHub
Show threadBitslingers-R-UsJul 14
@sponge I'm planning to move from Akkoma to #snac. I don't know what that will entail, and it might be a PITA because I'll likely use "snac.zia.io" for a while, but once I've gotten it working, I'll likely just make it "zia.io" and to hell with the consequences.

I feel the same about the software - the ecosystems are so fragile and so easy to break. I want something simple and consistent.
Show threadNick Silkey🎙️N5ILK 🪓🪵 🪣💧Jul 14
@sponge can you not register notyourawesomedomain.com so as to migrate to free the domain? install other software then convert? 👀