Enough toots have been added to this account to make for a reasonably sized archive file that could be documented (in the new account).

With only 8 toots that might be candidates for moving then boosting or resending these toots from the new account would be feasible.

Three followers is enough to test the migration of the followers process.

This account is ready for testing of the move process.

#mstdnSocialTopics20230518 2

Does the #MoveAccount process just move followers to the new account and then add a redirect notice at the old account?

If so then after a move
- the old account should have zero followers
- the followers should eventually be added to the new account
- it should be possible to reactivate the old account (remove the redirect).

If not then if should not be possible to reactivate the old account (aka remove the redirect).

#mstdnSocialTopics20230518 3

If the #MoveAccount process essentially just moves followers from the old account to the new account then when the process has completed the user could end up with two functional accounts.

Since most people do not need the extra hassle of managing two accounts it is probably better to leave the redirect in place on the old account.

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#MoveAccount

The following web page covers the move process fairly well.
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/

The following web page adds more details.
https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/

The new account must first add an alias to the old one.
https://github.com/mastodon/documentation/blob/master/static/assets/account-aliases.jpg

#mstdnSocialTopics20230518 5

#MoveAccount Implications:
All followers are moved from the old to the new account.
No other data is moved automatically (especially the toots).
All toots remain accessible at old account.
The old account is excluded from searches and displays a redirect notice.
A moved account cannot be moved again for another 30 days.
The old account is not fully usable afterwards but access to data export and re-activation is available.

https://github.com/mastodon/documentation/blob/master/static/assets/account-move.jpg

#mstdnSocialTopics20230518 7
#MoveAccount

During the autumn of 2022 many people left Birdsite over concerns of how toxic the service had become. Some of those people learned a difficult lesson about losing their followers and messages built up over many years.

Before joining any new social media service people would we well advised to make plans for how they can backup and restore their data in case they have to leave the service.

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#MoveAccount
It is worth spending some time planning for a move.

Recommendation: select a new server, setup an account and send some toots from that server before actually moving the old account to that server.
If the old server is not being shutdown or defederated then the user has more time to properly plan a move.

Some ideas for selecting a new server and more details about moving an account will be added to the new account.

This account is being used to generate screen shots for a move account process.
The account is being locked to make the screen shots more consistent.

This account will be moved to
https://mstdn.social/@topics
after a sufficient number of screen shots have been generated.

The documentation will be composed of a set of Toots (aka #TootCast) and the collection will be released (somewhere using CC-BY-SA).

Please direct any questions/comments to @edfoss
https://mstdn.social/@edfoss