• @[email protected]
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    216 days ago

    Moved over to zip no problem, but I can’t find a way to export my comments/posts. I know I can access my profile via zip but will that be cached and available after the servers are shut down?

    • @[email protected]
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      116 days ago

      No, Lemmy has a memory hole problem right now. All the content you created is only on the servers online and federated at the time you created it. Once those servers go offline, for any reason, that content is gone

      • @[email protected]
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        916 days ago

        As far as I understood, the already posted/federated content is stored by each instance in its database. The pictures/media might be gone but the text should be copied around depends on (de)federation policies

        • @[email protected]
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          316 days ago

          Yes that’s correct, new instances don’t backfill old content. Only the servers online and federated at the time of posting will have the content.

          If you migrate to a new instance that wasn’t online or federated earlier it won’t have your old content

      • @[email protected]
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        616 days ago

        Not quite right there. The comments exist on all the other federated servers as they’re sent out as part of the ActivityPub protocol. The problem is there will no longer be an easy way to aggregate them. Posts may disappear. But comments won’t.

        • @[email protected]
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          116 days ago

          There is no backfill mechanism. Only the servers online and federated at the time of posting will have the content. New servers will not. If you move to a new server it won’t have your old content

      • @[email protected]
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        416 days ago

        Incorrect, that content is mirrored to any of the instances that federated with Lemm.ee and will continue to be accessible; although if you interact with any of it after Lemm.ee is gone, that interaction (vote, comment) will only be visible on the instance on which you did it.

        • @[email protected]
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          116 days ago

          If instances A B C are online and federated when you post, then A B C have copies of the data

          Let’s say A shuts down and you move to a new instance D

          Only B and C have your old content. D has none of your data. There is no backfill mechanism

          If in the future B and C go offline (eventually they will) then the data is gone. Maybe in a archive.org snapshot.

          Even in the future if D E F G still are going strong and Lemmy is thriving all the content that only A B C saw is gone. It’s a bitrot problem

      • @[email protected]
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        416 days ago

        I’ve considered setting up a static read-only copy of lemm.ee, but without being able to host this on the original domain i don’t think it’ll be of much use. i already reached out to @[email protected] to see if he would be interested in something like this, doesn’t seem like anything was planned from his end so far.

        • Venia Silente
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          216 days ago

          If that means making sure old content is still reachable in an “authoritative” way (eg.: being able to retain some sort of permaURL), I’m all for it and would wish you all the best luck.

          • @[email protected]
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            316 days ago

            My idea was to serve it in a way that would allow ActivityPub clients to resolve content still, while having a light static render for other clients for local content.

            For content on other instances it would probably require some kind of lightweight redirection service towards the original item to be set up to prevent breaking those URLs.

            This could probably be built just from scraping, without requiring database access.

    • Calavera
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      416 days ago

      What do you mean by “export my comments/posts”? You can’t migrate your posts from one account to the other if that’s the question.

      Your account on zip will be a new one just with imported settings and communities you follow

      • @[email protected]
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        116 days ago

        I’d like a list of links to them so I can at least go view them on instances they’ve federated to at some time.

        • Calavera
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          116 days ago

          Ah ok, but each instance will have its own link so you would at least have to chose which instance you would get the links