Lemmynsfw is my reference point for what happens when an instance goes down.
Users who created accounts on the new fedinsfw.app instance either started over from scratch or exported their user data from lemmynsfw.
As for our communities and posts… best case scenario, you can request the instance admin to migrate them for you, but at the community admin and user levels? The tools just don’t exist yet.
Theoretically.
I’ve migrated a couple of accounts. But only my follows came with me, not my old posts.
Does the fediverse have a robust, user-centric “backup on site A, restore on site B” flow?
Something I still don’t understand about the fediverse: how does it handle backups?
UserA@SquidgeY posts Spiderman x Whatever fan-fiction, and it’s accessible to UserB@SquidgeZ.
But if SquidgeY goes down, does the entire Squidgieverse just lose access to UserA’s story?
If so, I don’t know that I’d want a federated AO3.
I’ve seen dozens of instances come and go over the years, and it sucks to imagine your favorite new story disappearing because the UserA picked the wrong instance and admin Colin393 decided not renew after The Drama happened with CorkyTheMostVampire.
One paragraph in and the DiGiorno pattern (it’s not x, it’s y) is an immediate red flag.
I’m not saying humans don’t do this, but it’s overwhelmingly an AI thing now.