2y ago

Now that smaller instances are disappearing, which instances do you think will stand the test of time?

I had an account on lemmy.one and now the instance has been down for a day or two so I made this new account. I also heard other small instances are dead or disappeared.

So which ones do you think will actually stick around for a long time?

ALSO, does anyone know how to get my subscriptions from lemmy.one and import it here? TIA!

132 comments

Instances with
more than one admin
clear policies and active moderation
engaged user base
regular backups
no porn
...will stand a better chance than most.
- No porn? Why?
  .ca allows porn. You actually have to click "show NSFW" during sign up if you want to see it, so it's not on by default, and it's very easy to turn on/off if you want it.
  I find that the instances that ban porn also ban a lot of other stuff that isn't bad. Feels like I'm in church and everything is being censored.
  
  Surely keeping the csam out means someone on every nsfw instance needs to look at a whooole lotta porn, including sick stuff they really really don't want to see. For no pay. I can't see a way for that to last long so either an instance bans porn or stops moderating and gets defederated.
  
  Depending on your hosting provider TOS you may not be able to host porn without risking your instance.
  
  NSFW and Porn are not the same thing.
- I'm hopeful that the well moderated nsfw instances stick around so no 4chan-esque instances have a chance to replace them and metastasize past mass defederation

Not to sound too pessimistic, but we live in a time where we see Twitter collapsing, despite being one of those "too big to fail" websites. My bet is that none will stand the test of time, the web is ephemeral (and archive.org is an underappreciated wonder of the world). I would rather say that what you really need is a backup routine.
- On one hand, a Sonic hacking forum I've been a part of since before its current forum software has been running the same database since 2003, on the other hand I fully acknowledge that it's the exception and not the rule.
  
  So have other forums. Maybe it’s just these newfangled social media websites that have longevity issues?
  
  Doomworld still going strong since the 90s as well.
- I wish they stayed longer or given notice if they're disappearing.
  
  Yes indeed, giving proper notice seems like minimal etiquette. Then again, life happens. Admin may be caught in some tragedy making maintaining their lemmy instance not exactly a priority, or they may even be dead.
  There is not much you can do to just migrate your account somewhere else, that's a limitation of federation (compared to fully decentralized protocols, like Secure Scuttlebutt), but I'd wish Lemmy would implement ActivityPub's following endpoint, so we can easily build scripts to backup the communities we're in.

I guess instances run by SDF. They've been around since 1987 when they started with BBS. And since 1991 they are running the public access UNIX system. They also have Mastodon servers, Minecraft server and other stuff. These are their Lemmy instances:
lemmy.sdf.org - somewhere in US
lemmy.sdfeu.org - Falkenstein, Vogtland, Germany
lemmy.sdfjp.org - Tokyo, Japan
lemmy.sdfcn.org - Hong Kong
lemmy.sdfin.org - Mumbai, India
- Cool! I'll sign upf or one.
  
  Yeah. Good list.

Don't think this is a strange phenomenon or that it's permanent. I've seen Mastodon (and Pleroma and Misskey etc) instances get born and die regularly. This is because it's easy to set up an instance but it's also easy to fall in an economic problem or just give up.
Not everyone is ready to set up their own instance; it requires dedication and resources.
- The fediverse really needs some kind of universal login and a way to easily migrate accounts between instances.
  
  Not so much migrate as be able to use it from anywhere and have it replicated. Same with communities.
  Give things a unique ID, and access it from anywhere, even if the original server goes away.
  This kind of thing may not be possible with current ActivityPub protocols, but there's always room for improvement.
  
  The universal login is a very old suggestion but it'srealluy hard to pull off because that would have to be build into the core of the protocol. About the migration, that's a Lemmy issue, not a general Fediverse one

Out of the loop, what happened to Lemmy.one?
- Seems to be down, I haven't heard any news but can no longer log in
  
  Website seems to still exist, maybe they’re doing some involved equipment upgrade.

The ones with the most porn
- I wonder how donations for nsfw instances are going
  
  People love to talk about porn. But do they pay for it in a context where it’s expected to be free?

I plan to keep running this instance for a long time. As long as there are weebs here on Lemmy, I will give them a home lol
Btw, I also had a lemmy.one account. It was my first Lemmy account too. Hope they get back up and running.
- how is it on finance side btw? is hosting this instance is bearable or is it burning a hole in your pocket?
  also i noticed that our instance has 100% uptime. great work on that!
  
  Thanks! I'd say things are very manageable financially for now.

I ain't got nothin better to do so might as well run a server forever

how to get my subscriptions from lemmy.one and import it here?
Unfortunately there is no way to do that yet, but I remembered that there is an unofficial tool that let you transfer your subscriptions like you said
Edit: There isand open issue that might talking about it: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/1985
- I'll throw my tool out there as well: https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim
  Unfortunately, you need access to the old server to download the list of communities and blocks - but that's true of all tools that do this.
- https://github.com/wescode/lemmy_migrate
  Just used this the other day, worked like a charm (albeit a bit slow if I’m honest)
  
  I found another tool: https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim, from: https://lemmy.world/comment/857727, p.s. I haven't tried it
  
  How do I install this on Windows? I don't know how to code. 😭
- Seems like this would be a great feature for the myriad of Lemmy mobile apps.. nightly backups of your Lemmy account settings and a button to recreate it on a new instance

ALSO, does anyone know how to get my subscriptions from lemmy.one and import it here? TIA!
The other instance has to be up. If it's permanently down, there's nothing I can do.
Login to https://natoboram.github.io/Leanish/lemmy.one/login
Export your user in https://natoboram.github.io/Leanish/lemmy.one/settings
Login to https://natoboram.github.io/Leanish/lemmy.ca/login
Import your old user in https://natoboram.github.io/Leanish/lemmy.ca/settings
Click on the big button
It will search for the subscribed communities, attempt to retrieve them and attempt to subscribe. Refresh the page between tries. Do not share your exported user; it contains your email.
Leanish is very much alpha and doesn't have all features. There's tons of missing features, many of them listed in the GitHub issues.

Lemmy.world
- .world gang

I have hosted a lot of my own services for a couple of years and plan to continue hosting my instance(endlesstalk.org) indefinitely, unless something very major happens.
As others have mentioned I think multiple admins and backups(hard to verify though) are a good sign, but its only indications and you can't really be sure, if a instance will be there forever. I think there needs to be an easy way to migrate accounts and then the instances going down hopefully gives a notice, so you can move your account.
Gonna be difficult to recover accounts from instance going down without a notice I think. You could regularly take a backup of your account, but that is tedious and you will still lose some data.
- Can you upload your comment history to a new instance? Does that question even make sense? I’m not sure what backing up means, I guess. Just an archive?
  
  There are tools that can backup and migrate communities, blocks and settings like lasim for a user. So you can migrate between instances.
  As far as I know, there aren't any tools that can migrate comment history and I think anything that could do that, would need to be backed into lemmy itself(Which it isn't currently).

I'm running my own instance, JUST so I can be in control of my own Lemmy experience (and in control of my own archive of my Lemmy activity). I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.
Yes, my instance was down for three days last week. I had trouble with an update and didn't have time to troubleshoot it. But I wanted my Lemmy so I DID get around to it and got it working again. And yeah... I never did get email working properly so when my ONE friend who's not me joined my instance I had to command line into the database and approve him manually. But so what?
And yeah, eventually the internet ecosystem may shift again, or I might get hit by a bus or who knows?
But if you WANT to join a tiny instance that's 99.999% (bus factor) not going anywhere for a while, I'd probably let you join mine.
- How many GB is your filesystem/database as a single-user instance?
  
  Not the person you ask, but as I'm in the same boat (finally got everything running except email lol), I use a scrap dell PC with a 8gen hexacore, 512GB SSD, 4TB HD & 8GB RAM on a 1Gb/~700Mb line 🤷 I'm aiming at an artsy/comics drawings server (hence some initial space) and I think I'll open it up for inscriptions when I have figured out the OVH mail config...
  But it's a big step, today if it crams it's just impacting me.
  Cheers!
  
  8.5 gigs currently.

I think instances like lemmy.ca or lemmy.nz will be around for years
- Same with aussie.zone and other country spesifc instances
  
  Also aussie.zone, checking in

I’d like to say lemmy.world, but a lot of communities you’d think would be quite active are actually not so.
- That's the thing about the fediverse, you need to be the change you want to see. Post a lot and contribute.
  I will try and post something new every day to help keep new content flowing in. Can't expect everyone else to just keep us entertained. :)
  
  You're right, it at the same time a small number of people trying to post regularly, regardless of whether they've got something that really needs posting, doesn't tend to provide high-quality content - and I fear that's what we're seeing a lot on Lemmy right now.
- Gotta give it time. Lemmy in general only took off like 6 weeks ago
- Yeah I think this one will last forever. Everyone is on it and they have lots of supporters.

As long as lemmy remains popular there will be new servers/instances popping up. I found my start on lemmy quite rocky with servers vanishing sometimes with notice and then others just vanishing without notice, Anyway I quickly adapted and began to keep a list of communities I like to frequent while this list is still small I'm sure by the time it starts to become an issue there will be tools that make it a non issue.
I've started becoming more nomad in my use of lemmy compared to somewhere like reddit where I had just one account for eight years I just open a new account with the knowledge that it's not permanent it doesn't belong to me and there will be a time when I need to move on.

I'm pretty happy with kbin.social. It's a nice place, with several devs actively looking at making the experience better, it just takes a while being an open source project and all
- No proper mobile support kills it for me
  
  There's a mobile app in the works, Artemis. Things will be a bit better when the site gets official API support and more services can connect to it

Mine will, planning to support for quite some time. So if you're looking for a new one, join lemmings.world!
- Nice!

I feel like most of the "country" oriented instances will last (and grow) as it is a more purposeful reason to exist, and this extends to instances with very clear themes as it also gives users more of a reason for people to join them.
- I joined lemmy.ca but I'm not Canadian. There is no country instance for me. 😢
  
  The law states that if you join .ca, you're legally Canadian. Congrats on your new citizenship!
  What country do..I mean did you belong to before you became Canadian?

now I feel an obligation to keep my instance alive as long as I physically can
- That's nice!

Well, like many others here I self host a ton of services other than just Lemmy for a few years now, and my Lemmy instance isn't taking a significant portion of resources that would be needed elsewhere so I have no intention on my instance going down.
My instance isn't large enough to require multiple admins at the time, but I do have multiple friends in the IT space who I trust and could bring onboard should that change.

hopefully the one I'm on, lemm.ee
- Also joined lemm.ee after lemmy.one went missing. Wish I’d made backups of the communities I was following but it’s going well so far.
  
  Yeah really wish they had profile exports in Lemmy. But I also wish they let you create custom lists, like Reddit with the custom subreddit lists. I used that extensively.
- I like it because it sounds cute. It also helps that the Estonia top level domain isn't as volatile as that of Mali's.
- Same! It's the best performing one I've tried.

I plan to bounce around anyway. The fediverse is great.
- Yeah but it's hard because my subscriptions are gone.
  
  I regularly backup my subscriptions using the migration tools

Smaller ones? Lemmy.world did not let me log in today

This is one reason that I think many people should consider running their own single-user instance or tiny instances for close friends/family.
One of the problems with centralization is literally the fact that this can happen. The more small servers the fedi is comprised of, the stronger it is. There are also a huge number of benefits to this configuration on an individual level as well.
EDIT: Re: importing/exporting your old account is, unfortunately, a thing that cannot be done currently. I'm happy to be corrected on that, though.
- https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim allows to import subscriptions/blocked
- I don't know how to code so I don't know how to run my own instance. 💀
  
  If it's ever something you want to try, it's one of the easier servers to self host and there's a lot of helpful resources out there. There really isn't any coding involved outside of editing a few configuration files unless you want there to be.

Mine's gonna stick around for as long as I use fedi

Looks like they’re having database migration errors and possibly didn’t let them complete. They may have gotten scared after the upgrade and then downgraded. If they upgrade to the new version and just wait, they should be fine.
When I first launched mine, I had a couple issues and have learned quite a bit going through it. I say pay attention to who’s running whatever ones you’re looking at and you’ll have a pretty good idea on the longevity.

Hopefully Lemmy.ca (one which we're both using). They're trying to become a not for profit company, plus theyre super transparent on server costs and how much money they have at the moment.

kbin.social is well funded and will probably be around for many years to come
- where does it say well funded? the most salient thing I can see is
  I have started each stage, but none is polished enough for me to honestly apply for a payout. I'll need to address this promptly.

It’s true that several instances (the ones hosted in Mali?) closed, but I think you’re premature in saying the smaller instances are disappearing, Lemmy.one included.
Sure, they’re bound to crash or go down for maintenance from time to time, but that doesn’t mean they’re finished. So far my experience has been that if you give it a couple days they’ll be back. Keep in mind these are shoestring operations and sometimes seeing major influxes of users.
- I don't know. My friend was in another instance and he said it's gone now and went back to Reddit.

My interests line up pretty well with my admin. I think that the instance should be pretty reliable as long as I want to keep using Lemmy.

I kinda hope transferring data between two accounts on two different instances is easy. I don't really want a fresh start for the 13th time (this happened years ago outside of the fediverse, mostly thanks to forgetting my password).

No one really knows but I'd imagine the bigger ones the you see now like world ml kbin and others would stick around.

I think mine will last for quite a while. Lemmy hogs so little resources, so long as I have my VPS it'll be up and running. Object storage is a potential in the future, but I am hopeful lemmy optimizes its image databasing as well. I am hopeful as lemmy grows my instance will grow as well as I feel there is a demand for a book/writing focused instance, but we will see. I'm gonna be here regardless.

Lenny.ca, hopefully. 🤞
I don’t want to figure everything out again.
- Me too. 🥹

LONG LIVE LEMMY.INBUTTS.LOL!
- 💀

132 comments