this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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What you're describing is one of the root issues with the current system. It's the same reason that if your instance goes down, your account and history go with it. I'd love to see an implementation of some sort of account awareness like you said, which could also make it easier to backup history to another instance in the event that your primary goes down.
A one-click account transfer to a different instance would be great. However, there can be several "gotchas", maybe the target instance has lower "permissions", so that can lead to data loss. Eg: my instance doesn't allow pictures more than 100 kb, some other instance doesn't allow creation of communities. So this needs to be carefully throughout.
Seems the easiest solution to that would be to simply have a comparison view. The permissions are setup using some sort of sta.dardized method, yes? Config file, GUI, whatever. Certainly it wouldn't be hard to simply grab and organize a list of perms from both instances and toss em up side by side. Could even add notes (i.e. if photo storage on Instance A > Instance B notify use "migrating to this instance may cause some larger photos to be removed from your account").
I'm not a professional programmer (sys admin, so mostly just automation) but there are certainly solutions to this.
If the instance is setup as a docker container, then it should be easy. The following should be transferred
At the destination, the docker volume dirs should be unzipped and the new paths should be updated in the docker-compose file. I'm sure someone would have made a script for this by now.
It's the main reason for mastodon feeling so off. Subbing to a community is something I can deal with, but having a network where you need to follow individuals and the way of doing it is cumbersome sucks. All of these places would benefit greatly if there was a solution.