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If you're currently on a massive server like mastodon.social, you might want to consider moving your account to a smaller server.

You can keep your followers when you change servers, here's how to do it: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107939441820299376

You can find reliable servers at https://joinmastodon.org/communities (all the servers listed there agree to the covenant at https://joinmastodon.org/covenant). Try to pick one with fewer people.

There are lots of good things about smaller servers:

-Better moderation, because there are more staff per member.

-Smaller servers tend to have more personality, with a village feel.

-The local timeline on smaller servers is much more readable.

-Smaller servers protect the Fediverse as a whole from being taken over, because lots of smaller servers are harder to buy than a few big servers.

-It's easier to make a difference on smaller servers. It's easier to discuss things with the admin and other members.

# # # #

FediTips (@feditips@mstdn.social)

If you want, you can move your Mastodon account from one instance (server) to another. Moving lets you take your followers, follows and some settings with you. 1.
Mastodon 🐘
#Mastodon #feditips #mastotips #fediverse

4 people reshared this

Paweł Świątkowski
whoa, cool that it's now possible to fully migrate the account. Does it only work between Mastodon instances or others (like Pleroma) too?
Fedi.Tips
At the moment it's only Mastodon -> Mastodon, as far as I know.

But Mastodon is an open platform, so I guess in theory other Fedi platform developers could add support? It may be more complicated to do that though (I am not a developer! 😁 ).
Fedi.Tips
Having your own server is even cooler! 😀
Charline
Bad for people if they posted a lot, because Toots are the only thing you can't transfer to the new account. 😆
Fedi.Tips
It doesn't matter what the username is, because it's on a different server.
Fedi.Tips
Oh no :(

I think it can take some time for some followers to automatically change over, so maybe they're not all lost?
Fedi.Tips
Did you do every step by the way?

There are two separate things you have to do to get followers and follows, some people only do one or the other.
Fedi.Tips
There are two separate guidelines/processes, one transfers people you follow, and the other transfers people who follow you.

If someone only does one process, the account will only move partially.

That's why there are so many steps in my guide (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107939441820299376) because it covers both processes.

Maybe there's still a step you can do? :/

FediTips (@feditips@mstdn.social)

If you want, you can move your Mastodon account from one instance (server) to another. Moving lets you take your followers, follows and some settings with you. 1.
Mastodon 🐘
Julian Andres Klode 🏳️‍🌈
It also causes a lot more issue due to federation being not exactly optimal when viewing historical posts from other instances - larger instances are usually better connected, and hence have more history for accounts on other servers.
Eric the Cerise
At the other end of the spectrum, however, be careful about joining very small instances (< a few 100 members), because you risk ending up on a hobby server, possibly poorly managed or one day shut down w/o warning.

You do not need to "avoid them at all costs", many/most are still good ... there's just a higher risk there.

ETA: From personal experience...
Fedi.Tips
There is always that risk, yes.

However, it's reasonable to go on a very small server if it has been around for a long time. For example https://laserdisc.party has been around for years and it only has 80 users.

You can check the age of a server by clicking on the admin's profile, it will tell you when they signed up.

Another way to mitigate risk is to use https://joinmastodon.org/communities as they have all publicly committed to reliability (https://joinmastodon.org/covenant).

LASERDISC 💿 PARTY

Welcome to laserdisc.party, a movie-flavoured instance home to friendly video store chitchat and general bonhomie.
Mastodon hosted on laserdisc.party
Fedi.Tips
Good point, I am guessing this is an oversight rather than a deliberate omission?

If you email hello@joinmastodon.org they might be able to give more info on the requirements? Perhaps they should specifically name more forms of discrimination.

The servers all have their own rules so some of them will be much more specific about what is allowed.
Fedi.Tips
The easiest way to set up your own Mastodon server is to use a managed hosting service like https://masto.host or https://federation.spacebear.ee

Managed hosting means they do all the technical things like installation and updates. You don't need technical knowledge for managed hosting.

If you do have technical knowledge about servers, you can install it yourself using the guide at https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own (and there are also tools like @yunohost to make this easier).

Masto.host - Fully Managed Mastodon Hosting

Masto.host was built from the ground up to make running a Mastodon instance easy.
Masto.host
@YunoHost
Joachim Ziebs
Alternatively, get your own instance!
Tanweer Dar (Tan)
Will all your posts be visible?
Fedi.Tips
I think old posts stay visible on the old instance as long as you don't delete your old account. If someone clicks on your old account's username from those posts, there's a redirect to your new account.
JP
 
JP  
•
everyone reading this should know that account migration isn't fully working until post migration is implemented - all your posts will go away when you migrate to a new instance. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423

Support Post Migration · Issue #12423 · mastodon/mastodon

#177 – Support Account Migration – was closed after implementing follower migration, but this is only one small part of a true migration. To really be able to change instances, you need to be able ...
GitHub
Fedi.Tips
Your posts don't move to the new server (yet), but I think as long as you don't delete your old account the posts stay on the old server, and clicking on the username redirects to your new account.
JP
 
JP  
•
Sure, but that doesn't help in cases where the old instance shut down entirely, which happens a fair amount given that running instances takes time and money and energy that people sometimes run out of. I'm glad the migration features that do exist are there, but there is not enough user awareness of the features that don't exist yet and will be difficult to implement.
OnTheFenceDev
It does make sense but even as a new user I'm not keen on losing the few Toots I've already posted.
Fedi.Tips
As long as you don't delete your old account, the toots will remain where they are.

Clicking on those toots' old profile link will redirect people to your new account.
OnTheFenceDev
I think the only thing really stopping me and the reason I opted for this server was that I thought it would be less likely for it to shut down. What would happen if I signed up to another, smaller, server and it went away - is this the payoff for federation?
LPS
@OnTheFenceDev@FediTips the best case is to self-host or use a hosted option. This way your history until now is safe on this large instance, but your existing followers/connections will be pointed to the new server. Now your instance will never go away as long as you keep paying for it;)
@Fedi.Tips @OnTheFenceDev
OnTheFenceDev
I've self hosted a lot of things in the past but am getting too old for all that these days - I just want an easy life. A hosted option is interesting and something I'll need to look into.
LPS
@OnTheFenceDev@FediTips it's not a bad strategy to build up a good amount of people to follow before you move however. Otherwise it'll be lonely with no one on your local timeline obviously. I'd argue that it's much cleaner though since you've curated what you will see and you existing links will be seeds for future follows.
@Fedi.Tips @OnTheFenceDev
Jarred
Thanks @feditips, your quick guide helped me migrate to a smaller and more local instance!

The only issue was I was only able to migrate my follower/following lists, and my bookmarks. My posts and settings weren't able to be transferred.
Aside from the individual csv lists, I exported my whole account (in tar.gz format), but there doesn't appear to be any way to import it into the new instance.
@Fedi.Tips
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