Yeah, it is annoying if it's your instance that goes down 😦

However, the Fedi lets you also have a backup emergency account on a different server. You can recommend the backup account to your main account's followers, it's just one click and they'll only hear from it if the main one is down. (Of course not everyone will want this hassle, but some accounts might find it useful/vital.)

Backup accounts aren't possible on centralised networks, they are all-or-nothing 😞

@david_chisnall Indeed, it doesn't really help *you* if the one part that's affected is the one that you use. But then again, that's the case with pretty much everything else, too.

It doesn't help me if others' banks still work if mine's having problems.

It doesn't help me that the next town over has electricity if where I am doesn't.

And so on.

That there can still be problems (you're 100% right: there can) doesn't mean creating a situation where one affects everyone is better. 🙂

@FediTips

@rauschma

"On one hand, if your Fediverse server is down, it *currently* doesn’t help you much that the Fediverse is decentralized."

It does help, because you can use a backup account on another server to maintain contact with your Fediverse followers (as long as you've told your followers to follow the backup account in advance).

Backups aren't possible at all on centralised services. Meta is currently using its Twitter/X account to tell people what is going on! 🤣

I wonder if the Fediverse could better support “lightweight nomadic identity” via backup accounts—e.g. via entries in profiles: Then, if a server is offline, the profile (if cached by other servers) could tell people where to go until the server is back up again.

Obviously, you can already do that manually today. But special support could hide it when a server works and display it prominently when it is offline.

That's a really interesting idea! 🤔

I think PeerTube has something like that for video files, different PeerTube instances can agree to carry backups of videos for each other so if one goes down the videos are still playable.

That's a good point, lots of instances being on one hosting provider could cause similar problems indeed!

We need more decentralisation at every level 👍

@skotchygut @ep

Yes, that too 👍

@Zoidtes

Well yeah, that's a fair point! There needs to also be decentralisation at the hosting level to make it really durable.

But it is possible to move instances to a new hosting company without breaking the connections, so it is possible for admins to further decentralise the hosting without users having to do anything.

@vol4life8657

If you have a backup account on a different server, it's unlikely they would both go down at the same time.

And if you tell your followers in advance to also follow your backup account, you have a plan B if your main account's server goes down.

@srdjandvr

...and telephones, telegrams, the postal system etc. Federation is how communications is supposed to work 🙂