this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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you know what I really wish, some easier way to be able to subscribe to a community on a remote instance from your own account. Like a shared login or some browser extension that sees you're on a lemmy and allows you to subscribe from your account back home
maybe I'm using it wrong, but right now If I'm browsing lemmy explorer and find a community on lemmy.ca, I have to copy the address manually and then go back and find it on my local lemmy where I have my account to add it
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.
Oh this would be nice, a standardized way to back up instances so in the case of one going down forever someone else could pick it up and start running.
I know I'm happy to run my instance, I have a great fiber line and a solid infrastructure, but if I get hit by a bus tomorrow I'd want someone else to pick it up and get running
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 standardized method, yes? Config file, GUI (which just alters config file), 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 user that "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.
oh I was thinking a full instance backup. As an instance admin it'd be nice to backup the whole thing in a standardized way so someone else could grab it and spin it up if I collapsed tomorrow, all the community and users
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.
Which is what I'm doing, and I store the backups securely, but then there's no standardized way of "Hey the admin is gone, can we take over" ability. I could tell my community here are the backups, but then there's just no standardized way of transferring admin. Idk, I think most things online should have a "Will and testament" type thing. "This passes to XXX"
Google has a way to set a "dead-timer". If an account has not been logged into for x days, it will pass on to someone you have decided (before dying). That can be done here also.
Lemmy is still young, so those scenarios haven't come up yet. We just need to be a bit patient. 😄
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.
I'd be interested in something like a lightweight CDN/replication with OAuth2 for logging into other instances. Each instance 'replicates' your original account but isn't itself the master. One can be promoted to master in the event of an outage effectively migrating your account.
Would make for some difficult security considerations given a rogue instance could attempt to hijack authority.
Use this!
Thanks, just what I was looking for!
I'm not much of a programmer and my free time is too limited to move quickly, but the functionality looks possible based on the published frontend API. Someone will almost certainly beat me to it, but I am hoping to write a browser extension that replaces the blue "You are not logged in..." boilerplate text about how to subscribe to a remote community with a subscribe button that does the dirty work in the background for you.
that would be amazing! even just like a hover popup or secondary link to send me to the community but through my instance would help a lot
You can do exactly that. Use the search function at the top of Beehaw, specifically type in the URL of the community like this: [email protected]
This way you'll reach that community while still "on" Beehaw and can subscribe to it. From there, you can head to your subscribed communities from your profile to make new posts or whatever.
I don't think you understood what I was suggesting.
I don't use Beehaw (my instance is lemm.ee), but let's pretend I do. My whole premise is I don't always start there. Like if run into a community on Lemmy Explorer or some other site (maybe a google search?), I can easily find myself on a community on a remote server.
For example, can you click here: https://lemmy.world/c/nostupidquestions
What do you see? Any way to subscribe for you? It just tells you to go back home and search for it I would love there to be a browser extension or plugin that automatically recognizes the community's instance and address and sends it back home to Beehaw for you to subscribe. Can be via API or just redirect you to Beehaw's view of it
yup, I do the same, I copy/paste the URL in the "search" box, it works, but it is not convenient...