this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation
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I'm less settled on Lemmy, but fully settled in the Threadiverse. Basically I see Lemmy like my current Linux distro: It's good and getting the job done, but I'm always watching the next iteration in the ecosystem.
That said, I feel like I've landed on a good host and alternate frontend that I like. And I LOVE that I can choose my host and frontend.
This is also a really good thing. The only problem I see is that it's a little more complicated if sites would change their backend.
Like, imagine in 10 years Lemmy isn't the hottest threadiverse backend any more and now it's something else. But what about the existing sites? It's infeasible for all users to manually migrate their accounts to other, newer instances and they might not want to either (they might like their current instance).
So given that situation, instances need a migration path to a newer backend. But that seems more complicated than switching a Linux distro for as a single individual.
Indeed. Data longevity is a concern for me in general. There have been enough Lemmy instances that have disappeared (including once I used to be on) that our ability to become a massive first-hand knowledge center (like Reddit) is endangered.
I know user portability is getting active attention. I'm hoping at some point there's a cohesive solution where all our data is in our own hands and we can plop it on to any instance of any service with a few simple steps.
I'm not so worried about this tbh. This is to be expected in the start when all instances were new. Something that's only a month old is not so likely to stick around. But as time goes on, lemmy instances will get more mature and established. Some will stand the test of time and users will go to those instances.
In 5 years, the instances that have been around since now will likely stick around for a long time more.
I hope we won't need users to move instances. Instances themselves need a migration path instead.
I actually see that as a positive. I donβt always want people to be able to drag up my comments from a decade or more ago. Just look at all the people who got in trouble for Twitter posts when the social winds shifted.
My comments are mostly for now, not forever.
It's already happening with discuss.online, they're building their own backend. It shouldn't be too hard to migrate but I agree that multiple backend would increase complexity
As you should be:-). Plus don't forget that you can host your own instance too - be it Lemmy, Kbin, Mbin, discuss.online's newer thing, or whatever.
And it's only 0.19.3 alpha software - there's so much room to contribute to it, or at least watch it grow:-).
Likewise as people get deeper into Linux, "distros" become far less relevant bc you no longer depend on others to make those decisions for you, and can make anything happen that you want, at any time.