• Square Singer@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    1 year ago

    Two things: the data on the instance will be gone.

    The posts/comments that were replicated on other instances will stay, but they will be defederated, meaning they will not ever be synced up woth other instances’ replications of these posts/comments. Every instance will just have their own, insular copy.

    • jaamulberry @beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I see this as a big issue for content going forward. I get that reddit is one single point of failure but I wonder how you can keep knowledge in a static state when most instances lose money and it’s a hobby. What happens when the owner grows tired.

        • jaamulberry @beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          30
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s not about visiting a forum post I made in 2007. It’s about visiting a forum post about an obscure issue that someone solved in 2007.

            • Wahots@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              This is so stupidly relevant to strange motherboard problems. I hope that lemmy is able to be scraped by web crawlers to help assist with these sorts of problems in the future.

          • AdaA
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            1 year ago

            That part won’t change. If your current instance was federated with an obscure community/instance before that community/instance disappeared, then you will still have the content from back then and will be able to find the discussion and solution

              • AdaA
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                1 year ago

                Well no, but then you weren’t going to find it anyway, even if the other instance was still around

                • jaamulberry @beehaw.org
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I would argue the instance still gets indexed by Google and if it was around I could Google search for the result.

                  • AdaA
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Ok, but in that instance, unless that niche instance that disappeared never federated with anyone, then their content is going to be available on the instances they did federate with before they went away, and those will continue to show in google

          • capacitor@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            It would certainly be nice to replace stack overflow with a good Lemmy instance, but have the data guaranteed to remain around.

          • Square Singer@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            That still works with replication. What won’t work is having any discussion going forward be replicated over all replications. But the replication works fine for archival purpouses.

      • Big P@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Could also be an issue from a data privacy perspective. If I want to delete comments I left, but the instance I made them on has shut down how can I delete them?

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Perhaps each client should keep data. Something like a blockchain, with redundant copies stored on clients and clients using some consensus protocol to agree on what the real history is.

        • Square Singer@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Blockchain is the worst possible solution for this. There are much better versions of this.

          Also, no need for clients to keep gigabytes or even terrabytes of data. That’s what you have instances for.

    • spider@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      but they will be defederated, meaning they will not ever be synced up with other instances’ replications of these posts/comments.

      Indeed; lost my VLemmy account when it shut down.

      My comments from there still appear in other instances, but my comment totals are different depending on which instance they’re viewed in.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Do the copies on other instances ever expire and get cleared? Or will they stay indefinitely, without updates?

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Number 2. They will stay without updates unless an admin cleans it manually. It wouldn’t be hard to build a bot to do that automatically, but by default it will just stay.