I have just made my first lemmy account on lemmy.world. What happens to my account in the event that this particular instance goes offline temporarily or permanently? It seems like I will have to either wait for the instance to come back online or create a new account, is this correct?
For that matter, would it be the same for mastadon and other fediverse services?
Yes, you would need to make a new account. You can export your subscriptions, hold onto them and import them into a new account if you want. I also have a couple backup alts on other instances when my usual one goes offline.
Luckily your posts and comments aren’t purged from other instances, if your instance is taken offline unceremoniously. So you won’t lose any of your contributions.
Each Fediverse service can implement the export/moving differently. However Mastodon has a follower/activity move ability that some services like Pixelfed are trying to make themselves cross-compatible with.
Welcome to Lemmy and the Fediverse!