The instance feddit.nl (a Dutch Lemmy instance hosting the largest Dutch communities AFAIK) appears to be down. None of the communities can be accessed anymore.

It made me wonder if the current system of Lemmy/Mastodon decentralized servers isn’t too weak with regard to continuity. I don’t know what’s going on with feddit.nl, but if the administrator doesn’t respond to an issue, hundreds or thousands of users can be cut off from the fediverse without them being able to do anything about it.

And what if an administrator suddenly decides to quit, go on holiday, falls ill etc.?

Does anybody know how one can contact a Lemmy administrator in cases like this?

But also: how do you know if an instance is stable enough to rely on?

Shouldn’t there be some kind of backup, where administrators can contact each other in case of some problem?

And what happens to the communities and content if an administrator permanently shuts down an instance?

  • wmassingham@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 months ago

    If you really want to be sure, create your own instance. Reddit could also up and disappear tomorrow. Less likely, since they’re trying to make it profitable, but Advance Publications could certainly say “no, we’re done, shut it down” and it would be gone.

    • UnanimousStargazer@geddit.socialOP
      0·
      11 months ago

      No, setting up a personal instance isn’t a solution for the potential problem I’m describing here.

      I’m not discussing whether an instance owner or commercial platform is at right to shut down an instance (an instance administrator probably is in most if not all countries), but the risk of a loss of continuity and the seemingly absence AFAIK of a continuity mechanism in the design of the Lemmy platform.

      As explained: it’s possible to migrate a Mastodon account from one instance to another including followers.

      Is it also possible for a moderator of a community to move a community from one instance to another including all subscribers? That would be a solution. Setting up one’s own instance isn’t beside keeping your account. But that’s not the issue.