Comment by rehasu
6 years ago
Is a federated system like Mastodon not setup in a way that users have access lists and if one server is down they simply connect to the next? I would expect to just limit the access to my server in a way that no illegal content is added to its storage and I don't have to pay horrendous fees for the network traffic and then just let the DDOS happen. At some point it needs to stop since the DDOSer will find nicer targets and the source of your problem will not have enough funds left. And then your service simply continues.
That's at least how I think a federated system should work. Not sure if reality matches that.
From my understanding of Mastodon, you register an account with an instance and that's where your account and data are stored. You then get an address which is something like me@instance.tld. Federated instances can then connect together to read and exchange information, but for the most part your data doesn't leave your instance. I imagine the idea behind this is you can choose (or host) where your data sits, but still interact with a large network of individuals. That said, my understanding of Mastodon is limited.
As others have noted: accounts are instance-bound.
Other Fediverse protocols -- I believe either Friendica or ... I think Hubzilla? -- have some level of account portability.
There's a fairly long-standing request for Mastodon to support this. For now, you can have accounts on other instances forwarded to your primary.
While you can export and import your own follows, followers of your account won't automatically redirect to the new home.
Masodon content however will syndicate across the Fediverse, and even some of my posts from a now-dead instance can (occasionally) be found.
> While you can export and import your own follows, followers of your account won't automatically redirect to the new home.
This information is outdated since October 11, 2019. You can move followers from one account to another in Mastodon 3.0.
TIL, thanks!
(For others: Gargron is Mastodon's creator.)
No, accounts are instance-bound, you can't just log into another instance in the federation.