Migration of account to a different instance

[FitikWasTaken]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. One of the pros of the Fediverse is that you don't have to completely rely on your owner, and can just migrate to a different instance if you feel like it, or if your instance is going to close

Describe the solution you'd like Ideally you could migrate your posts with your karma and followers to a different account like on Firefish with a message on your old account about it

Describe alternatives you've considered Alternatively the minimum that there can be is migrating your followers like on Mastodon

FEP move actor - https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/7628/fep-7628.md

[lilfade]

I like the idea of this though I think it would logically come down to the load on the server and the possible duplication of content if we allowed content to move. Ideally, we'd check if the content/post existed for this user and update it if it did for the new user, and import any extra content. I would venture an initial pull on the commentators would be in order as well to update that.

A few things to think of off the top of my head:

1. Banned post on instance A but not removed on B, how to reconcile?
2. Load of imports, do we limit it to x days, weeks, or all time?
3. User banned on a new instance already? (is this even possible?)
4. Magazine on instance A doesn't exist on B user is subscribed to, do we add it, whats the deciding factor?
5. Instance A is defederated, do we allow transfers to and from defederated places via a setting?

[FitikWasTaken]

1. Banned post on instance A but not removed on B, how to reconcile?

I think mod actions should federate, if they don't tho, I think that it should stay the same (post banned on instance A but but removed on B)

2. Load of imports, do we limit it to x days, weeks, or all time?

Yes, you could do a time limit, mastodon for example has 30 days cool down https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#move

3. User banned on a new instance already? (is this even possible?)

To migrate (on any Fediverse software from my experience) you need to create a new account on a different instance, so they wouldn't be able to initiate a migration (It's something you need to confirm on both accounts) https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/

4. Magazine on instance A doesn't exist on B user is subscribed to, do we add it, whats the deciding factor?

New account imports the subscriptions and thus federates the magazine

5. Instance A is defederated, do we allow transfers to and from defederated places via a setting?

I am not sure about this, but I don't think it's a problem and person should be allowed to migrate to defederated instance. Part of subscriptions he had to magazines on his old instance just wouldn't migrate (be removed) as well as followers/followed

[BentiGorlich]

Is it possible to indicate content migration via the ActivityPub "Move" action? That would be very neat in my optinion. But I think the first thing we should implement is account migration in general and worry about content migration afterwards

[FitikWasTaken]

Yep, I am pretty sure it's possible, even if it's more complex then just followers migration (There's Fedi software that lets you migrate posts in the end) https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-move I'm not sure if it's used for posts tho

But yes, I think followers migration like on Mastodon is the minimum https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/account-migration/3058/19

[melroy89]

User accounts (no posts) migration is indeed done via the AP move activity see https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/activitypub/#profile

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