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Hello, new folks from Twitter,

- Welcome to the fediverse!

- If you’ve joined mastodon.social because it was the default option in the app, please look to move to a smaller instance so mastodon.social doesn’t grow to become Twitter 2.0. (You can use instances.social to find a new instance or ask folks on here for suggestions.)

- Please add alternate text to your images so people who use screen readers can join in too. (accessibility.huit.harvard.edu)

instances.socialMastodon instances
Ben Evans

@aral I've been thinking of doing this for a while, but I'm still not completely clear on what happens if I do - e.g. what happens to my existing graph, posts, etc.

Do you have a link to a good guide on this?

@kittylyst From what I understand (I have my own instance so I haven’t had to do it myself), you have to export your posts manually and reimport them to your new account. Your followers, etc., should migrate over automatically.

Not sure about a guide but I’ll boost your post so others can chime in and help :)

@aral @kittylyst
You can't reimport your posts, you can only download them as an archive. However, you can migrate your followers, followings, and bookmarks.

@eyal @kittylyst Oh, wow, ok, what’s the use of an archive if you can’t reimport them? Can’t believe that hasn’t been a priority in the last seven+ years.

@aral @eyal @kittylyst The admins of your new server would ideally have to moderate every one of your posts on import; they might have different criteria. And those posts take up disk space, if graphics.

Not to say that it's good. But that might be why.

@aral @eyal @kittylyst

Calckey will allow importing posts, though I dunno how much use that is if the posts aren't re-posted to followers.

They aren't in any indexes at the new place. Only way to find them would be stalking the profile history, scrolling back years.

And if they are rebroadcast to followers, you got a spam problem.

@aral the point is not losing them completely in case the instance goes down, but yeah, it's pretty underwhelming @eyal @kittylyst

@eyal @aral @kittylyst losing your post history and likes is a real issue (for some, anyway), and why encouraging this early is good, but folk who have been here a good while may not want to overlook that part…. (Also it seems that reconnecting your social graph ought to work but… may not be entirely smooth??? )

@RuthMalan @aral @kittylyst
You don't lose them entirely, I still has them at my old account @eyal@tooot.im, but yeah, it's a problem.
It takes some time for your followers to come, but all my previous followers from mastodon followed to this account (at least in December pleroma followers didn't migrate, and it's another problem).

@eyal@leftodon.social @aral @kittylyst @eyal@tooot.im that’s good to know (to the extent that posts and likes act as externalized memory we may want to access). And the problem with respect to having a history of posts for folk to scroll back on, to assess following, is quickly moot if one posts somewhat actively :)

@kittylyst
I believe you can also forward your old account to your new one, so people can still find your old posts but they're directed to your new account also

And you can have as many accounts as you want! I have a few split up for different interests. Nobody's trying to profile you for advertising here so there's no pressure to consolidate all your identities under one account :donutcat:

@aral

@kittylyst @aral There’s also a guide with pictures here: docs.joinmastodon.org/user/mov

I moved from a public instance to my own private instance. I was a little anxious, at first, but then my followers all got redirected to and followed my new account. It was pretty easy.

docs.joinmastodon.orgMoving or leaving accounts - Mastodon documentationTake your information and do what you want with it.