We need to have a talk
on #Mastodon about how people will never be fully free to change instances until they can also import their previous posts/toots to their new instance.
This would likely be a game-changer feature for many :mastodon:🔁:mastodon:
I wish that ActivityPub was built around one's identity+data. Right now it's more around one's identity (ie. @user). It really be about you having your data and not having that data attached to any specific domain.
Here’s an idea of what I can imagine to migrate previous posts/toots while also preventing some abuse:
People could export their own posts from their old account (like they already can do).
Exported data would keep the boosts and favorites numbers, and the replies (is this possible? 🤔).
This special migration export file would only includes users' original posts, not the users' replies.
People could then import this file to their new account during migration process if they wish (or maybe it’s automatic?).
Everyone who has interacted with one of these posts gets only ONE notification saying that “this user has migrated their account with posts you have interacted with previously.” Similar to Edit notifications, but only once for the whole import process to avoid overwhelming notifications.
Every imported posts get a mention “Imported on DATE” or “Imported from OLD_ACCOUNT” and they are all transferred to the profile’s feed but without being normally reposted to Followers, Local, or Federated timelines, to avoid overwhelming the feeds. Users who migrated can then boost their own posts individually from their new account if they wish followers or their new Local timeline to see these posts again.
This process does not transfer boosted posts from other people, only the user’s content.
I know this should probably be kept in GitHub’s discussions but I just want to start some informal talking with everyone here.
@Em0nM4stodon this is possible on an instance level, remote instances are where problems come in, how we handle indenity on activitypub just wouldn't allow this without changing every single post and a ton of resources. What we could of ilis change identity to something the user can verify ownership of and can be static, so all remote instance have to do is change like 1 or two things about the profile when someone moves
@Em0nM4stodon But we'd have to have some sort of cryptographic process. The instance someone is migrating from can do a lot to disrupt this process. Perhaps having a sign only key per each account that can be used client-side to migrate without cooperation from the old instance?
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