Is it possible or does it present difficulties with federation?

I’m asking because today Vlemmy seems dead and people are speculating it has something to do with losing the domain name. So I want to know if there is a possibility the same server could come up again under a different domain but keeping the same accounts and content stored or if they will need to set up a new server and thus it’s just better to move on to another instance.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    01·
    1 year ago

    Absolutely. It should be trivially easy for the owner to get a new name and point it at the server if it still exists and is working. However, I understand that we know very few facts about the situation.

    Don’t let that discourage you from having accounts on other instances. One shouldn’t get too tied to a specific one IMHO.

    EDIT: Should be. Not sure what happens with usernames.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m not so sure.

      The reason the domain is part of our usernames, is so that there can’t be two users with exactly the same name.

      If a server could change its domain name after initial setup, that would break.

      • mvee@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        ? But when interacting with local content your name ha sno server associated with it, so the server info is only present for federated content.

        Bringing the old server back up configured with a new name could… Maybe send out duplicate content with the new name? Idk enough about activitypub yet.