Fedxit: Migrating to a new instance
Sooo if you skim the previous posts on here, you'll know that Feddit.uk's only Admin (@[email protected]) has been missing for a couple of months and in that time we were defederated by lemmy.world (although we're back now) and we are one upgrade behind (just a minor fix) with one much bigger one whistling down the pipeline that may defederate us from other instances that upgrade (it may not but I know most of us don't want to roll those dice).
We've tried various ways of contacting Tom and had no reply so we are forced to move forwards with moving to a new instance.
So, this is the plan:
Phase 1: Register a domain hndone by greatalbatross.
Phase 2: Sort out hosting - done by me.
Phase 3: Start instance - pending a final inspection of the hosting in the next day or so.
Phase 4: Onboarding - this will happen in waves:
Wave 1: Admins go in and make sure nothing is broken.
Wave 2: Moderators sign-up and re-start communities, get any bots running and just generally get a second set of eyes on things so we can be happy that we are ready to let people in.
Wave 3: We'll start adding people already on Feddit.uk by hand - invitations will presumably have to go to inboxes on feddit.uk so we can ensure no-one is poaching a username for devilment. This will give the system a bit of a stress test.
Wave 4: We'll let people apply to join and this should get things moving quicker.
Wave 5: Open registration.
Phase 5: Shuttering Feddit.uk - the Moderators will post pinned messages in their communities directing people to the new ones and then we'll start the sad process of closing down the communities that we can.
Events should all start moving pretty quickly and, whole I may be being optimistic, we will likely reach the point of no return (specifically Tom's return) in a week or two.
Current Admins:
- Domain: @[email protected]
- Hosting: me @[email protected]
- Instance: 20cx12 and @[email protected]
- Finance: TBD
- Ambassadors: TBD
- Customer services: TBD
There's a Matrix space that we'll keep as a fallback in case if problems with the instant (although it will be renamed at some point). It also provides secure encrypted communication if anyone needed to flag anything up privately (and Matrix is built into Lemmy - add your Matrix ID into your profile and it provides a secure messaging button in your profile, so if you need to contact an Admin you can do it directly from there too, at least for me).
Sorry about all hassle, none of us wanted this but it is forced upon us and the feeling from everyone's previous comments is that we didn't want to lose what we have here, even if we have to rebuild in a new instance.
I'll throw the floor open to comments and questions.
There was a lot of discussion around the domain name! The new one is funny and quirky and is still explicitly UK based so it's all good. I quite liked feddit too, but it does kind of have the association with Reddit.
leddit.uk anybody?
I'm looking forward to no more of having feddit autocorrect to reddit, then me getting confused how I ended up in the wrong place because I didn't check.
Just wanted to add my thanks...
This is a sanctuary for me as life's too crazy for me to contribute meaningfully to this instance at the moment, but I really appreciate the effort going into this.
I hope Tom's ok in the real world, and maybe we can get the same domain name back one day.
Thanks again.
I'm sure he's fine just busy. Life happens, often unexpectedly.
Unfortunately, getting the domain name back won't really matter as it is difficult to change without knock on federation issues (I believe). It would let us establish redirects to the new communities and might help pick up any stragglers.
That and our new domain is much better imo 🦆
Hello,
Not a user of this instance, but good to see that you guys are handling this is a structured way. It's a shame that you cannot just get the website from Tom, but at least this time it should be managed properly.
Yes, whether Tom came back or not we were drawing up plans to ensure there isn't a single point of failure and that everything is more open and transparent. Plus we want to make sure the finances are all in place. All of which should mean any one of us could be hit by a bus and the instance keeps going.
It does! It might have a UK flag within the icon, hopefully recognisable enough. The name doesn't reference lemmy or reddit at all, instead we chose to carve out our own identity. Think similar to how beehaw or shitjustworks does it (minus the defederation threats that Beehaw had, we are 1000% committed to the fediverse and it does run lemmy).
The hope with this is so someone can tell their friend about it without having to explain lemmy/the fediverse, so instead of saying "join lemmy!" You can easily say "join [redacted].uk!", but again, it is definitely 100% federated and running lemmy.
I hope I didn't overcomplicate things 😖
Once you migrate on there, it should be the same experience as Feddit.UK essentially
We have a name, and you'll be pleased to know it uses a .uk suffix. We'll post it once we've at least got a landing page up.
Is it FeddyMcFedditFace.uk?
I wish. That sweet-ass domain is probably long gone!
Shame it had to come to this as the instance was really picking up pace. That said, great work on those involved in structuring a solution. Appreciate the hard work going into it.
As a moderator of a few groups myself and an advocate of Lemmy (especially our homegrown instance), I would be happy to support where I can above just moving the groups over, so feel free to reach out or let us know where the wider community can help.
Cheers.
Good stuff - we'll be in touch about getting you signed up as soon as everything looks solid.
"Shame it had to come to this as the instance was really picking up pace. That said, great work on those involved in structuring a solution. Appreciate the hard work going into it."
All of the above from me too!
Hopefully this is just a trip and not a fall!
Well done on taking the initiative guys! Sad that its come to this, but hopefully good comes out of this.
Sad it had to happen, but thanks very much to all involved for working on a replacement. Looking forward to signing up as this UK instance has been the best part of the 'fediverse' for me.
Likewise, I don't think I would still be on Lemmy if it wasn't for this instance.
We are hoping to use our small community identity as a strongpoint, imo the new instance has a lovable name :)
It's going to be absolutely quackers!
Thanks everyone who's helping to sort this out. I'm looking forward to seeing our shiny new instance soon
Thank you for taking action to help migrate the nascent community!
I should add, this is a great case study of a federated system responding to a difficulty. Let’s jointly make this a positive case study.
It's a good point - it's very much along the lines of the Internet founding principles: if a node goes down it can be inconvenient but the larger network is flexible and adapts.
Ahh I'm gutted about feddit.uk but thanks for all you're doing to help migrate. 🙏
It should be pretty straightforward at least as far as the outside view is concerned (there's likely a few long days ahead behind the scenes) and there are tools available to migrate your profile across, the real pain is that we can't take the contents of the communities with us. So we'll recreate all the communities but we are starting from scratch. Not ideal but I suppose, if it was going to have to happen, better it is done now,.only a few months in, rather than a few years down the road when that would be a punch in the gut.
We'll also be putting things in place that mean this can't happen again.
Ah, thanks guys - a sad day, but like you say, needs to be done. We help in any way, or just keep our eyes open in the channel?
Nice, new name reminds me of brexit lol, but its fine, unless that was just a joke made for the post.
Sorry, I should have flagged that up - it's just the name for the Feddit exit.
It's quite funny though. I support this choice.
You were right the second time, Fedxit is just a joke title.
Thanks to all the people working on saving the day! I've taken a break from the instance for the time being because of the uncertainty but looking forward to, hopefully, joining you on wave 3.
Looks like we aren't going anywhere.
Looking forward to wave 3. Too bad but it has to be done.
One of the weaknesses with Lemmy I think is that communities themselves aren't distributed - a problem solved by both Usenet and FidoNet decades ago (for instance, a FidoNet bulletin board ceasing meant that the community there would have to be moved to another BBS - the FidoNet echoes ("communities") were themselves distributed so as a user you could just move to a new BBS and whole communities wouldn't have to be moved. Similarly with Usenet - your usenet server get shut down? Just move to a new one and subscribe to all the same groups.
Hope all is well with @[email protected] and it's just a case of him abandoning his post.
Is there anything we can plan better for the new instance to prevent this happening again? It's a bit disappointing to have to leave, since we will no doubt lose a portion of the userbase due to this.
I'd like to follow, but don't know if I will since I may as well just make an account on one of the larger instances.
Life gets in the way sometimes. Someone said he might have been moving house, which can be a horror show.
Plenty - the wheels came off because there's only one Admin, which would be easy to fix, if our Admin was active. So the first thing is to ensure there's no single point of failure (to the point that I will change my will if needed) and that there's always back-up. We're also sharing out the tasks, to make sure no one person has to do too much and faces burn out.
We'll also ensure that the finances are transparent, so anyone donating knows where the money goes.
We will also be as transparent as possible with decisions as we've seen (and experienced) how doing things without properly announcing them can cause problems.
We're also open to other ideas and suggestions.
We will, but what I hadn't realised is that we'll also gain users as some people have been unable to register an account.
That's your call, although the larger instances have problem of their own - the DDoS attacks, the All page being way too much stuff, etc. I have accounts elsewhere and I usually take a look around, go "oh boy" and slink back here. There are definite pluses to being on a smaller instance. If this place had disappeared without a replacement, I'd probably look for another instance that is of a similar size. Or you could get an account at the new place and one elsewhere, see what suits your needs. It's unwise not to have a back-up, just in case.
0.18.5 isn't all that great, lots of other instances are waiting until 0.19.
Oh indeed. I think it was just a quick fix (for kbin.social spam?) they just put out to tide things over until 0.19.0. It's that upgrade that is the concern.
We were kind of using the 0.18.5 as a sign.of activity from Tom as he quietly implemented a previous update.
Yeah exactly, I wasn't trying to say that it wasn't a valid point towards the admin's presence, just that the new UK lemmy may as well wait until 0.19 before it launches.
With the time it'll take to switch everything over and get people onboard we really need to have the new instance ready well before then because if it does break then it'll be a lot more if a mad scramble rather than a dignified exit. We will want to be gone and have this place shuttered by the time 0.19.0 comes out
Damnit, second time I've had to move now.
Fear not, there's an update.
Hooray!