So uh, apparently $288/year is not enough to run a Mastodon service for ~3 users, and this is a known issue (https://masto.host/mastodon-content-retention-settings/) with no solution (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/discussions/19260)?!

[filippo@abyssdomain.expert]

So uh, apparently $288/year is not enough to run a Mastodon service for ~3 users, and this is a known issue (https://masto.host/mastodon-content-retention-settings/) with no solution (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/discussions/19260)?!

I just want to own my identity. On Bluesky, it takes a TXT record and a did:plc rotation key. A PDS takes like $25/yr. For $300/yr you can run a whole-network relay.

Also, it's unclear if I can move to non-Mastodon software without losing all my posts, despite owning the domain??

And this ecosystem sneers at atproto?

[buherator@infosec.place]

@filippo Pleroma/Akkoma are more lightweight if that helps

[mariusor@metalhead.club]

@filippo we might sneer for different reasons though. And we might sneer at Mastodon also, because they don't deserve their ecosystem leader position.

[filippo@abyssdomain.expert]

@buherator I can migrate to Pleroma/Akkoma without losing my posts?

[hypha@cafe.mycelium.locahlo.st]

@filippo migrating a db scheme from a backend to another have never been the priority of any fedi backend dev
it exists some greatly outdated migration scripts made by people along the years
also, mastodon is a pretty resource hungry piece of software, almost all other options are much lighter (specia mention to GoToSocial for being headache-free)

[kouhai@social.treehouse.systems]

@filippo gotosocial, and there’s a migration tool (link forthcoming)

[kouhai@social.treehouse.systems]

@filippo https://codeberg.org/vyr/slurp

Doing the manual key migrations will be tricky, but it’s doable

[northernscrub@m.dollha.us]

@filippo It's apparently not recommended to put a different mastodon solution on the same domain as a previous one. That said, I run a mostly vanilla masto instance here at home. I have a 128gb hdd for attachments, mounted at /home/mastodon/live/public/system (and containing the cache directory). I also run a script to clear out data more than ~14 days old. This all runs on a USFF optiplex from 2012 or so.

If you can't get a static IP, some sort of dyndns solution will do just as well - all you need do is find a cheap VPS that costs no more than £3 a month or so and do your forwarding from it.

[buherator@infosec.place]

@filippo Last time I checked you couldn't even migrate post between instances running the same software... I'm not sure if this is only a limitation when you'd transfer posts between remote servers and you could just vibe code a DB migration script, or there's some fundamental limitation of how posts are referenced in the network.

[safigo@c.im]

@filippo Moving to non-Mastodon software can break a federation as well where you might be lost completely.

I have the same misunderstanding in the design of Mastodon.

Why don't they support resolving the instance by DNS? It would give a chance to have a mastodon instance outside of the main domain. I don't want to expose an ActivityPub data on the main domain, the domain is not related to my Social Media.

Having a unique domain/subdomain for Mastodon makes no sense at all as well. The idea of having domain is to have many underlying services there. We don't need to create unique domains for:
- website
- XMPP
- Email
- etc.
It should be one domain with all those identity services behind it.

It would also give a simpler change to have multiple identities on the same instance. Just like email.

We'd pay some subscription to a public instance (that already have all of those caches/huge db/etc.), with our domains.

As a result, you don't own infra, but you own your identity. If you want to migrate, just switch to another instance (obviously subscribers and posts might require some process).

Most importantly, it would not cost any more for mastodon.social, for instance, to give you a chance to point your domain's identity there.

You should not self-host it, it's too expensive for small batch of users (due to caches, reading history, media, etc.

#mastodon