OpenStars

Tbf, the AI tools also don't work right, which might have some small bearing on whether people choose to use them or not:-)

Ah yes. Lemmy really was not designed to appeal to end-users so much as self-hosters who want to spin up their own instances.

Then the Rexodus came, and of course people want what they want, but the entire design philosophy only makes sense when you see it in that light. Westerners primarily still only want a "Reddit replacement", except somehow without spez at the helm, whereas Lemmy is actually pushing for something entirely different: decentralization.

At which point instances going poof is a feature not a flaw in that model. Though images disappearing could be worked on to better serve a variety of needs - e.g. posters could set a flag that their image is higher priority - and perhaps mods and definitely admins could then modify that - which could affect the automated longer term storage handling.

But Lemmy still isn't finished yet, despite how many years have gone by, and due to how slow it is to change (driven in large part by it being written in the highly complex and niche Rust language, but several other factors exist as well including funding, which interrelates with the whole tankie issue, etc.) now many people are giving up on it and pinning hopes instead on PieFed to drive changes to the Threadiverse (it being written in Python and with a highly productive and passionate team of volunteer developers who aren't asking for money before making such things happen).

So I expect things to change in this regard, but in all likelihood in PieFed but whether Lemmy itself ever decides (or is able) to catch up with it I cannot guess. Maybe eventually, one day, in another few years.

And entire instances can vanish

But when they do, their entire repository of posts has already been copied to every other instance across the entire Threadiverse.

e.g. here is DMV.social's goodbye message, hosted on beehaw.

So you have chosen to blatantly sin in its presence? Bold maneuver... and ultimately unsurvivable. Roll for chance of mercy, then multiply by 0.00% to determine your odds of surviving this encounter.

Be careful what you ask for...

It does exist

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Very relevant, thank you. @rimu@piefed.social may want to do the same for Piefed - e.g. if someone asks a technicial question and a bunch of people provide very helpful answers, then OP deleting the question perhaps should not have total control over the answers to it, for someone that has a direct link to the conversation.

(1) some communities choose to delete their posts periodically after some time period. Usually they clearly say this in their sidebar. Communities dedicated to memes - where fresh turnover is expected - are going to be more likely to use such practices than those dedicated to discussions of scientific topics.

(2) The Threadiverse does not currently inform you when your content has been removed by a moderator or admin. The only way you find out that happened is when you go looking for it and poof it's gone, or if you are a weirdo who constantly checks the modlog for your account name for some reason. I think Lemmy is going to add a feature to change this in the near future? Here is yours - the phenomena is rare for you but not absent, e.g. perhaps you are wondering about your post "What's with the insane level of recalls of late?" - well now you know, the mod did not like it.

(3) As others have said, the longevity is in the Threadiverse, but unless you self-host your own instance, so long as you rely on some other instance admins and post to some other community where you are not a moderator, you have given up control to others to take care of your content, on their terms. This will never not be true, so the longevity here lies in the fact that unlike Reddit or X or Bluesky, we are not controlled by a single monolithic profit-hungry corporate entity - e.g. it is not possible to spin up your own little Reddit, but you can spin up your own little PieFed, Lemmy, or Mbin (or Mastodon, Friendica, etc.). So you can have longevity here, if the admins and mods want that, whereas on Reddit you couldn't really.

That you know of!?! 🤪

Omg it does look like it doesn't it!? :-P

Naw it's there, just hidden very well.

Not me 😋🙃😜🥴