What is an instance? what is a federation? what is a server? can someone please describe in simple terms how this all runs and how we as users navigate it?
What is an instance? what is a federation? what is a server? can someone please describe in simple terms how this all runs and how we as users navigate it?
Hello this is my first comment on Lemmy, so consider me an expert.
The idea of ‘federated’ websites is that you can use your login from one server to interact with another server. An analogy is email: you can have a gmail account that can send a message to a yahoo account via shared and open source protocols (e.g. SMTP).
One question I do have though; if I create my account on Lemmy.world and then for whatever reason that instance disappears; does my account disappear or is it recoverable on another instance?
Your account would disappear and unrecoverable from other instance, but your comment history can still be found in other federated servers, so it’s not a complete loss. For example, should lemmy.world disappear someday, a copy of your comment history is still preserved in my server at https://c.calciumlabs.com/u/jpgb@lemmy.world
Your account@lemmy.world would disappear yes, but you could create account@other.server.