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What actually happens to posts when a Lemmy instance shuts down? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by claim_arguably to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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When I first new about lemmy, lemm.ee was among the biggest and I created an account on it but didn't use it much and didn't knew that the instance was deleted until recently. So help me understand where content is stored:

When a post is created, is it only stored on the original instance, or copied to every other one?
Do all federated servers get a copy, or get posts from other server when user demands them?
When an instance shuts down, is its content gone forever, or do other instances keep copies?
If the original server is gone, what happens to edits or deletions?
Is there any kind of “shared” storage in the Fediverse, or network that store everything?
Could one still access all lemm.ee content now? Or post in it's communities?

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[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does the official Lemmy source code actually delete data when a delete activity comes in or does it just stop displaying it? Just curious.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

We know they don’t get deleted because otherwise the undelete feature wouldn’t work.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Does editing the post overwrite the old contents or is it like a git repo and just creates a new version with the updated contents? Basically, does editing your comment before deleting even do anything privacy wise?

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

I don’t know and am too lazy to go read the code, but it probably overwrites because that’s the easiest and most efficient way, and there’s nothing to be gained by retaining the old versions in this case.