Dude, this sucks. I signed up for a couple of instances, but that was my main one.
So if it’s gone and unable to come back are all those comments and posts we made there just gone?
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Lemmy
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The data for the communities is stored on that server, so yes, but only for the content that was actually posted there. Any posts you made from that account will continue to exist on outside communities.
Hopefully, it's just a temporary failure.
I just wish I could access my account settings, which look like they are stored on the server instead of the app I use. I had already blocked several hundred communities that I wasn’t interested in and I don’t look forward to re-blocking them again (ok, maybe I look forward to it just a little bit, I might have a problem)
If vlemmy comes back up you can use this tool I made to pull down a list of subscriptions, blocks, etc. and if you want, copy all those to a new account:
https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim
Obviously your comments, etc. are gone, but at least you can keep browsing uninterrupted from another instance.
Awesome. I will have to check that out and make backups if that server pops back up. Thanks.
I assume once all these apps get fully fleshed out functionality like this will be added and automated into client software to make it easier. Backing up/load bearing would probably be something that could be federated among instances of different servers too to prevent things like this from having much of an effect on users, no?
The devs have definitely said there will be an official way to backup your account and import into another at some point, but I don't think they've decided what exactly what would be like. Lots of possibilities with varying degrees of difficulty.
Yeah, it’s all a bit janky right now, but that’s kinda part of the charm. I like watching things grow and evolve.
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I'm in the same boat. I've set up shop at lemm.ee just in case but I still like VLemmy and hope that it comes back online.
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This is one of many reasons I tell people not to become overly attached to their Lemmy accounts. You don't know what or who's hosting your instance and it could just abruptly disappear overnight.
Honestly this is part of the reason I’ve been thinking of spinning up my own instance. Literally just so I have control of the instance my account belongs to.
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It will be good when there is an easy way to back up and restore your subs, your blocks and possibly even your comments. If you wish to change instances, it should be easy.
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Just sign up on small instances to distribute the load they said... 🙃
I do hope they take back their domain name before someone parks it.
Not even that small of an instance relatively speaking
Just run your own instance, I say.... that way it's your fault when you forget to renew the domain name instead of the poor soul running vlemmy.
The domain whois showed it was renewed for years. That's not the hard part about running an instance, not by a longshot.
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this was rather a big instance no?
Indeed, I think number 15 if I remember correctly. I hope that it's ok, it's my home instance and is where I was posting the majority of my account content.
Same, I was helping set up a new community and we'd had some new people pop in and start commenting recently. This is a real bummer if its down for good.
I'm thinking it might be down for good, all of the donation links go to closed accounts
What a weird way to go out, yesterday the owner was talking about how to proceed in the future and apologized for having to block an instance
I don't wanna be that kinda person, but it's possible the owner had some visitation from the local authorities. It's not uncommon to use a server for multiple things, and I could imagine that there might have been some... not so cool things on there
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Yeah I read through that post last night. My guess is they got spooked about being potentially liable for anything cached that they may have federated with and just pulled the plug.
The only reason I dont think that is the case is because the donation links are down. I still dont know what happened, I wish someone knew his mastodon or any other social media.
No? Wouldn't the donation links being down further add credence to this theory?
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Porkbun LLC is a DNS registrar, so maybe somebody didn't pay their bill?
Well, not being owned by a profit-driven evil stab-us-in-the-back company going IPO has advantages and disadvantages :-(
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How odd. Could it be an account hack? Server malfunction?
The server isn't malfunctioning. Rather, the name vlemmy.net isn't given you the IP address of the server anymore.
Does anyone have the IP? We could test if the server is still there.
Could be a dns server malfunctioning (or rather misconfiguration).
After all, "it's always DNS"
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Really weird.
dynu.com is a dynamic dns service. I don't think the maintainer of vlemmy.net would be running the instance from a dhcp (variable) IP, to justify using dynamic dns.
Or is it usual for people to run instances from their homes using common ISP subscriber variable IP addresses?
Even more strange that it was registered just last month, according to whois. Is vlemmy.net that new?
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Registered at Porkbun and name servers transferred to Dynu.com? Why, that's a DDNS setup!
Yeah, this guy was probably self hosting a public, free speech instance from home. I wouldn't be surprised if it was his parents home. Unfortunate all around.
Welp, that sucks, but on the bright side, you can always find a home in the vast fediverse.
I did, on feddit.nl, to be able to post this :)
Then I realized the feddit.nl domain was registered less than 2 months ago.
Luckily I don't care about upvote balance (if I did, I'd probably have stayed in reddit as a karma hostage), so I'll just keep hopping instances if they stope working.
Doesn't look good as the domain goes to a parked page.
It seems dynu.com is a dynamic dns service. Was vlemmy.net running from a variable IP (dhcp) address? Is that usual for lemmy instances?
When I was still making personal websites ~10 years ago there were quite a few hobbyists who were providing free hosting on relatively big servers and I do remember they had dynamic IP addresses as they had the servers running in their homes and it was a bit painful to setup a domain name back then and you needed a dynamic DNS provider. So probably the fact that it's redirecting to a dynu.com page is a good sign.
This looks probable? 
Yes that confirms that it's hosted in his home, which means likely a dynamic IP address and explains why the domain name is pointing to dynu.com. I think the good news here is that he still has the domain name, it's just his server that is probably down.
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Damn that was the first instance that I signed up for.
I signed up for it just a few days ago (reddit refugee), it was working until earlier today.
I've just signed up at feddit.nl now, to be able to post this.
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This is my main instance. Been solid for weeks since I signed up. I’m using my first from .one now. Not sure where to go for Q&A. Is there a Discord, Mastodon, Gangnam Style’s comment section on YouTube I can goto??
I can't find anything. Closest I found was a closed donation link. and this 
Is it possible he's just understandably purging the filth from the server within his home?
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Oops that's not good, I can't access it either
New anxiety unlocked:
- Open Mastodon / Lemmy client
- Find it eternally spinning
- Slight panic
First time on Mastodon it turned out to be temporarily, new with vlemmy, I fear for the worst.
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I was moderating my small community on vlemmy, and have posted several markdown-heavy things I would like to back up in case I were to move instances. Gladly, that was possible with lemmy.world cache (for everything but pics).
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