The Right of Exit principle

[Natans8]

Hello! I just created an account, and I'm fascinating by the vision of the developers!
But one question lingers, that may determine for me if this project has a future or not.
Does the app adhere to "The right of exit" principle, also known as "Data Portability"?
Here is the Wikipedia article.

In short, my question is, is there, or will there be an option to export all of my user data, in such a way that it can be accepted by a potential different application with a seamless experience?

For example, this is Bluesky's implementation.

The right if exit, if implemented well, guarantees, that if a user is unsatisfied with the product, they will not be held hostage by their history and data, like friend lists, conversation histories, media etc. and would be able to switch to a rival platform as easily as possible. It is a core component, along with the end-to-end principle to prevent the potential for enshittification.

[insertish]

There will be a more seamless way to export later on, but you can email for a data package currently.

[Natans8]

Thank you, this is exactly what I wanted to hear.

[pseudomonas]

What's the progress on the seamless way that @insertish mentioned? I emailed the stoat helpdesk and was told:

We currently do not have an export process for servers. This is something you could request as a feature on our github - https://github.com/orgs/stoatchat/discussions .

which sounds rather less hopeful. (that reply led me to find this thread)

[insertish]

Server exports are a different problem altogether and would require the consent of all parties involved.
Please open a feature request if you want to see that happen.
We are still planning on streamlining the individual user exports and are hoping that'll be available in the near future.

[pseudomonas]

Thanks for clarifying! I'll open another issue, and apologies for being off-topic on this one.

As a side-note: I don't think there's a legal requirement for consent of all members of the server; Slack allows Admins to export a dump of all the messages in a workspace that are visible to all members (private channels are not included). That includes workspaces where all members are based in the EU or the UK.

Of course Stoat's admins are entitled to take a different view of the law, and I'm not in any position to say who's right or wrong.