Because of the nature of federation posts and comments on LemmyNSFW communities will live on basically forever. However the photos and videos will likely be lost. Some were links to external media and will stick around, some may be cached. But most photos and videos that were uploaded directly to the instance will break when the server fully goes down.
For example: [NSFW, OBVIOUSLY] [email protected] - that link should load fine on your instance. It should look functional just with no new posts. (Note: it’s actually possible to post and comment in these communities still, but only people in your instance will see it)
The images are served from links like these: (mild NSFW) https://lemmynsfw.com/pictrs/image/d50379d3-7d64-440c-bcf6-13dbf2b81c1b.webp?format=webp
The fact that the images still load is a somewhat hopeful sign. The server is still running, Lemmy just crashed. There’s still time for the head admin to come back, the data still exists. This seems unlikely though as the other admin says they haven’t heard from them since October.
So there’s a small window to archive this stuff, if you’re interested. Between now and whenever the media server crashes or gets shut off for non-payment.
I disagree with porn having no place on the Fediverse. A lot of amateur creators started their work on sites like Reddit, and the platform becoming unviable will push them to alternatives like Lemmy.
However I do agree that there should be some gateways to get to that point. Filtering instances/subcommunities that are marked directly as all-NSFW is a good first step (and should’ve been part of the protocol from day 1).
I also see why the default “filter out all NSFW content” filter is problematic (even though it is enforced by app stores on every mobile platform, sadly). A much better approach is to filter subcommunities and instances that are marked as entirely NSFW. That way e.g. news subcommunities can still post NSFW articles that have a wider reach, without anyone’s primary feed getting slammed with porn and gore.
Perhaps there can be a place for it, I just mean it should not be an automatically and consistently part of peoples feeds. Creators should have a place for it that’s easy to find/access for those that want/seek it. Just don’t shove it in people’s faces without their explicit prior consent.
I don’t think the general/greater population of lemmy came here to find porn…