I don’t think that’s how it works though. I believe once the server shutdown, our old profiles vanished with it, aside from posts and comments made on other instances. I can search my old name ([email protected]) and some stuff comes up, but clicking on my username results in an error.
It appears that while content federates across instances, posts and their associated comment threads are tied to that instance. If the instance shuts down, that post is gone.
Edit: so I can see that some users were able to move their profiles while retaining their [user]@lemm.ee, which becomes [newlemmyurl]/u/[user]@lemm.ee, so, shit. It also appears that communities were able to migrate in the same manner. It’s all good, too late now I suppose. Hopefully the lemme.ee admins have backups and someone can take up the mantle.
I ain’t asking lol