Hi All!

Welcome to another monthly Lemmy.zip server update!

I have been increasingly busy in "real life" so haven't had much time to dedicate to Lemmy.zip recently (I got married!) however things are calming down now and I'm able to spend a bit more time keeping an eye on things. I had a few messages/requests and I think I've responded to them all, but let me know if I've missed anything.

Communities

Take a look at these new communities. If you enjoy them, give them a subscribe :)

• Lies of P
• Path of Exile 2
• Puns
• Dungeon Dialogue
• Rivian
• Epic Games

There are also some existing communities that are looking for mods. Fancy trying out being a mod with a pre-existing community? Now is your chance!

• Xbox
• Star Trek

PS - I finally have some time to start clearing up old/unused communities - I will be PM'ing mods soon!

Server Updates

It's been a little while since my last update so I'll go over some of the things that have happened or are happening:

We had a great Canvas event again, with the Lemmy.zip logo once again being lovingly recreated, and a few of our community's logos popping up, including the amazing SquaredCircle logo too!

You can see more on the completed Canvas here.

Did you know - we have a public dashboard showing all of our up to date federation/server data? You can check it out here!

Given some of the recent wider fediverse moderation issues/drama that has happened recently, I thought it might be sensible to confirm our position on moderation and how we decide what actions we take. We're not a massive instance, and we do get very few issues deriving from Lemmy.zip thankfully (I know moderators on larger instances probably have a trickier time of it), however our aim is not to interfere, silence, or in any way censor our communities, as long as the content is legal (in the UK/EU specifically, as that's where we're hosted) and it isn't going to cause harm to someone. You can see our full set of policies on our legal site - if you think something isn't clear enough or is missing, let me know and I will update/add it!

I'm also not usually one for podcasts, but I did stumble across this podcast on spotify that in the latest episode talks a bit about moderation in the wider Fediverse (more mastodon leaning, but the points I thought were interesting given the different ways servers are run). I am not one for mass block lists, we take each server as it interacts with us. Anyway if you're interested in that sort of thing, then I would recommend taking a listen - It's called DotSocial if you want to have a look on other platforms.

Finally, the Status Page has had a bit of a tidy up and now lists each frontend for clarity. I'm happy with the current set of frontends, but if you see one being used elsewhere you think we could host, let me know!

Interaction reminder (help support the instance!)

If you’re new to Lemmy.zip - WELCOME! I hope you’re enjoying your time here :)

I am sure that long term readers are bored of reading this now, but it is really is true that the easiest way you can support Lemmy.zip is to actively engage with content here: upvoting content you enjoy, sharing your thoughts through posts and comments, sparking meaningful discussions, or even creating new communities that resonate with your interests.

It’s natural to see fluctuations in user activity over time, and we’ve seen this over the wider lemmy-verse for some time now. However, if you’ve found a home here and love this space, now is the perfect opportunity to help us thrive.

If you want to support us in a different way than financially, then actively interacting with the instance helps us out loads.

If you've gone to the trouble of creating an account, then come and be part of the Fediverse! Please don't be a lurker! :)

Donations

Lemmy.zip only continues to exist because of the generous donations of its users. The operating cost of Lemmy.zip is over 50 euros a month ($54, £43) and is mostly funded by the community!

We keep all the details around donations on our OpenCollective page, with full transparency around income and expenditure.

If you're enjoying Lemmy.zip, please check out the OpenCollective page, we have a selection of one-off or recurring donation options. All funds go directly to hosting the site and keeping the virtual lights on.

We've also put up a link to our Ko-Fi page where you can donate via paypal instead of using a card. All Ko-Fi donations will be totalled up and added to OpenCollective each month for transparency. I've added a link in the sidebar, but you can also click the image below to go there:

We continue to have some really kind and generous donators and I can't express my thanks enough. You can see all the kind donators in the Thank You thread - you could get your name in there too!

Graphs n' stats n' stuff

Pretty graph time:

CPU usage over the last 30 days:

Memory (RAM) usage over the last 30 days:

Disk space use:

Image storage:

Cloudflare overall stats:

Requests:

Bandwidth:

Unique visitors:

Top country taffic:

That's it from me this month, I'll probably also miss the next one of these too covering September as I'll be in a much hotter country than the UK at the end of the month for a holiday, but will try to play catch up when I'm back.

As always, if I've missed anything or there is something you'd like to see added to these, let me know! I'm always open to adding more to this.

Cheers,

Demigodrick

Hi all,

Time for a bit of maintenance on the server. Including updating the front-ends to their latest versions.

There will be a reboot or two, but downtime should be minimal. If any issues do crop up that affect the operation of the site, you can see the detail at status.lemmy.zip.

Thanks

Demigodrick

Edit: had to delay a little bit because of unexpected work commitments 🙄

Hey all,

Time for a bit of maintenance to the site, including updating all the frontends to their latest versions. There may be a small bit of downtime when the server is restarted, but shouldn't take too long.

Cheers,

Demigodrick

Apparently meant to be a brand new idea

Hi all,

Welcome to the July edition of the server update! Let's take a look at how things went in June and might go in July.

Communities

Take a look at these new communities. If you enjoy them, give them a subscribe :)

• Fediverse
• Star Wars: Hunters
• Daily Games

There are also some existing communities that are looking for mods. Fancy trying out being a mod with a pre-existing community? Now is your chance!

• Tesla
• Xbox
• Star Trek

Server Updates

Since the last update, we upgraded Lemmy to versions 0.19.4, then version 0.19.5 which fixed a few UI bugs. There is still a known issue with code blocks (text that looks like this) where if you're on the default theme on the website, the text displays with a white background. There should be a fix for this in 0.19.6.

The next Canvas event starts on Friday July 12th - we'll make a post with the details about this a bit closer to the time. Last year was great, the Lemmy.zip logo looked great on the board!

I'm thinking about adding another Admin or two to Lemmy.zip, with a focus on content creation and engagement. The time I have to dedicate to the site is rapidly decreasing, so if you're interested, drop me a message here or on matrix and we can have a chat!

Interaction reminder (help support the instance!)

If you’re new to Lemmy.zip - WELCOME! I hope you’re enjoying your time here :)

I am sure that long term readers are bored of reading this now, but it is really is true that the easiest way you can support Lemmy.zip is to actively engage with content here: upvoting content you enjoy, sharing your thoughts through posts and comments, sparking meaningful discussions, or even creating new communities that resonate with your interests.

It’s natural to see fluctuations in user activity over time, and we’ve seen this over the wider lemmy-verse for some time now. However, if you’ve found a home here and love this space, now is the perfect opportunity to help us thrive.

If you want to support us in a different way than financially, then actively interacting with the instance helps us out loads.

Please don't be a lurker! :)

Donations

Lemmy.zip only continues to exist because of the generous donations of its users. The operating cost of Lemmy.zip is over 50 euros a month ($54, £43) and is mostly funded by the community!

We keep all the details around donations on our OpenCollective page, with full transparency around income and expenditure.

If you're enjoying Lemmy.zip, please check out the OpenCollective page, we have a selection of one-off or recurring donation options. All funds go directly to hosting the site and keeping the virtual lights on.

We've also put up a link to our Ko-Fi page where you can donate via paypal instead of using a card. All Ko-Fi donations will be totalled up and added to OpenCollective each month for transparency. I've added a link in the sidebar, but you can also click the image below to go there:

We continue to have some really kind and generous donators and I can't express my thanks enough. You can see all the kind donators in the Thank You thread - you could get your name in there too!

Graph time!

Here's some screenshots to show the performance of the server over the last 30 days:

RAM usage:

Image storage:

Cloudflare overview:

Requests:

Bandwidth:

Unique visitors:

Worldwide traffic:

That's it for now - as always, let me know if you have any questions or there any other metrics you want to see!

Cheers

Demigodrick

cross-posted from: https://toast.ooo/post/3740832

turns out I did my math wrong, so it’s a little less than 30 days

July 12th, 2024 @ midnight EDT

https://canvas.fediverse.events

✨ this year’s event also supports the entire fediverse not just Lemmy!

(you have to be able to make/receive text posts, like mastodon, lemmy, pixelfed, etc) (peertube accounts will not work)

you can get update announcements on other fedi platforms with @[email protected] link

chat about Canvas on Matrix or Discord (they’re bridged)

Hey all,

Today, 10th June 2024, marks Lemmy.zip's first birthday.

Back on the 10th June 2023, I was as disillusioned with Reddit as many others here were, and wanted somewhere I could go where mods and users weren't treated like an end product.

At the time I had been messing with a lot of home server stuff (think Jellyfin and the *arr suite - usenet is great 😉) and figured I could spin up a docker container or two, how hard could it be right?

I'd never even heard of ansible, never changed an nginx config file, hell I'd never had more than one other person use something I'd spun up before. But after a couple of hours, there it was - Lemmy.zip. And suddenly, people were actually joining, posting, and making content. It felt unreal.

Since then, and with an awful lot of help and support from Sami and the community, I feel like we've got a really good, solid, stable and active Lemmy instance, our own corner of the internet where we can't be abused for corporate greed. In this first year, I have spent an awful lot of time learning how to run a so-called "social media" site, how to protect the backend, and how to build a bot to do all the boring stuff.

Linked in this post is a very brief overview of the last year - yearone.lemmy.zip - which gives some detail on how things unfolded at the start.

I am insanely thankful for all the lemmy.zip users, even the ones who only visited briefly. You're all brilliant (yes, even the lurkers 😘 ) and I hope you all continue to enjoy Lemmy.zip for many more years.

Running your own Lemmy server has its ups and downs. Days like today, when I can debug various issues without stressing, push new code to ZippyBot like its second nature, and have the ability to celebrate massive milestones like this, make all the bad times worth it.

I remember about a month or two in to the sites operation, and we'd just upgraded to the latest lemmy version - there was a period of about 5 or 6 hours continuous downtime and nothing I tried was getting the site working again. I was sat with my head in my hands, completely out of ideas, ready to give up. But thanks to the guidance of some fantastic people in the wider Lemmy community, eventually the site came back to life. Many mistakes have been made (many server backups have been restored 🙃) but we've continued to learn and grow, and I think the site is all the better for it.

We've got over 2,500 signed up users, we've recently tipped over 500 active users a month, we're in the top 20 lemmy instances - and in reality, that's all thanks to the mods and users of lemmy.zip. Without you, there wouldn't be any point to the site!

(Interesting fact - our longest serving user is Firestorm Druid - I don't have any medals yet sorry, but you deserve one!)

Looking forward to the next 12 months, I'm hoping we can continue to grow and continue to be a Lemmy instance for everyone. With the increasing enshittification of Reddit (and the wider "traditional" social media sites), I hope many people can escape and make their way over here. The Lemmy of today is a much different place to what it was 12 months ago. Even from purely a technical standpoint, federation is infinitely more reliable, and there are many long-standing servers to choose from now.

So once again I say a massive thank you to everyone. To the mods, you're the backbone of creating content across the whole lemmy network. Its often a thankless job, but here's hoping this goes a little way to expressing the gratitude we all have for you.

To everyone that has donated - I'm still humbled by your generosity. Thank you, you keep the lights on and the bits flowing.

And to the users of Lemmy.zip - thank you for being here. You make this whole thing worthwhile :)

Happy Birthday Lemmy.zip 🍻

Demigodrick ❤️

Hello all!

To celebrate Lemmy.zip turning a whole 1 year old, we're hosting a small giveaway to say thank you for being here ❤️

We're giving away 3 prizes to 3 lucky winners. This will be 1 x £25 Steam giftcard, and 2 x £10 Steam giftcards.

The giveaway will be open for 48 hours from 19:00 UTC on the 9th June, to 19:00 UTC on the 11th June, which nicely covers our Birthday on the 10th :)

You can enter by making a comment in this very thread! Your comment can say or be absolutely anything you want (within reason!)

Once you've made a comment, you should get a message back from ZippyBot confirming you've entered and a ticket number. For transparency, at the end of this we'll publish the entry list and ticket numbers.

You must be a Lemmy.zip user to enter (comments from anyone else will be ignored!) and you will need a Steam account and be happy to send me your username so I can gift you the value via Steam. Your Lemmy.zip account must have been created before the 5th June 2024.

At the end of the giveaway, I'll lock the thread and Zippy will pull three random entries. The first username pulled will win the first prize (£25), and the other two users will win the other prizes (£10).

I've put a few FAQs in this spoiler tag if you want to know more:

Congratulations to the winners! @monoboy (£25) @win95 (£10) @anothermember (£10)

Thanks to everyone that entered and congrats to the winners!

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