Demigodrick

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Lemm.ee didn't shut down because it was financially unsustainable though. It shut down because the admin team didn't want to do it anymore.

Plenty of people have offered to take lemm.ee on and AFAIK nothing has progressed, but handled in a different way there could have been continuity and no need for users to transition away.

Given that the issue wasn't one of finance and rather one of effort/will, how does charging for access change anything? The owner could decide they have had enough, walk away, and shut everything down anyway, no?

 

Hello all,

10th June 2025 marks Lemmy.zip's second birthday!

Following the whole Reddit API fiasco in 2023, many of us moved over to Lemmy, and have never looked back. I remember sitting at my desk (it was a Sunday morning, it was probably raining, it was roughly 10am and I was actually supposed to be somewhere else) and buying the domain, wondering how on earth I was actually going to get a real website working.

It has taken a LOT of learning and perseverance, but since then we've created a fantastic community full over people from all over the world, and Lemmy.zip continues to grow and develop.

As I said in last year's birthday post, running a Lemmy instance has it's ups and downs - some days nothing goes wrong and for a large period of this last 12 months we've had a really stable site, which has led to me even at times referring to things as "too quiet". Oh how I miss those days 😭

But even with all the struggles over the last few months (spam, server issues, lemm.ee's closure) - I have been humbled by all the support and well wishes from users across the fediverse.

This year we've grown to over 4000 registered users, doubled the admin team, and learned loads along the way.

I've highlighted some of this year's happenings in our Year Two microsite: yeartwo.lemmy.zip. (PS - if you're on mobile, you can rotate your device to read it easier!)

You can also see the Year One microsite here if you're curious.

Looking forward in to year 3, I am hoping that Lemmy.zip can continue to thrive, and can become a home for anyone in the fediverse. It's sad to see instances closing, but I am hopeful we can provide a refuge and a space that in time, others can also call home.

None of this is of course possible without YOU. Yes you, reading this.

To the mods, thank you for doing a fantastic job of moderating your communities. There are a wide range of voices that contribute to Lemmy.zip, and your abilities to manage this fairly and consistently are what makes so many communities a success.

To those who have donated, you really are the backbone of keeping Lemmy.zip alive. Each donation means so much to us, and gives us hope that this is a project that many believe in and want to support.

And importantly, to the Lemmy.zip users - I know I always say this, but you make this whole site worthwhile. And I really mean it. Even if you are a lurker, just being a part of this actually means so much to us.

Happy Birthday Lemmy.zip 🍻

0
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Demigodrick@lemmy.zip to c/home@lemmy.zip
 

Hello all!

To celebrate Lemmy.zip turning 2 years old, we are once again 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 Β£25 Steam gifts, and 2 x Β£10 Steam gifts.

The giveaway will be open for 48 hours from 12:00 UTC on the 10th June 2025, to 12:00 UTC on the 12th June

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 9th June 2025.

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 (Β£25), and the other two users will win the other prizes (Β£10).

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


FAQs - PLEASE READ!

FAQs

  • Q) Can anyone enter?
  • A) You must be a lemmy.zip user, have a steam account, and your lemmy.zip account must have been created before 9th June 2025

  • Q) Can I have a giftcard for a different platform, i.e. xbox or playstation?
  • A) Unfortunately not. Those platforms (to my knowledge) don't allow me to purchase a giftcard in the UK and you activate it anywhere in the world. Steam allows currency conversion on gifts.

  • Q) How quickly will I get my prize?
  • A) Steam requires that someone must be on a user's friend list for 3 days before giftcards can be sent, therefore I will share my Steam profile with the winners (or vice versa) and after 3 days of being friends on Steam, I will send the gift over. (Unless you live in the UK, in which case I can send you a code within 24 hours)

  • Q) I think my entry was valid, but I didn't get a reply from Zippybot with my ticket number. What do I do?
  • A) Send me a message asap! You can try commenting again too.

  • Q) Are Lemmy.zip user donations funding this?
  • A) No, just making it clear here that the donations to Lemmy.zip only ever go towards the server and Lemmy.zip infrastructure. The funds for this are coming from my wallet :)

  • Q) How does Zippy select the winners?
  • A) Zippy randomly shuffles the list of entrants in the DB. It then randomly shuffles the list again in Python. Then it randomly selects 3 winners from that double shuffled list. You can see the code for this here.

  • Q) What if something goes wrong?
  • A) If for any reason something goes wrong during the giveaway, it will be paused until it can be resumed. If too much time lapses, the giveaway will be restarted.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago

I very briefly played voidcrew and refunded it. Jump ship is far superior, even for a demo.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 18 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Been playing this for a couple of days with friends - amazing game, demo is great. Like a mix of deep rock, sea of theives etc. Really worth checking out.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Constantly tired and constantly being screamed at, but its all good thank you 🀣

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Yeah spot on, it's complicated by me being a UK resident and also the owner, and so the only way to protect the site without introducing age verification and AI monitoring (which are dystopian measures, not to mention incredibly expensive) without changing aspects of the site, is to just not provide a service to the UK users.

If I wasn't in the UK, I'd just ignore this act like every other admin and service does.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

There is no need for us to defederate, the law is around accessing a specific website and the onligations to ensure the content on that website doesnt fall under the OSA.

It doesn't matter where that content comes from, just that UK users don't see specific content. Therefore we don't show UK users any content.

That's kind of a simplified summary, but hopefully makes sense.

It only impacts lemmy.zip because I am a UK resident and run the site, so am liable under the act. Otherwise I'd do what everyone else has done and ignore it.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 23 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (4 children)

I fully agree with you - I'm legally liable though under the act and am not risking fines.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 45 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Wow, that's amazing πŸ₯²

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 20 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

These days, join-lemmy is pretty good at narrowing down instances to match your likes.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 118 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Ahh, this is really sad. Lemm.ee was always an instance that shined brightly, and @sunaurus@lemm.ee has helped me out a couple of times.

Sad day indeed.

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

https://lemmy.zip/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsopuli.xyz%2Fapi%2Fv3%2Fimage_proxy%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fi.imgur.com%252FB7mmZaQ.jpeg

429 error - image is rate limited I would assume, potentially by sopuli given the url and the fact it works on sopuli. Second time today I've seen the lemmy image proxy cause an issue with being double proxied!

[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We haven't defederated with .world.

 

I sincerely hope they win

 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/31644782

Hi All,

Some sad news, but it has become apparent in order to safeguard the longevity of this site, there are no options left other than to cease allowing people from the United Kingdom to access Lemmy.zip.

Just to reassure everyone else right at the start - this ONLY affects users from the UK accessing Lemmy.zip. There is no effect on everyone else, and nothing in your Lemmy experience will change.

Due to the implementation of the Online Safety Act, we will be restricting access to Lemmy.zip to UK users starting 15th February 2025 β€”one week from today.

Why is this happening?

Lemmy.zip is hosted in Finland, and we have always strived to operate with respect for privacy and in line with all applicable laws. However, the UK’s Online Safety Act presents significant legal and operational challenges for small, independent fediverse sites, just like this one. The Act’s vague and overbearing requirements, combined with the potential for disproportionate and extreme fines, force us to make this decision to protect both the site and its users.

This law impacts a wide range of content with vague or conflicting definitions, and as a volunteer-run site, we cannot ensure full compliance. We do not wish to compromise your privacy or force you to verify your identity through intrusive age checks, which is the only method allowed under the Act. Therefore, we have no choice but to block access from the UK.

This won't impact on federation, nor accessing the communities from an instance that tries to comply with (or ignores) the Act. Obviously if you're from any other country in the world that isn't the UK, this won't apply to you at all.

If this affects you, then you are able to export your data (subscriptions etc) from your profile settings, and import them on to another instance (Feddit.uk is a good shout for brits!)

Unfortunately this is also brought about by my personal circumstances as the site owner - I'm not in a position to just ignore the Act like many are. Complying with the act would mean we would either have to implement Age Verification for all users to access the site, or we would have to disable NSFW entirely, which means communities that use NSFW tags for spoilers or content warnings also wouldn't be accessible.

For those curious, UK users will instead be directed to this page when they try access the site.

This has been a really hard decision to make, and I fear many more fediverse sites that are somehow linked to the UK will need to take this step in order to protect themselves.

If this is overturned by the courts in the UK, then the block will be removed as soon as possible. I have my fingers crossed.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Demigodrick.

 
 
 
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