cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/65824884
Hey everyone
We’re really sorry to say this, but lemm.ee will be shutting down on June 30, 2025.
What you need to know
As of now:
- New user registrations are disabled
- Creating new communities is disabled
What you should do:
- You can export your settings at https://lemm.ee/settings to take them with you to another instance.
- If you’re moving to another instance, consider adding a note to your lemm.ee profile with your new username. Your old profile will still be visible from other instances even after we go offline.
- Alternatively, if you want to delete your lemm.ee profile, now is the best time to do it, so the deletion can federate out before we go offline.
- If you’re one of the folks supporting us with a recurring donation, please remember to cancel it (Ko-Fi donations should have been cancelled automatically already). Our leftover funds are already enough to cover our bills for next month, so we can keep things running without any more support.
Because of how Lemmy is built, everything posted on lemm.ee will still be accessible from other instances, even after we go offline.
Why this is happening
The key reason is that we just don’t have enough people on the admin team to keep the place running. Most of the admin team has stepped down, mostly due to burnout, and finding replacements hasn’t worked out.
The sad reality is that while there are a lot of great people on Lemmy, there are also some who use the platform to attack others, stir up conflict, or actively try to undermine the project. Admins are volunteers who deal with the latter group on a constant basis, this takes a mental toll. Please understand why our admins chose to step down, and be kind to the admins on whatever instance you decide to join.
We know this sucks. We’re genuinely sorry it’s ending like this. Thank you to everyone who spent time here and helped make it better.
– lemm.ee team
What’s really disappointing is that I just made my Lemm.ee account because Lemmy.One had announced they were closing down. Kinda disheartening to make a new account only for the new instance to also shutdown.
Oh so it’s your fault then. Please stop ruining instances
New phone, who dis?
NGL, I’m pretty sad to lose this handle.
That’s just life on the Internet/fediverse in general, there’s a constant churn of the small websites/instances as people inevitably burn out. You gotta be mentally prepared for it. I’m really sad since .ee was one of the few good instances that federated with the unpopular ones too
The only solution is improvements to the protocol so migrating instances is less painful. A different form of identity (key-based rather than domain based) would be cool to let us keep handles across instances
I also had just joined Lemm.ee, barely over a month ago. I was really starting to enjoy it when they posted the news. Am disheartened, for sure.
Thank you and the admin team, past and present, for their time and care.
Damn, even if it was to be excepted with how the admin issue was evolving, it’s still sad.
But i guess the strengh of the fediverse come from the fact that such an issue can happen without impacting the entire lemmy community as a whole.
I’m just worried that the lack of moderation becomes a recurrent issue in the future of lemmy with the userbase growth and the lack of revenue.
I wish best luck for communities moderators and EE users!
It was the first foray into the fediverse and helped wean me off reddit. Sad to see it go.
“It was the first foray”.
It’s a great concept. This should inspire others. Things can change and get better and grow.
My first foray. Typo. But the sentiment still stands.
The settings import / export feature is extremely cool.
Reminds me of the many times I was banned from reddit for no good reason and then had to reset every one of my subs. So much easier, and just goes to back up the decentralized philosophy of lemmy.
Reddit arguably has no reason for it because if you’re banned you’re not supposed to make a new account. I would never do such a thing!
so where do i go now?
I just moved to lemmy.zip.
i might make one for those. i already made a new lemmy.today, and world just in case.
thank you
you can try lemmy.today. probably best to make different accts.
As someone new to Lemmy, thanks for asking this. I just joined lemm.ee from a Reddit link, and I don’t know all the different flavors of the different domains.
Here are some servers.
And how? I came here due to full reddit ban not cause I knew anything about the platform and wanted in, it I do like the platform and I’m glad I was “forced” to try it. Except I didn’t, and don’t, know what instances are, why they matter beyond “decentralization” and I just picked one at random because I didn’t realize your “instance” could just be removed… if an instance can be removed/shut down it doesn’t seem like any instance is actually a safe place to go since it’s not depended on me but whoever is running it? You can lose your account no matter what. Idk if this means I should try to figure this out, which is just make a new account I think? Or if this is a sign for me to give up my last social media outlet and just be done with reddit/reddit clones in general
The best analogy is still E-mail. [email protected] can talk to [email protected], which can talk to [email protected]. Sometimes an email service shuts down - has anyone checked if yahoo still exists?
So in that case, you have to get a new mail and probably move your important stuff over. It sure sucks, but there is no good way around it, if you want to be able to choose between different services.
Imagine everyone using only gmail: what if Google decided you smell and they don’t want your business any more? What if Google decided to make every login cost $5? Or that you need to say “I love Coca Cola” to read your mail?
I mean, yeah, any instance could be gone at any time. Anything can disappear at any time. Don’t overthink it. Just pick a new instance at random like you did before. Export and import settings. Leave a note on your profile where your new account is. Once lemm.ee is gone, your account’s info page will forever say where your new account is. This instance shutting down doesn’t mean your old comments and posts disappear. Sure, you won’t be able to directly respond to them, but they aren’t vanishing.
It sucks, and it’s an annoyance, but it’s hardly the end of the world.
Think about if this were a non-federated platform. You’d be shit out of luck. All your posts and comments would be gone forever. All of everyone’s content from your instance would just be lost to time when the server shits down. But with federation it gets copied to other instances. It will live on there. The only time it won’t be is if someone makes a new instance after lemm.ee is gone, they won’t be able to pull in old lemm.ee stuff.
Unlike reddit, you can bring most of your account with you to a new instance (a different server. basically imagine each instance is its own mini-reddit, and all the mini-reddits can talk to each other).
If you go to your Account Settings page, you can export your account JSON file, which you can then import into a new instance so you can bring your subscriptions, blocks, and favorited comments/posts.
To help choose a new instance, check out this comment.
Nothing is perfect and nothing is permanent.
If you are extremely motivated to have an account that can never be pulled out from under you, you must run your own instance.
In the fediverse, its plausible to do this and still be connected to others. There are.lots of single user instances. There were some small businesses opening where you could pay someone else to do the admin work for you if you are disinclined to that kind of geekery yourself.
reddit was doing multi-account bans retroactively which was pretty much very rare unheard of. basically any old accounts that participated in the sub years ago were instantly ban if any of your other accounts were subreddit banned.
An “instance” is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There’s a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn’t really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn’t super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can’t ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.
Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity’s sake.
think of instances, like thier own reddit clones. one clone can die and you have to make a new acc with another, apparently this cas was lack of administration/modding, or money.
but instances seems to die very quickly soon after created, thats the only thing. the instances to avoid is the extremely political ones: ml, hexbear, conservative.
Shouldn’t you be fine using lemmy.world?
I’d suggest not moving towards even more consolidation on the biggest instance. It rather defeats the point of decentralisation.
I myself am a lemm.ee refugee (just registered this new account today) and I specifically ruled world out because it benefits the health of Lemmy more to spread users and communities around.
somoene reccommended zip, ca, today.
Okay that’s so thoughtful.
world blocks piracy ones, and the problematic ones.
Ahh I see
The OP has comments disabled and it didn’t seem right to not say thank you and goodbye.
To the entire team past and present at lemm.ee- Thank you for the time and resources you poured into this platform. You will undoubtedly be missed.
why are comments even disabled in the first place?
Probably because if they were enabled it would be filled with people soapboxing about their irrelevant hobbyhorses or offering to help just to keep the instance alive. Neither are useful or relevant. If people wanted the instance to survive then they should have been volunteering months ago, not at 11:59 on the Doomsday Clock.
The sad thing is that nobody knew there was a doomsday clock.
There always is. No one is getting paid to do this, they’re giving up their free time and (often) money. Leaving it to the last minute to volunteer or donate is never sustainable long-term. If people really care so much and are willing to sacrifice either, they need to be proactive rather than wait for emergency pleas for help.
On the other hand, as far as I can tell, they only called for new admins/mods 4 months ago and not since then. I agree that if you care about something, you should support it and not wait until they cry for help, but there is also a matter of being proactive and transparent about how volunteer recruitment is going (well or badly).
Completely. This feels like a major communications fail. It’s a basic technique of fundraising and mobilization: put a big ticking clock on your campaign and people will step up in time.
I think you’re missing the point. The call for new admin volunteers was stickied by the instance for an extended period. Even using an app rather than the web interface, it was stuck at the top of my feed until I hid the post.
The group of people who ignored that call to action yet would have volunteered with a follow-up post of a “big ticking clock” as it were, aren’t necessarily the type of people you want to admin an instance. Especially one as big as lemm.ee. Certainly, if any admin will do then increasing recruitment efforts makes sense.
its probably because its just an important announcement post they plan to pin for the whole month and they dont want it to get filled with people talking in it which could led to the comment derailing the discussion
… They are literally saying they don’t have admins/mods enough. You want to strain your mods? Allowing comments on that sort of post is how you do that.
it could have been a cool free 4 all like in the good old internet times xD
Yeah sure its all fun and games until people start posting csam.
then block them with your user power. i dont see the problem?
CSAM stands for Child Sexual Abuse Material (child porn under its old moniker).
I’m going to assume you didn’t know what the acronym meant because saying “just block them I don’t see the problem” to CSAM posts is very idiotic.
Yes officer, this one right here.
The problem, besides that just being gross, is that hosting csam is a very serious crime in most places. Leaving that unmoderated can very easily end with alphabet agencies from around the world shutting down lemmy instances.
And hosting CSAM is immoral.
Removed by mod
This is sad, but also not unexpected. I’d noticed a lack of engagement from their admin team for a while, and very often they wouldn’t respond to reports. Still sad to see them go, and also slightly worrying since there are a lot of active communities on there and many many users.
they were asking for admins right around the time i joined lemmy, after a reddit purge.
So long, and thanks for all the fish! o7
Please say it ain’t so. I know it’s hard work, but hang in there. The trolling is on hyperdrive now so that people don’t act at this critical moment. Reddit sold out because of Elon Musk, and there is a new need for Lemmy because of it. I would forgive you if you did ads or used AI to moderate. The point is, either we fight the trolls online from the safety of our homes or we will have to deal with them in real life. Trust me, you don’t want that. These are real people with a sick agenda, they are 1000 times worse in the flesh. If you need help, PM me. I’m sure others will step up to the plate. Anyone here willing to help Lemmy, please say you will in the comments.
Sail into the sunset lemm.ee
You will be missed
Ahh, this is really sad. Lemm.ee was always an instance that shined brightly, and @[email protected] has helped me out a couple of times.
Sad day indeed.
I’ll need some time to find where to migrate, if at all. Lemm.ee was very well managed and I would’ve gladly volunteered to help out. My bad for not paying closer attention sooner.
I literally just woke up and opened Lemmy to see this. As a lemm.ee user this is sad news but I respect the decision of all those involved as they navigate this
same
This hits so deep.
Where can I migrate to? I want a similar instance, that doesn’t block other instances, instead lets users decide what content they see on their frontpage, as how lemm.ee did it.
I’d be very glad for any suggestions…
(edit: ended up migrating to lemmy.zip . Thanks everyone for your suggestions!)
Sounds exactly like what we do at Lemmy.today.
That specific part you said, about letting users decide, is the core idea of the entire instance and has been from the start.
But check out all options before you decide. The Lemmy network needs many different instances to stay strong.
just made account on there after someone reccommended it.
lemmy.zip is probably the closest.
i heard lemmy.ca to, eventhough you dont need to be canadian.
I recommend https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/ Cozy queer instance with quick moderation, and open to allies as wellAh, yeah, we do block instances. Only transphobic ones or ones that don’t moderate however.
Mander.xyz is good
maybe thelemmy.club???, if your fine with small instances or a instance ran by one person.
If the reason EE is shutting down due to lack of staff why would anyone go to a smaller one/one run by a single person? This is incredibly likely to happen there too. I didn’t actually realize this was a thing that could even happen, I just picked an instance at random, but picking the biggest and most robust instance seems like the best way to stave this off for as long as possible.
f the reason EE is shutting down due to lack of staff why would anyone go to a smaller one/one run by a single person?
Small instances can have far less drama and workload. Just because an instance isn’t popular and has a small admin team doesn’t mean it’s in danger of folding up. 😀
It’s a fair worry.
As the admin of thelemmy.club though I will say my aim is absolutely not growth for it’s own sake. If the site starts to get larger than I want I will stop allowing signups. I welcome new users, but I’m not trying to be a big instance either.
