So after we’ve extended the virtual cloud server twice, we’re at the max for the current configuration. And with this crazy growth (almost 12k users!!) even now the server is more and more reaching capacity.

Therefore I decided to order a dedicated server. Same one as used for mastodon.world.

So the bad news… we will need some downtime. Hopefully, not too much. I will prepare the new server, copy (rsync) stuff over, stop Lemmy, do last rsync and change the DNS. If all goes well it would take maybe 10 minutes downtime, 30 at most. (With mastodon.world it took 20 minutes, mainly because of a typo :-) )

For those who would like to donate, to cover server costs, you can do so at our OpenCollective or Patreon

Thanks!

Update The server was migrated. It took around 4 minutes downtime. For those who asked, it now uses a dedicated server with a AMD EPYC 7502P 32 Cores “Rome” CPU and 128GB RAM. Should be enough for now.

I will be tuning the database a bit, so that should give some extra seconds of downtime, but just refresh and it’s back. After that I’ll investigate further to the cause of the slow posting. Thanks @veroxii@lemmy.world for assisting with that.

  • SkidFace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1401·
    2 years ago

    Like many others, I came from Reddit and was initially hesitant to try it out, but I love this place so much! It really feels like the “worse” parts of Reddit have been skimmed off, and that definitely shows with how nice people seem here! Thank you so much!

    • impulse@lemmy.worldEnglish
      221·
      2 years ago

      Truth is for me as someone who used Reddit for about the last 16 years, it very much feels like the early days of Reddit again.

      Which is a very good thing, because that’s what I originally signed up for compared to a metric fuckton of karma farming spam bots.

      I just hope it gains enough traction to be sustainable in the long run, especially considering that it’s relying on donations for funding, I believe?

      • bandario@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        2 years ago

        undefined> metric fuckton of karma farming spam bots.

        People are hard at work writing bots for lemmy so don’t worry, you’ll be able to enjoy your regular hogwash again really soon.

        Personally I think lemmy should go as far out of its way as possible to make bots in any and all forms just about impossible.

    • Maiznieks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2935·
      2 years ago

      Found one russian troll already. Oh well…

      Edit: lol, was not referring to OP, it was some world news post comment with chiese username that spread misinformation about russian war in ukraine. I just added my thoughts on the community.

      • BOMBS@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        2 years ago

        you can easily block any user by click on the 🚫 sign under their comment, and never have to deal with their bs again

        • thorle@feddit.deEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          wow, that’s actually a really nice feature. I wonder how it works though, i guess their text just will be blacked out for me, or will the post and all answers to it be completely vanish?

          • Drew Got No Clue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            2 years ago

            They’re only invisible to you, it’s kind of like muting on Twitter more than blocking, as far as I understood. (I haven’t felt the need to do it yet!)

      • Drew Got No Clue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 years ago

        Lesson learned today: never take anything for granted—if there’s a chance to be massively misunderstood, it will eventually happen lol

        • bobaduk@lemmy.worldEnglish
          202·
          2 years ago

          I think they meant they’ve seen one Russian troll on Lemmy already, not that skidface is a Russian troll.

          I … Have to assume so, anyway

        • bobaduk@lemmy.worldEnglish
          15·
          2 years ago

          I think they meant they’ve seen one Russian troll on Lemmy already, not that skidface is a Russian troll.

          I … Have to assume so, anyway

  • notsorryforpartying@lemmy.worldEnglish
    72·
    2 years ago

    I’m not sure how its being done as far as the technical aspects but Ruud has done a great job as admin upgrading the servers to keep up and anticipating the flow of new users.

    The same admin also has experience with a mastadon.world server that experienced lots of growth from Twitter users leaving over musk moves. So essentially we have a good admin as far as I can tell and it’s not his first rodeo. Part of the reason I chose this server

    • prototypeByDesign@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      2 years ago

      I’m less concerned with the technical aspects and more curious about the long term.

      Federated instances, such as lemmy.world, are operated by individuals; What happens if they decide to stop doing so without handing the server/data off to someone else? Do all of our accounts created here disappear? What do other users see if they click through my profile from a post on a different federated server? What happens to all of the content created on the server in question?

      • gregicInfluence@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        2 years ago

        In Mastodon you can transfer your account from one server to another and keep all your followers, follows, etc. The big servers which get recommended around pledged they’d give idk how many days of foreword before shutting down.

        Since lemmy (and kbin) are still really new no system like that exists. But given that they’re open source, heightened interest in them will attract new contributors and development will be faster.

      • stankmut@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18·
        2 years ago

        It would be gone.

        The federated design has got people already thinking about it though. It’s inevitable that some instances will just close without notice. So people are trying to figure out the best way to handle it, from archiving/mirroring to creating an export account feature.

        • Sens@feddit.ukEnglish
          22·
          2 years ago

          It’s very early days and the projects will be developed quite extensively I imagine, this is a chance for some people like myself to contribute to new features and make a real impact on its future.

  • Cool Beance@lemmy.worldEnglish
    531·
    2 years ago

    For less tech-savvy newbies (like me), in case there is some confusion affecting your urge to engage/donate… My friend gave me a great explanation:

    • Lemmy the platform is planet Earth

    • “Instances” like lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, etc. are like the different countries on Earth

    • When someone signs up, the user picks one instance to be a part of, like how an Earthling becomes a citizen of a country

    • If you register at lemmy.world, that means your home instance/ “home country” is lemmy.world, but you can “travel” to lemmy.ml, another instance / “country”, to check out and subscribe to their community

    • When you subscribe to a different instance that’s not your home instance, you can still participate in their content, and other people will be able to see which instance / “country” you’re from

    • Each instance can have its own version of the same “subreddit”, so you can have a c/Memes in your home instance that is different from a c/Memes in another instance. But you can subscribe to both separately

    • c/[community name] is the naming convention used here I think like r/[subreddit name] on Reddit. If talking about a community in a different instance, it’s c/[community name]@[instance name] so like c/memes@lemmy.ml

    • Donations will help with the cost of running lemmy.world only and not lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, etc.

    Someone please correct any of this if any of it is wrong, I’ll happily edit

      • andrew@radiation.partyEnglish
        3·
        2 years ago

        This absolutely is not true today, they create links that are absolute and refer to the host of the community in question.

          • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            3·
            2 years ago

            for a while it will result in a lot of seemingly dead links as small communities will appear as 404s until the remote instance has synced.

            Or at least that’s what i’m seeing occasionally when I try to copy/paste the communites onto my instances /c/ URL.

        • ioNabio@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          right I was just testing it and it auto fills with absolute path using “!”. Using “@” I could only link local communities

    • zinklog@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      This seems like a much better explanation for Lemmy compared to the email analogy everyone writes for non-tech savvy people.

    • slopecarver@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Is there a way to view C/Memes in all instances at once in aggregate? I don’t want to miss out on what other instances are doing.

        • slopecarver@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          I’m new here so I might not be asking the right question. As I understand it there are many subforums one on each instance with the same exact name. Are they all shown at once while browsing? Can they be?

          I wasn’t talking about multiforums but that’s good to know too.

          • foggenbooty@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 years ago

            There can be multiple communities with the same name, that doesn’t mean there are. Like how yourname@gmail.com and yourname@hotmail.com are the same “name” but a different domain.

            So say for example you and your friend start up your own Lemmy instance and decide to make your own community called “Funny” where you can post jokes, without bothering to check if there was already a more popular “Funny” in someone else’s instance. There’s nothing stopping you and now there will be two communities called Funny, but one would be Funny@lemmy.world and yours would be Funny@whateveryoupicked.com

            If your “Funny” gets to be really popular too, then other people might choose to subscribe to both Funny communities, and then posts from both would be in their feed. However they are distinctly seperate and you will continue to own and run yours and lemmy.world would own theirs.

            Does that make sense? I know it’s a weird concept when you’re used to unique names in Reddit, but it’s not all that different from r/news and r/worldnews covering similar content but controlled by different people.

  • delaghetto@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    2 years ago

    So, I just want to make sure I understand this as I am a new user from reddit. Instances are server based and cost money. Instances are Lemmy.World, Beebaw, Lemmy.Film, etc etc. These are all seperate hosted instances. Correct?

    And donations would help pay for the server, ie lemmy.world?

    • ComeHereOrIHookYou@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      2 years ago

      Yes, lemmy.world, lemmy.film, beebaw and etc are other instances of Lemmy and users from other instances can interact with other instances.

      And yes donations help the server afloat.

      Pretty cool stuff.

    • fubo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      121·
      2 years ago

      “Lemmy instances” are analogous to “email servers”: your account is hosted on one of them, but you can communicate with people on other ones, because the servers know how to talk to each other.

      Expanding the capacity of the Lemmy service will involve both (1) more instances, and (2) more resources for existing instances.

    • Crackhappy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      That is correct. I’ve signed up for monthly donations to help cover costs (as well as added tip to help the admins themselves).

  • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    2 years ago

    12k ??? That’s crazy! It was only 500 when I joined 6 days ago, wow!

    No worries for the downtime, when it’s needed, it’s needed :)

      • LordSoren@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 years ago

        May Reddit crash and burn. I’m part of the reddit exodus and the look of Lemmy is close to what I used to get in RedditIsFun (RiF). Going to take some getting used to but so far so good.

  • naughty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25·
    2 years ago

    I hope not all people will go back to reddit as soon as the communities go public again.

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      2 years ago

      The two day blackout was what finally got me to actually look into the fediverse, figure out servers and whatnot, and make an account to try it out. I’ve been meaning to look into it for a while, but the blackout was the push I needed. I’m sure I’m not alone. I’m far more interested in exploring this exciting new space then I am going back to the garbage filled Reddit, even if they miraculously back down on the API changes .

      My reddit account was over 10 years old. This is my first comment on Lemmy/Fediverse.

    • Cycrus93@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      2 years ago

      I will stay here. Did not have this feeling of internet independence for a very long time. I’m done with Reddit.

    • godofpainTR@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      I’m just gonna browse both for a while I guess. I know I’m not downloading the official app on my phone though

      • sorenant@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        I’m gonna browse Reddit occasionally as well due to its large back content, albeit with adblocks and privacy extensions up and running, but I will only post here. Might be a good idea to mirror anything I end up referring to on Reddit.

        • LUHG@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          2 years ago

          Iirc somebody is working on a mirror system. I’ll try find it but it’s on Reddit somewhere.

    • RamesesKnibs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 years ago

      I don’t plan on it. RIF was my main way of browsing Reddit so once that goes, that’s pretty much me done. I’ll probably still peruse sysadmin for work purposes, but my Reddit time will become Lemmy time.

    • kemo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      I am in a transition period where I still keep Apollo installed, and trying to find enough communities here in order to be somewhat ready for the July 🙈

      I have deleted nearly 10 years worth of content and account already. Those leaving should do the same.

    • realitista@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I’m more or less getting what I wanted out of reddit out of lemmy already. There are a few teething pains, but overall it reminds me of the nice little community we had at reddit in 2007. It got better and better until about 2012 after the big digg migration where it started to peak and devolve. I would love to relive those first 5 years here again. I don’t miss reddit at all.

  • Saturn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25·
    2 years ago

    I’m glad to hear about the new users (I myself am one.) and the server upgrades!

    I think lemmy.world suits me better than Beehaw. (great folks over there, no shade)

    I like that lemmy.world let’s communities be openly created by users, as well as the inclusion of downvoting which I personally prefer.

      • Saturn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        That is a good way to put it! Yeah, I can totally appreciate what they’re doing over there, but I’m excited to have lemmy.world be where I call home now.

  • kadu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    Lemmy.world is fantastic, thanks for your efforts. It fit perfectly with all the criteria I had when choosing where to host my account.

    That being said, I wish Lemmy.ml, the “main” Lemmy instance, more often registered communities created here. At the moment, most people just search for communities there and many of our own don’t show up because no user from that instance interacted with our new and growing communities just yet - not only does this create a fragmentation issue, but given the massive load spike, Lemmy.ml is actually running a bit slow whereas Lemmy.world is handling posts better, making interaction easier specially when migrating users from Reddit or other places. For instance, my GameBoy community is ready, with users, and I’m about to post some good content - but as far as someone from Lemmy.ml is concerned, no such community exists.

    • 00Lemming@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 years ago

      My take on this is that we have to remember how much this massive influx of users has been the last few days. Significantly more than its entire history. There is also the learning curve of new users. I think as people start getting a handle on how the fediverse works this will be less of an issue. Overtime this should work itself out. My two cents anyway. BTW also just subbed to c/Gameboy ;)

    • silly lil jester@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I don’t even see any posts from .ml most of the time when I browse for all communities either. They feel bit separate, don’t they?

      • andrew@radiation.partyEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        lemmy.ml is having massive infra issues because it was one of the more linked-to instances in the past. I think it’ll probably start easing up now that other instances are soaking users up.

    • MasterBlaster@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Well, when I search for a community, the results span servers, so I can find and join wherever. It is possible the search feature only includes servers previously referenced, I don’t know.

        • code@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          So how to we solve this? Create a user on .ml and subscribe to the .world community? Or is it enough to just search it up once to it “sees” the other community?

          I can’t seem to get !mycommunity@lemmy.world to work from lemmy.ml either so 🤷🏻‍♂️

          • Drew Got No Clue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            2 years ago

            You only need one account on one instance (except if you’re trying to access something that’s blocked).

            Just to confirm, you’re putting that in the search bar? Make sure to wait a few seconds; it might say “no results” at first before it finds it.

            Once a person does that and joins, everyone else on lemmy.ml should be able to find mycommunity

  • IowaMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    I really appreciate what you’re doing, but I’m worried how this instance will continue scaling. What happens when it gets to 1 million users? 10 million? We can scale vertically only somewhat, but horizontal scaling seems to be limited to “just join a new instance 4head” and that just…doesn’t have a good experience.

    • kcuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 years ago

      Ya what are the limitations with scaling horizontally? Scaling up is a stop gap.

      Ruud, thank you for your investment here though.

    • Ruud@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      This server can easily host 1M users.

      Most stress on the server comes from all the signups and newcomers posting a lot. After a while that becomes less. On Mastodon, the first days in November I had over 100k active users. Now I have 165k accounts but around 32k active.

      And I’m sure the Lemmy devs will also improve the performance of the site. They never really had to, a few days ago the total number of Lemmy users over all instances was 7k.

      • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Is data actually replicated among the different servers? Is (data from other servers) just cached temporarily or is it permanently stored on local DBs?

        I checked lemmy docs but I couldn’t find a clear answer.

        I was wondering what kind of strain the immense influx of people could put on network and DBs other than just servers, specifically in case of the number of servers raising a lot, not just users on a single server.

  • Lermatroid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    Went ahead and subbed on patreon. Hope that lemmy survives the growing pains and can develop some of the community that reddit had!

    Also if there are any fellow former apollo users would def recommend checking out Mlem, its in testflight right now but seems to be working towards the experience that apollo gave on reddit.

    • Targox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I’ll give it a shot! Edit: love the fact that click to collapse is back. No search bar, account info and the occasional crash but the feed looks great! Looking forward to future updates

    • solidsnake911@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 years ago

      iOS only? Or also Android? Btw, you receive notifications on Jerboa? What do you use for Lemmy on Android?