this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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Meta (lemm.ee)

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Hey folks!

I'm writing this because funding for the Lemmy project has dropped to critical levels, which could seriously impact its future development.

Thanks to the generous support of our lemm.ee community, our server infrastructure costs are covered, and we even have a few months of runway. I'm deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed - lemm.ee wouldn't exist without your help.

However, infrastructure alone isn’t enough. Our servers run Lemmy software, and without ongoing development, the platform cannot grow or even be maintained.

Lemmy is an open-source project with many contributors, but the vast majority of development work has been carried out by a small group of core maintainers. A few maintainers work full-time on the project, relying solely on donations and occasional grants to support themselves.

I've seen Lemmy development up close, and the maintainers have consistently gone above and beyond what I consider the standard for small open-source teams - they are constantly writing code, mentoring contributors, and keeping everything running. Their work is essential, and without continued support, it cannot be sustained.

If you value Lemmy, please consider supporting its maintainers directly. Every bit helps.

Please check out this post for more details about how to support the maintainers: https://lemm.ee/post/63034576

Thank you for reading, I hope you have a great weekend!

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[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 62 points 1 month ago (39 children)

People are avoiding supporting lemmy monetarily due to the actions of the developers. We do not reward bad behaviors here. If lemmy development ends most of us will just move to kbin or piefed. This is a non-issue.

[–] peregrin5@lemm.ee 53 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Just like with Elon Musk, if someone wants people to support them monetarily, they shouldn't work hard to make themselves objectionable to wide swaths of the population they are trying to extract money from.

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[–] Jimbabwe@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (27 children)

What actions of the developers are you talking about? I’m not trying to start a fight, I’m honestly out of the loop or whatever.

[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (13 children)

I imagine the biggest point are the censorship, disinformation and tankie allegations. These are all documented in this post. Another point worth bringing up is that they are the admins of lemmy.ml, where most of the allegations happen. Lemmy.ml also has something of a tankie problem and one of the devs has said that the donations will also cover the cost of running the instance. So by donating to the devs you're also donating to an instance that possibly has no problem with censorship, disinformation and harboring tankies.

I would be willing to turn a blind eye if I could trust the devs to step away from lemmy.ml and focus solely on the development of Lemmy. But I don't trust the devs enough to actually do that so I personally won't be supporting Lemmy development until someone else becomes the maintainer of Lemmy.

EDIT: just to cover off the inevitable "what will happen if we stop supporting Lemmy. I don't want to go back to Reddit" fear. If Lemmy doesn't work out and it gets abandoned there's always Mbin. Anyone here from the Reddit exodus knows that it's annoying to migrate but Mbin can federate with Lemmy which means going from Lemmy to Mbin is going to be less painful than form Reddit to Lemmy.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

AND it's open source software. Nothing is stopping anyone from just forking Lemmy.

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[–] person1@lemm.ee 19 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Hmm glad I found this post and the comments. I recently came here from Reddit and joined some random communities just to have something in my feed. I was a bit shocked at hammer and sickle posted non-ironically in the meme group. Noting that communists weren't better than Nazis got me called an ungrateful shit for existing (which I apparently owe to Stalin) and banned. Moved to the second-biggest meme community the search found, where I'm not banned yet but being educated by Westerners that life in communist coutries was cheerful and Holodomor was an oopsie.

I'm glad to hear that this is not all that Lemmy stands for, but a bit disappointed learning that top developers are a part of the problem. I'm conflicted about donating to say the least, and it does not bode well for lemmy adoption in general. I'll stick around to see if other servers gain momentum, but I'll need to keep an eye open for other reddit alternatives I guess

[–] hakase@lemm.ee 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

Most of Lemmy is fine - just avoid the tankie triad of lemmygrad, lemmy.ml, and hexbear and you should be good to go.

Edit: And maybe also the instances that haven't defederated hexbear in particular, since when they show up threads tend to go to shit, as you're seeing here, unfortunately.

[–] person1@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can certainly see that Hexbear and the other two are very vocal and toxic here. Engaging in some discussion or getting my views challenged is fine, I'd rather not close myself in a bubble, but it's sad that they would be so quick to insult and ban you. It does worry that they have some of the biggest communities. I wish I could say "oh well the protocol is neutral" but I think that with most OSS projects it matters tremendously who is at the helm; also, another poster outlined quite well that these instances seem to be the showcase for the system.

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[–] mathemachristian@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

Its supposed to be tankie TROIKA 😤

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[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (19 children)

Noting that communists weren't better than Nazis got me called an ungrateful shit for existing (which I apparently owe to Stalin) and banned.

According to the mod logs the only thing you copped a ban for is being uncivil you lying little shit. And that's even a temporary one at that.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago (29 children)

Communism and fascism are entirely different, and conflating the two has roots in Double Genocide Theory, a form of Holocaust trivialization and Nazi Apologia. The Nazis industrialized murder and attempted to colonize the world, the Soviets uplifted the Proletariat and supported national liberation movements such as in Cuba, China, Algeria, and Palestine. I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.

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[–] Carl@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Noting that communists weren't better than Nazis got me called an ungrateful shit for existing

Calling communists as bad as a Nazis is a form of genocide denial. The Soviets certainly have a lot to criticize but Stalin and Hitler are not comparable historical figures except in the broadest "they both lead a country" sense. You deserved your ban and you should learn more about history before you comment on it.

[–] illi@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago (18 children)

Afaik Stalin is resoposible for more deaths than Hitler. Hitler had concentration camps, Stalin had gulags. Neither was much better than the other.

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago (18 children)

Gulag is the russian word for prison. It's just really easy to make foreign words scary to racists.

Afaik Stalin is resoposible for more deaths than Hitler.

The literal uniform wearing german nazis that convinced you of this counted unborn children due to declining birthrates.

[–] Edie@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gulag is the russian word for prison

According to wikipedia, no, it comes from the abbreviation of "Main Directorate of Correctional Labour Camps", in Russian: Гла́вное Управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х ЛАГере́й (ГУЛАГ).

If you would consult the chart, you will find "Correctional Labor Camp" under the O.G.P.U (as wikipedia also says). Of course, libs can't tell the difference between CLC under the O.G.P.U and Colonies under the PC of Justice and will call both gulag.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago (14 children)

The Nazis industrialized mass murder, and deliberately killed millions in the Holocaust. The Soviet prison system was in no way comparable to the Nazi concentration camps designed to murder and kill, this is Holocaust trivialization. Communism and fascism are entirely different, and conflating the two has roots in Double Genocide Theory, a form of Holocaust trivialization and Nazi Apologia. The Nazis industrialized murder and attempted to colonize the world, the Soviets uplifted the Proletariat and supported national liberation movements such as in Cuba, China, Algeria, and Palestine. I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.

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