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!
It’s kind of clarifying to check the original post and the attitudes around there. I actually recommend it.
lemmy development mentioned
dessalines criticized
commies counter criticism
thread turns into a shitshow
aww yeah, it’s Lemmy time.
At least it’s nicer than the thread on lw :(
I’m a (small) monthly supporter already! I wish lemmy had a way to give people a little checkbox in their profile for supporters.
or they could work to project completion and not add new features.
I signed up for a medium donation.
While I don’t agree with some things happening on .ml We should not discard imperfect allies. Thank you devs for the great work you’re doing.
Inherently incompatible ideologies =/= imperfect allies
Have you noticed that every other reddit alternative turned into right wing parapolitical forums? That’s so much worse.
Thank you!
ml arent allies at all and they wont see a stinking cent from me
Note that lemmy.ml hosting is only financed via Opencollective. All donations through other platforms go exclusively to developer salaries.
From what I’ve heard they use .ml as their test server and not donations to keep the lights on there.
Do we have any idea of how much they use to support .ml ?
If they can clear this up, it might help people.
Drag would propose that most of Dessalines’ “development” wages are probably being spent on hours moderating .ml, and that’s at least a grand per month.
Your estimate is wrong, have a look at all the code he writes: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Adessalines+is%3Aclosed
The most recent merge request is just him updating the version numbers in all the captcha-related .tomls, lol
I came here because reddit is turning into a corporate shithole. Users getting banned because of Luigi apologia and so on and so on. Was really relieved that we did in fact have a great, open source alternative to reddit.
My problem is the lead developers of this platform. They do not see the issues with their political bias being woven into their platform (and their transphobia), it will face the exact same shit thats happening to reddit today.
I can’t pay money to people who deny the pain of trans people. I just can’t. And if the lead developers of Lemmy run out of funds, well then I guess they’ll have to just take a good look in the mirror if they don’t see the reason why Lemmy failed. For now I’m gonna use lemmy if I can, but you can’t expect people from reddit to come here and support you guys when their is really hateful shit being spewed by those people (tankies).
They do not see the issues with their political bias being woven into their platform
What the fuck are you talking about? Their ideology is not part of the project in the slightest. Which is why every other instance works perfectly even if they don’t agree politically with the dev team
For now I’m gonna use lemmy if I can, but you can’t expect people from reddit to come here and support you guys
That’s because you want to have your cake and eat it too.
Go back to Reddit with such shitty takes where you move away from massive corporations only to leech off small projects supported by small donors and real people.
You’re literally just another one of those people complaining about the lack of alternatives in tech while also being unwilling to support the products you’re currently using and talking shit about…
Cool off.
Why? So more users like you can come to this platform and use it while shitting all over it by contributing nothing to it?
As I already said, go back to Reddit
Absorb the criticism
I’ll do my part, I just wish my country’s currency wasn’t worth 1/6 of an euro :/
Just donate 6 times the amount smh my head
omg I’m so dumb, thank you very much.
Support sent.
Thanks!
Godwin’s Law in full effect all the way down. At record speed I might add.
So right now I’m not in a financial situation that I can even possibly think about donating.
My general issue with FOSS is the guilt trip I go on when devs plead for donations – that’s MY issue, not any of the dev teams – but it plays a part in not using FOSS as much as I would like. I don’t want to sell my soul, but that’s about all I have to give right now so free ad-supported services and software are where I tend to lean to these days.
However, I am trying to put as much focus on supporting less shitty humans and buy locally whenever I can now. I didn’t realize the views of the devs of Lemmy until a few days ago and I’m a little concerned to be even using Lemmy as a whole as it shows some level of tacit support for the devs and their beliefs. If they weren’t open about it, obviously this wouldn’t be an issue but since it’s out in public it’s an issue.
I swear I have a point to all this…
Is Lemmy funded just by direct contributions from users or do instances take extra money from their donations and funnel it down to the main project?
If anyone is familiar with the various 12 Step programs, this is pretty much how those main programs get funded. The local meetings take donations that pay for the rent and any other expenses and then donate left over funds to the main service organization while keeping a reserve for emergencies.
If I were in the position to donate, I would feel much better donating to Lemmy.ee rather than the main project considering their views on certain political issues. I would not be directly donating, but if the instance donated extra funds I might be ok with that. It just feels different for some reason.
You realize it’s the owner of .ee that made the post right. Since the instance is still running, still federated with the main one, and the post is still up, maybe that says something about how acceptable those politics are
Made a small donation. Every bit counts, I hope.
This fuckin spam everywhere today holy shit
It’s so sad that liberals will literally cozy up to fascists and monetarily support them however they can… But a FOSS project run by commies gets them clutching their pearls super hard
Imo, it’s people just rationalizing not wanting to give $5 away. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with deciding you don’t want to donate, that’s your choice, but be honest with yourself. If they weren’t commies, people would be finding some other excuse to not donate.
Just had a whole argument about this on that lemmyworld post that’s at the top about boycotting ml cuz someone brought up how they can’t donate if the developers are gonna use some of that money on ml server cost. They can’t see the bigger picture. Instead they wanna cry over how their $5 or whatever donation is gonna be used. Pathetic.
What’s better is that’s also the user who either watches new on ml like a hawk or has a bot that just scrapes content to pull off ml comms to put on world comms.
i reported a fundraising website for the ukrainian neonazi and murderer sternenko and thats still up, but talking politics online is just inexcusable
The original post on lemmy.ml by the creator of Lemmy had a lot more details, so maybe just link to that one?
https://lemmy.ml/post/29579005
Tldr: They are down to about 1000 dollars per developer and will have to take jobs and stop Lemmy development if they dont get 2500 dollars per developer.
They’ll get more money if they shut down lemmy.ml
Tbh, of all the tankie triad, .ml is the chillest, and my own experience is that, unlike the Nazis, they generally don’t cause issues off server. Now, if you wander into Hexbear and spout some mainstream view, well, good luck, partner, but it’s their server. Besides, I sometimes ask myself what the CIA would do and try to do the opposite for the sake of all mankind. It doesn’t really bother me that they run .ml.
That’s because it’s not really part of the triad. It’s the developer instance, and it happens to be tankie adjacent cause they are
Do not discard imperfect allies.
I do not agree with their political view etc. but I can see that the development of Lemmy is a net positive.
Shutting down .ml won’t save them much money, it doesn’t cost much to run a instance, developing software instead of having a tech job on the other hand…
People will be more willing to give them money if they shut down lemmy.ml
I’m sure people would also be more willing to give money of they were Vegan.
By being overly critical of our allies we damage our movement.
Dessalines is vegan, for what it’s worth. Gave me a few good recipes for seitan!
Drag hopes their financial system becomes desperate enough, and enough people say it’s about lemmy.ml, that they realise they have little choice but to take lemmy.ml offline. If that happened, they would still be able to develop for Lemmy full time, and the tankie nonsense would be gone. Everyone wins.
If they would rather get jobs and stop working on Lemmy than take lemmy.ml offline, then drag’s none too pleased with their priorities and is comfortable enough with seeing them go. Someone will fork the software and keep working on it.
Talked like a first-world-ocrat. You think hardcore communism is only an online phenomenon?
No. Communism has existed in the Americas and Australia for thousands of years. But the lemmy.ml mods won’t admit it. They think communism has never succeeded.
Drag hopes their financial system becomes desperate enough, and enough people say it’s about lemmy.ml, that they realise they have little choice but to take lemmy.ml offline.
The goal is becoming clear. Western-supremacist redditors will not tolerate any communist-friendly spaces on the internet that oppose US foreign policy goals. They can shut our communities down and kick them off reddit, but doing the same on the fediverse is proving difficult. Censorship and anti-communist witch-hunting is their life goal.
For the record, I would never wish starvation on anyone, regardless of ideology. No one should have to be in a “desperate financial situation”, regardless of who they are and what they believe.
You’re not being attacked. People are just refusing to give you free money. Lemmy.dbzer0.com doesn’t have the same problems, and they’re communist.
You can either dig your heels in, cry oppression, and stop working on Lemmy, or you can listen to other people and work to be someone they think deserves their money. “Identifying the goal” doesn’t change the outcome. And it’s wrong, too. Lots of communists on Lemmy who don’t like your server.
To paraphrase Gandhi: “I like your communism, but I do not like your communists.” People just don’t think you’re a good communist. Insulting them isn’t going to get you money.
People should stop being brainwashed freeloaders then
If they weren’t tankies then I would
If the devs shit views destroy the project that’s their fault
As an Eastern European drone developer, I’m OK with donating even to people who might be called tankies …if what they do is building Lemmy. :)
(As a side note, “riseup.net” needs donations too. Anarchist-run e-mail service doesn’t come for free.)
Do you have an extra invite code for riseup.net? I’ve been wanting an account but I don’t know anyone with a code available.
