Lemmy.ca's Main Community

Good morning everyone. Just a quick heads up that I've banned a good chunk of IP space in China due to abusive traffic.

I've tried to restrict this where possible to datacenter blocks from Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba, but China Telecom / Mobile were also heavy sources of suspicious traffic. I doubt we have many (if any) users in China, but if you are affected please let me know.

This has been ongoing for a while and I ignored it initially since the traffic levels were low, but it wasn't anymore.

The ban has very visibly cut our traffic levels:

The maximum statistics shown on the Lemmy statistics page on Fedecan only goes out 2 years at most.

However, since the initial Reddit API exodus is now approaching the 2 year anniversery, this means that after this month, the Fedecan statistics pages would no longer be able to show the activity trends on Lemmy prior to the surge of users in June 2023. This is because after June 2025, the 2 year graphs would cut off before it would show the API exodus, as it becomes greater than 2 years old; and so it would not be displayed in the graphs after that time.

Would it be possible to add an additional set of graphs to all 4 statistics pages on Fedecan to show the all time statistics on Lemmy (i.e. with a fixed start date so it shows all statistics)?

Since the server went off of OVH, lemmy.ca has felt super snappy overall. Tonight I'm noticing lagspikes, and the status graph shows it too...

I'll check back in the morning, site's still usable so not an urgent matter. It'd be interesting for me to know what might be happening.

Morning edit: seems like a one off.

cross-posted from: https://threadiverse.link/lemmy.ml/post/29579005

Since we depend on them to have this platform, it seems fair to spread their request for donations. To be clear, this is to finance the developers who build this software, and has nothing to do with our specific instance operational costs.

From the Lemmy developers

An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:

Liberapay | Ko-fi | Patreon | OpenCollective | Crypto

If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name "Luigi".

Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.

Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can't go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.

Donate

I am new to Lemmy so I may be missing some setting, apologies if so.

Using the mobile app on Android. When someone replies to a comment and I tap the bell icon to see messages, I can only see the reply itself, not what it was replying to. When I click on the message it takes me to the thread leaving me to scroll through the entire thread to find the comment and its reply. This is frustrating and time consuming and I often abandon the discussion because I'm not interested in looking for a needle in a haystack. This stifles discussion. It's confusing because the context of the reply is often lost without it's parent.

As an example of how it can be done better, in Reddit when you click on a comment it takes you to the thread and filters for only the reply and its parent, with the option to "view all".

Is there any viable solution to this? I can't be the only one with this concern.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/35952239

Hey all,

Today, I’m writing to share our intention to join Fedecan, a Canadian not-for-profit organization committed to supporting the Fediverse. We believe this partnership will foster collaboration among like-minded individuals who share a common goal: to create a safe, welcoming space where people can connect freely.

Together we will help deliver a fast, reliable, and consistent experience for all and continue to be free from corporate influence and guided by the values of openness, community, and trust.

Who is Fedecan

Fedecan is a registered non-profit organization based in Canada, with the goal to provide a safe and welcoming space for people to connect with each other on the Fediverse. More information can be found here.

You may also know them by their Canadian lemmy instance lemmy.ca.

What does this mean for sh.itjust.works?

From the outside everything will stay much the same, especially with the admin team. Internally, we will collaborate on tasks related to non-profit compliance, policies, banking and common infrastructure elements such as backup/disaster recovery infrastructure. We will continue to operate separate equipment and instances in geographically isolated locations under different names. We will work towards aligning on safety and security practices in order to ensure that data is secure.

From an organizational structure, sh.itjust.works will fall under the Fedecan umbrella and will share common bylaws, policies, methodologies on best practices, security and legal considerations.

Where do donations go?

Donations to sh.itjust.works will continue to support our mission and objectives exclusively. However, users will also have the option to donate directly to Fedecan, which will allocate funds amongst its projects including sh.itjust.works. Operational costs related to running the non-profit will be shared among projects and these expenses will be transparently disclosed in annual reports published on the Fedecan website.

Option to withdrawal

sh.itjust.works will have the right to withdraw from the Fedecan umbrella should our mutual goals no longer be aligned. In such a case, a predefined provision and action plan will be in place to ensure a smooth transition back to independence.

Why Now?

As the Fediverse continues to grow, we believe it's important to collaborate more closely with others who share our values. Joining Fedecan allows us to do just that, strengthening our operation through a non-profit while staying true to our mission.

Timeline / Next Steps

Over the coming weeks, we'll begin the process of integrating with Fedecan on the organization side. You won't notice many changes but we'll keep you informed throughout the process.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited about this next chapter and the opportunities it brings. By joining forces, we’re reinforcing our commitment to the Fediverse and to the principles that brought us all together in the first place—openness, community, transparency, and trust.

Our core mission remains unchanged. We're still independent in spirit and practice and we remain committed to being a space that's not driven by profit, but by people.

I invite your questions or concerns on this thread or on our https://matrix.to/#/#sh.itjust.works:matrix.org)

Stay connected,

--The sh.itjust.works and Fedecan Team

We're now running 0.19.11, changelog here - https://join-lemmy.org/news/2025-04-08_-_Lemmy_Release_v0.19.11

I got a 7 day ban from Reddit for 'violence' on a shit-posting sub. I suggested our beloved Bonhomme go stomp on the Whitehouse. Apparently, the US is so butthurt from the reaming Drumpf and Elmo are giving them, that they're scared of a snowman from Québec. Makes me proud.

Hey everyone. I am new to the "Fediverse" and I am confused about how Lemmy connects with PixelFed.

As I understand it, you should be able to interact with all the Fediverse platforms from just one platform, but I can't seem to figure out how to see stuff from Mastodon or Pixelfed here on Lemmy.

Similarly, I don't quite understand how to see stuff from Lemmy on Pixelfed. I created a Pixelfed account and tried searching for my Lemmy account over there and managed to find it, but I don't know how to log in to it or make changes to it.

Could someone explain this to me? I am very confused!

If not, are there any plans to set one up in the near future?

I'm new to the Fediverse, but I'm loving it so far, and i'm ready to ditch Facebook/meta... Have been toying with the idea of setting up a Friendica account. I'd love to continue with Fedican if possible, but I am also open to suggestions for other instances if Fedican is not an option.

Cheers!

*Of>If

For anyone that noticed the 30 seconds of downtime a few minutes ago, that was to upgrade us to lemmy 0.19.10.

Changes are listed here - https://join-lemmy.org/news/2025-03-19_-_Lemmy_Release_v0.19.10_and_Developer_AMA

This is not the version with breaking API changes, there should be no impact to any clients.

Enjoy!

In the spirit of [email protected], has anybody printed off stickers for lemmy.ca to grow it in our communities?

Hi all!

I've been thinking lately of following more Lemmy.ca communities where possible in order to help foster growth and community with Canadian fediverse users. I used to have a lemmy.ca account, but have since swapped to PieFed's software and have been finding it to be a much better match for me and my personal usecase.

I was just curious if there was a cooking community hosted on the Lemmy.ca instance. In going to the site myself and doing a quick search on the communities page, I was unable to find such a community. If there is one, I was hoping to be pointed in the right direction, as I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance, and Elbows up!

In the past few weeks the [email protected] community has grown quite a bit. The growth has mostly consisted of news and (geo)political posts, which is understandable.

However, this makes it hard to follow any text threads like these or non-news/political posts. This leaves the only option of either blocking the [email protected] community completely, or having to use a mobile app with keyword filtering (I'm not aware of any on desktop, and keyword filters do not sync between devices yet).

I'd suggest changing/updating the rules of [email protected] to note to users to post their political (and geopolitical?) news threads in [email protected] instead. Alternatively, split geopolitical with (world) news into a separate lemmy.ca (world)news community like with [email protected]? This split community would have a rule that all posts would need to link to a news site or equivalent. Text & image posts would remain at [email protected].

This would make it a lot easier to find text posts, general discussion threads, and image posts without them being drowned out by the news and (geo)political news threads.

One can look to [email protected] and note how that community makes it clear in the rules that politics, (world) news, and geopolitics have to be posted into the Australian politics/(world) news communities. This makes the main Australia community much easier to browse and scroll through without going insane.

Sorry everyone I know how much you love the attention she gives you, but I've implemented some quick and dirty filtering for private messaging.

We now have the ability to automatically mark PM's as deleted or read, depending on content inside of them. If we accidentally filter something you legitimately wanted (ie, not Nicole) please let me know.

If any other instances would like to implement this, here's the code. Note that you'll need to set your hostname at the top here for some reason I haven't exactly identified.

SET lemmy.protocol_and_hostname = 'https://lemmy.ca/';

CREATE TABLE private_message_filters (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    phrase TEXT NOT NULL,
    behavior VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL CHECK (behavior IN ('delete', 'mark_read'))
);

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION filter_private_messages()
RETURNS trigger AS $$
DECLARE
    banned_phrase_record private_message_filters%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
    FOR banned_phrase_record IN 
        SELECT * FROM private_message_filters
    LOOP
        IF LOWER(TRIM(NEW.content)) ILIKE '%' || LOWER(TRIM(banned_phrase_record.phrase)) || '%' THEN
            IF banned_phrase_record.behavior = 'delete' THEN
                NEW.deleted := true;
                RETURN NEW;
            ELSIF banned_phrase_record.behavior = 'mark_read' THEN
                NEW.read := true;
                RETURN NEW;
            END IF;
        END IF;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

CREATE TRIGGER trg_filter_private_messages
AFTER INSERT ON private_message
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE FUNCTION filter_private_messages();

To add filter words:

insert into private_message_filters (behavior, phrase) values ('delete', 'spamtestdelete');
insert into private_message_filters (behavior, phrase) values ('mark_read', 'spamtestread');

If you want to quickly disable / enable filtering while testing:

ALTER TABLE private_message DISABLE TRIGGER trg_filter_private_messages;
ALTER TABLE private_message ENABLE TRIGGER trg_filter_private_messages;

I'll leave it up to you to figure out what phrases to filter on. MAKE SURE YOU TEST. If there's an error, private messaging could break completely. You should not get an error message from the UI while sending a message with a banned word.

Sorry for the downtime! Unfortunately our secondary firewall took over for some reason, and haproxy failed to properly come up.

I'll be scheduling a maintenance window in the next few days to do some further digging, so I can make sure this is fully resolved.

I was wondering if there was really a good reason for CloudFlare to be used? I understand Lemmy.ca has dedicated hardware in a datacenter. Seems odd to pipe all our data through a US company as we are in a trade war.

Does Lemmy.ca/fedecan.ca also own pixelfed.ca?

If so, can someone answer if it's possible to have a private account that does NOT federate your data?

The more people use Fedecan services, the more Fedecan will attract bots.

Which means Fedecan will have to do something for users to prove that they are human. When I joined, you guys had a registration prompt with manual review, but I imagine the prompts you gave could be automatically bypassed by an LLM fairly easily.

The naive solution is to do something like collecting government IDs like Facebook tried at one point. But that'll just drive people away who don't trust Fedecan with that info.

What would be your thoughts (admin thoughts, and community thoughts) to implement some 'proof of unique personhood' process with something like Canada Post Identity+? Basically, Canada Post verifies that users are human and is responsible for taking care of PII, and Fedecan just trusts Canada Post to not let the same user register multiple times. If done well, I think 'Canada Post proves that every user account on this site is a unique human' could be a real selling point for lemmy.ca and pixelfed.ca

Full disclosure, I heard about it in a Reddit thread of people complaining about bugs in it while they try to vote in the Liberal party election. But I bet this is just early adopter bugs, and the Liberal party clearly trusts it with their leadership elections.

Regardless, I think proof of unique personhood is a problem Fedecan will have to solve, and a solution through something as Canadian as the post office just seems more elegant than having the Fedecan admins reinvent the wheel.

I realize you guys (admins) are probably quite busy with IRL work and the Pixelfed launch, so if there was interest in this but no admin capacity to investigate further, I could volunteer to reach out to Canada Post and see what they could offer for non-profit use, including what it would cost Fedecan.

Thoughts?

EDIT: for people concerned about "but then CSIS knows which account is mine", an anonymous credential system like U-Prove could be used to prove "1 lemmy.ca user = 1 unique real person", while cryptographically guaranteeing it is impossible to link any particular lemmy.ca user to any particular human identity.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/39752087, from the [email protected] community

TOTAL USERS is the number of users that registered on pixelfed.ca

TOTAL POSTS is the number of posts from all instances that are now accessible on pixelfed.ca

I was just taking a peek at the various frontends supported by lemmy.ca, and I was wondering if the admins here have any insight into their respective use?

I'm going to bet the default (lemmy-ui) is most popular, but do any of the other frontends get far-and-away more use than the other alternatives? Has there been any trends up or down? Just thought I'd ask.

As an aside, if any of the frontend developers happen across this post, well done to all of you! I can immediately see the appeal of each, so each niche is being filled darn well!

Edit: to be clear, I'm talking about the frontends listed on the lemmy.ca main sidebar.

After moving in to our new server last month, our next large project is to set up some new Fediverse platforms. One of the most requested of those was Pixelfed, which is an image sharing platform.

You should be able to sign up here: pixelfed.ca

As with any new instance, some issues are to be expected and while we've done some testing already, please bear with us as things get going. For any support related issues with pixelfed.ca, please post in the new [email protected] community