Sooo if you skim the previous posts on here, you’ll know that Feddit.uk’s only Admin (@Tom@feddit.uk) has been missing for a couple of months and in that time we were defederated by lemmy.world (although we’re back now) and we are one upgrade behind (just a minor fix) with one much bigger one whistling down the pipeline that may defederate us from other instances that upgrade (it may not but I know most of us don’t want to roll those dice).
We’ve tried various ways of contacting Tom and had no reply so we are forced to move forwards with moving to a new instance.
So, this is the plan:
Phase 1: Register a domain hndone by greatalbatross.
Phase 2: Sort out hosting - done by me.
Phase 3: Start instance - pending a final inspection of the hosting in the next day or so.
Phase 4: Onboarding - this will happen in waves:
Wave 1: Admins go in and make sure nothing is broken.
Wave 2: Moderators sign-up and re-start communities, get any bots running and just generally get a second set of eyes on things so we can be happy that we are ready to let people in.
Wave 3: We’ll start adding people already on Feddit.uk by hand - invitations will presumably have to go to inboxes on feddit.uk so we can ensure no-one is poaching a username for devilment. This will give the system a bit of a stress test.
Wave 4: We’ll let people apply to join and this should get things moving quicker.
Wave 5: Open registration.
Phase 5: Shuttering Feddit.uk - the Moderators will post pinned messages in their communities directing people to the new ones and then we’ll start the sad process of closing down the communities that we can.
Events should all start moving pretty quickly and, whole I may be being optimistic, we will likely reach the point of no return (specifically Tom’s return) in a week or two.
Current Admins:
- Domain: @GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
- Hosting: me @Emperor@feddit.uk
- Instance: 20cx12 and @flamingos@feddit.uk
- Finance: TBD
- Ambassadors: TBD
- Customer services: TBD
There’s a Matrix space that we’ll keep as a fallback in case if problems with the instant (although it will be renamed at some point). It also provides secure encrypted communication if anyone needed to flag anything up privately (and Matrix is built into Lemmy - add your Matrix ID into your profile and it provides a secure messaging button in your profile, so if you need to contact an Admin you can do it directly from there too, at least for me).
Sorry about all hassle, none of us wanted this but it is forced upon us and the feeling from everyone’s previous comments is that we didn’t want to lose what we have here, even if we have to rebuild in a new instance.
I’ll throw the floor open to comments and questions.
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Thanks to all the people working on saving the day! I’ve taken a break from the instance for the time being because of the uncertainty but looking forward to, hopefully, joining you on wave 3.
Looks like we aren’t going anywhere.
It’s really unfortunate it has come to this, but I’m glad people are putting in the effort to ensure the continuity of a UK-focused instance.
Will be unfortunate to lose the “feddit.uk” domain name, as I found it pretty neat and there are several other localized instances with a similar domain. Hope the new one’s decent also.
Sad it had to happen, but thanks very much to all involved for working on a replacement. Looking forward to signing up as this UK instance has been the best part of the ‘fediverse’ for me.
Damnit, second time I’ve had to move now.
Fear not, there’s an update.
Hooray!
I registered for feddit.uk ages ago, never got email to confirm despite emailing Tom twice.
Here’s hoping I can get on the new instance.
I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep but you are exactly the kind of person we are looking to scoop up in Wave 4 or 5. If there are any issues you can message me or one of the other Admins and we’ll sort it out.
Will do. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
No worries. What I’ll do is start a list and pop your name on it.
Wave 3 is for those who have accounts here, so they claim the same username there. Wave 4 will be for those who are interested in an account who currently don’t have one and we’ll get you in at the start of that (or the end of Wave 3), we’ll then open up for people to apply directly. There’ll be a post about each Wave so everyone knows when we’ll get around to them.
The bizarre thing is I can’t create a new account because my username already has an account that I created. But I can’t access that account because I can’t get a verification email, and I’ve emailed about this issue. Who knows, not me 🤷🏻♂️
Hope all is well with @Tom@feddit.uk and it’s just a case of him abandoning his post.
Is there anything we can plan better for the new instance to prevent this happening again? It’s a bit disappointing to have to leave, since we will no doubt lose a portion of the userbase due to this.
I’d like to follow, but don’t know if I will since I may as well just make an account on one of the larger instances.
Hope all is well with @Tom@feddit.uk and it’s just a case of him abandoning his post.
Life gets in the way sometimes. Someone said he might have been moving house, which can be a horror show.
Is there anything we can plan better for the new instance to prevent this happening again?
Plenty - the wheels came off because there’s only one Admin, which would be easy to fix, if our Admin was active. So the first thing is to ensure there’s no single point of failure (to the point that I will change my will if needed) and that there’s always back-up. We’re also sharing out the tasks, to make sure no one person has to do too much and faces burn out.
We’ll also ensure that the finances are transparent, so anyone donating knows where the money goes.
We will also be as transparent as possible with decisions as we’ve seen (and experienced) how doing things without properly announcing them can cause problems.
We’re also open to other ideas and suggestions.
It’s a bit disappointing to have to leave, since we will no doubt lose a portion of the userbase due to this.
We will, but what I hadn’t realised is that we’ll also gain users as some people have been unable to register an account.
I’d like to follow, but don’t know if I will since I may as well just make an account on one of the larger instances.
That’s your call, although the larger instances have problem of their own - the DDoS attacks, the All page being way too much stuff, etc. I have accounts elsewhere and I usually take a look around, go “oh boy” and slink back here. There are definite pluses to being on a smaller instance. If this place had disappeared without a replacement, I’d probably look for another instance that is of a similar size. Or you could get an account at the new place and one elsewhere, see what suits your needs. It’s unwise not to have a back-up, just in case.
0.18.5 isn’t all that great, lots of other instances are waiting until 0.19.
Oh indeed. I think it was just a quick fix (for kbin.social spam?) they just put out to tide things over until 0.19.0. It’s that upgrade that is the concern.
We were kind of using the 0.18.5 as a sign.of activity from Tom as he quietly implemented a previous update.
Yeah exactly, I wasn’t trying to say that it wasn’t a valid point towards the admin’s presence, just that the new UK lemmy may as well wait until 0.19 before it launches.
With the time it’ll take to switch everything over and get people onboard we really need to have the new instance ready well before then because if it does break then it’ll be a lot more if a mad scramble rather than a dignified exit. We will want to be gone and have this place shuttered by the time 0.19.0 comes out
