this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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[Solved] What just happened to 4 million posts? (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by flamingos@feddit.uk to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
60 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Stats from here: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats

Like, has an instance gone down and if so, why hasn't there been a comparable drop in users and comments?

Edit: Thanks to @example@reddthat.com here for pointing to zerobytes.monster becoming more aggressive against bots as the likely culprit.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 90 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It may have been lemmy.zip

It did in fact go down for about 48 hours... prompting me to make this new account on dbzer0.

Basically, the admin attempted to update to a newer lemmy version... and it failed, multiple times, and they just rolled back, restored the old version, posted an explanation and apology, and they'll be further looking into ... exactly what went wrong.

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 36 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But zip has < 50K posts.

[–] SquiffSquiff@lemmy.world 51 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe they unzipped the archive? /S

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

i apparently cannot figure out ascii shrugs, nvm

I don't know exactly how that post counter ... actually, technically counts posts, but:

1:

Zip going down could have uncounted all posts anywhere made by zip accounts.

2:

There could have been some kind of... propogating post count negation effect, as various other instances reacted differently to zip users posts on their instances could not pull them anymore, on different time scales.

3:

If a zip user had a ... top level comment, on another instance, its possible all lower level comments responding to that comment may also have poofed out of existence, in some respect.

...

I may be misusing some terminology here, and this is just spitballing, but yeah.

Almost all of my .zip account's posts/comments... are not on zip itself, and its possible that that is fairly common amongst .zip users.

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

i apparently cannot figure out ascii shrugs, nvm

¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ => ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just so we're clear, what this crawler does is go through all servers that use ActivityPub known to it, and congregate that data to a list of known services (Lemmy, Mastodon, Piefed etc.). How is does that is by querying a standardised end point to get the instance info (.well-known/nodeinfo which will then point to a different path to get the actual info).

For instance, here's what it will collect for feddit.uk:

nodeinfo json

// curl -s https://feddit.uk/nodeinfo/2.1 | jq
{
  "version": "2.1",
  "software": {
    "name": "lemmy",
    "version": "0.19.10-feddit",
    "repository": "https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy",
    "homepage": "https://join-lemmy.org/"
  },
  "protocols": [
    "activitypub"
  ],
  "usage": {
    "users": {
      "total": 4184,
      "activeHalfyear": 718,
      "activeMonth": 485
    },
    "localPosts": 25750,
    "localComments": 122835
  },
  "openRegistrations": true,
  "services": {
    "inbound": [],
    "outbound": []
  },
  "metadata": {}
}

The important stat here is the localPosts, which is all the posts made by local users in any community, local or remote. It does not include posts by users from remote instances made in local communities. You can also see this data on the instance sidebar in lemmy-ui.

lemmy.zip going down will only reduce aggregated stats for total posts by 47,280, as that's what they report for their localPosts.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Huh.

Well, I appreciate the info and shrugging magic, but uh... hrm.

I dunno then.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

Do comments count as posts? Because losing all comments from an instance would probably explain such a huge dip

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 17 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Is divide by zero becoming the most based instance? How did a single bro make best lemmy?!?

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's a pretty cool instance. The governance is transparent with a nuanced voting system, the rules and policies are indeed based, and db0 takes decentralization so seriously that he's apparently working on safeguarding the instance against his own influence with the governance system and admin recall votes and such.

Thanks db0 et al!

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

That's the most based thing I've heard all year--where can I learn more about this decentralization endeavor?

That's it--I'm making an account now. This comment sealed the deal

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

More details in the announcement post: "Adding two new admins and introducing radical recalls"

The voting system allows for the community to decide on instance policies, federation decisions, even a process for instantly recalling admins like himself. He acknowledges that as server owner there is only so much that can be done to limit his power, but he appears to walk the walk. Cool stuff.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Db0 is super into decentralization! Everybody should make their account there!

...wait.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd say dbzer0 is probably the most leftist, at least from what I've seen. I personally don't go as far as being an anarchist but can appreciate the philosophy. I probably have more in common with anarchy than democratic/plurality governance, if I'm being honest with myself.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wait... dbzer0 is "divide by zero"?

I've been reading it as "dibzer nought"

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If I were to pronounce it outloud, I would say:

D. B. Zero.

Like D. B. Cooper, lol.

the... zer(o), 0 swap is... basically old school l33tsp34k... like uh... l00tb0x, pr0n, type of ... dialect? syntax?

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

I thought it stood for database zero.

[–] moakley@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Lately I've been seeing a lot of comments coming from that instance that are indistinguishable from the ones I see from .ml.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 8 points 2 weeks ago

Bc he's just that chill, obviously! 😁

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hm, could be indeed

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

https://lemmy.zip/post/35999238

Here's the post.

Evidently, Demigodrick has since fixed the problems and successfully upgraded to 0.19.11

https://lemmy.zip/post/36177918

EDIT: Alternate explanation: The fediverse tracker has fallen victim to Trump Tariffs as well rofl.