this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/65824884

Hey everyone

We’re really sorry to say this, but lemm.ee will be shutting down on June 30, 2025.

What you need to know

As of now:

  • New user registrations are disabled
  • Creating new communities is disabled

What you should do:

  • You can export your settings at https://lemm.ee/settings to take them with you to another instance.
  • If you're moving to another instance, consider adding a note to your lemm.ee profile with your new username. Your old profile will still be visible from other instances even after we go offline.
  • Alternatively, if you want to delete your lemm.ee profile, now is the best time to do it, so the deletion can federate out before we go offline.
  • If you're one of the folks supporting us with a recurring donation, please remember to cancel it (Ko-Fi donations should have been cancelled automatically already). Our leftover funds are already enough to cover our bills for next month, so we can keep things running without any more support.

Because of how Lemmy is built, everything posted on lemm.ee will still be accessible from other instances, even after we go offline.

Why this is happening

The key reason is that we just don’t have enough people on the admin team to keep the place running. Most of the admin team has stepped down, mostly due to burnout, and finding replacements hasn’t worked out.

The sad reality is that while there are a lot of great people on Lemmy, there are also some who use the platform to attack others, stir up conflict, or actively try to undermine the project. Admins are volunteers who deal with the latter group on a constant basis, this takes a mental toll. Please understand why our admins chose to step down, and be kind to the admins on whatever instance you decide to join.


We know this sucks. We're genuinely sorry it’s ending like this. Thank you to everyone who spent time here and helped make it better.

– lemm.ee team

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[–] FrostyTrichs@crazypeople.online 289 points 2 days ago (26 children)

The OP has comments disabled and it didn't seem right to not say thank you and goodbye.

To the entire team past and present at lemm.ee- Thank you for the time and resources you poured into this platform. You will undoubtedly be missed.

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[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 137 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Holy shit, that was unexpected.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee 113 points 2 days ago (32 children)

It really wasn't, sadly.

The site founder put in an incredible amount of work setting the place up (something like 10 support servers at US$200/mo), but also tried to be lead admin for a year+, and that's typically an extremely tough double-job to do well on a big, popular site / place. In his various posts he sometimes talked about all the vile content and destructive users the sub-admins had to deal with on an ongoing basis, and it certainly sounds like that burned out the whole volunteer staff in the end.

From my own POV, and something I noticed from the beginning here, is that in the wake of Reddit (and other places) treating its users as assets, it was important to grow a userbase across the Lemmysphere and Fediverse with a strong community spirit. To me that means more participation, more content-creation, and more willingness to be civil and cooperate. Not that these things didn't happen to a significant extent, but it seems like a lot of .ee users and visitors, while willing to hang out at the place, were moreso just willing to soak up the content without putting in much effort to help make the place work. Or even just being toxic and destructive, as above.

A lot more could be said and debated about the whole situation, but sites like Reddit, as draconian as they might be at times, and whatever their other flaws, have proven that they've been able to establish a system that works stably over the long haul.

Me, I love the idea of the FV, and for that very reason have put in almost two years of hard work in to my own project on .ee, but I'm very unsure about the long-term healthy function of the Lemmysphere in particular. More specifically, trying to migrate my project to another instance before .ee shuts down would be a herculean task AFAIK, especially with my having significant new health issues recently.

So, yeah. :/

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 2 days ago (6 children)

More specifically, trying to migrate my project to another instance before .ee shuts down would be a herculean task AFAIK, especially with my having significant new health issues recently.

I can help with that, if needed. I'm going to have to migrate my own communities in the coming weeks, so I can help with yours too.

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[–] Demigodrick@lemmy.zip 115 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ahh, this is really sad. Lemm.ee was always an instance that shined brightly, and @sunaurus@lemm.ee has helped me out a couple of times.

Sad day indeed.

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[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 105 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 58 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sail into the sunset lemm.ee

You will be missed

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[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 95 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Really nice that they're doing a sunset period with advance warning instead of just randomly going dark. As Lemmy's first major "shutdown" we need to accept that this sort of thing seems inevitable from time to time, maybe this can set an example and open a conversation on how to handle this sort of situation in the future. I'd hope this creates some pressure to Fediverse developers to improve portability for users (and communities!) moving between instances, maybe even some kind of immigration/emigration mode for people or communities who want to apply to transfer their account and history rather than simply sign up a new account while posting a link from their old account. Federation should be able to do better than that.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 92 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

What a loss. =(

It's a strange quirk of lemmy that we will continue to be able to see content from lemm.ee even after they've shut down. It'll feel like seeing ghosts.

[–] deus@lemmy.world 62 points 2 days ago (9 children)

A lot of the internet has been lost to time already so I actually appreciate this place having this kind of permanence.

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[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 80 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

Sad to hear, had a very inspired name and the admin was very strong with hosting tech. Unfortunately however a generic instance with lax federation rules and no solid ideology, is a recipe for burning out your admins. The owner seemingly losing interest in lemmy also didn't help.

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[–] WatDabney@lemm.ee 72 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (16 children)

This is sort of unfortunate, but as long as the fediverse remains genuinely decentralized, I expect it's just going to be a fact of life. Instances are going to come and go, alternately riding in on waves of determination and enthusiasm and out in sluggish streams of burnout and ennui.

And in a way, I think it's arguably even a good thing, or at least not a bad one. The basic structure of the fediverse prevents centralization through ownership, but there's still a risk of individual instances gaining enough clout to effectively act as a centralizing force. Not that Lemm.ee was in that position or even headed that way, but still, broadly I think that the understanding that instances are likely ephemeral — that they come and they go, and much more to the point that that's as it should be — is an important one.

And it neatly illustrates a large part of the reason that I have at least a dozen or so accounts scattered around the fediverse, including, for a little while longer, this one.

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[–] simple@lemm.ee 69 points 2 days ago (8 children)

My 2nd cake day was going to be a few days after shutdown :(

Lemm.ee was a fantastic instance, it will be greatly missed. Huge thanks to the admins and owner that made it happen for so long.

A shame the communities will be lost in the transition, the movies/television communities are genuinely cursed. This is the 4th or 5th time people moved that community.

I guess now would be a good time to give Piefed another shot. I love Lemmy and all, but new features have stalled for too long and I'm ready for some change.

So long, lemm.ee

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[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 69 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (9 children)

For lemm.ee users who will be migrating to new instances: You can export your subscriptions and blocks to import them to your new instance! You can export that info in your profile settings panel, and import it from the same page on your new instance.

[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 36 points 2 days ago (4 children)

yep, if you're a lemm.ee user then your Export button will be here: https://lemm.ee/settings

the bottom of the right column

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[–] ShieId1145@lemm.ee 65 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Huh. One of the least expected instances I thought would shut down :(

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[–] fievel@lemm.ee 60 points 2 days ago (15 children)

First thank you for the work (always keeping server up to date, fixing issues quickly, blocking spam,...).

Now time to think about migrating, any advices for another great instance?

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 66 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

General instances:

Sopuli.xyz is a great medium sized general purpose instance. Good admins that update to the latest Lemmy release consistently.

Lemmy.cafe could be another option if you'd prefer a smaller general purpose instance (to help spread the load and prevent the burnout that lemm.ee experienced) that's also run by a solid admin.

Themed instances:

Retrolemmy.com - a cool place for retro tech/game enthusiasts

Literature.cafe - For book lovers and readers!

lemmy.dbzer0.com - fantastic instance for Anarchists and those who like to go Yarr! 🏴‍☠️

Programming.dev - For techies interested in programming and linux

Mander.xyz - Focused on Science and Nature

Lemmy.zip - PC Gaming and Tech focused

You can find more over at Lemmyverse.net

Piefed:

If you're willing to try an entirely new way to interact with Lemmy and the threadiverse, consider giving Piefed.social a try, a completely independent project from Lemmy. It's still a little behind in some ways, but also has a bunch of features that lemmy doesn't. If you're a community mod looking to migrate, Piefed apparently makes it particularly easy!

Also @1024_Kibibytes@lemm.ee

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[–] Ashtear@lemm.ee 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm migrating to lemmy.zip, at least for the short term. They also have public instance reports, which was the major reason I joined lemm.ee. Transparency and accountability is essential. I guess the fact that those reports got more and more sparse at lemm.ee was a canary in the coal mine here....

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[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 58 points 2 days ago

Sad to see it go, one of the biggest instances. But I totally get it from the admins' point of views.

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 56 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I literally just woke up and opened Lemmy to see this. As a lemm.ee user this is sad news but I respect the decision of all those involved as they navigate this

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[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I wish a sincere “fuck you” to all the Russian trolls that caused this outcome.

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[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Wow. This is by far the biggest loss I’ve ever witnessed on lemmy.

I totally understand it. It’s a shame it has to happen. Sending much love to the lemm.ee admins.

Also, generally, lemmy can feel very gloomy, there are a lot of fights and stuff as well. I know we can’t prevent this. But whatabout fostering a slightly less cynical culture? Lets compliment more, be slightly less snarky in our replies. Don’t only comment to criticise. Also comment to praise when you see something you like. :)

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[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 42 points 1 day ago (4 children)

After the call for admins, there was never an indication that the search wasn't going well. Honestly, I would've put some time in (& I'm sure many others would've) if we'd known closure was imminent.

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[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 41 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It was the first foray into the fediverse and helped wean me off reddit. Sad to see it go.

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[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 39 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Is transferring it to someone else in the cards? I have an LLC intended for my own future instance plans, but I'd be more than happy to take over .ee under it to prevent the loss of another good Lemmy-verse instance

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 38 points 2 days ago

It may also be relevant to note that content from lemm.ee will not be deleteable once they go offline. If you are a user on lemm.ee and there is any content at all that you may at some point in the future want to delete, now is the time.

[–] Gork@lemm.ee 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Very sad to see lemm.ee shutting down. I liked it here, the instance was easy to pronounce. Good luck lemm.ee admins with your future endeavors.

[–] Gork@sopuli.xyz 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Well that was super painless. Downloaded my .json settings, imported, and it's like nothing even happened. All sublemmy communities I was subscribed to before have migrated successfully.

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[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The key reason is that we just don’t have enough people on the admin team to keep the place running. Most of the admin team has stepped down, mostly due to burnout, and finding replacements hasn’t worked out.

Lemmy probably needs support for different levels of permissions, like Discord has, and PieFed has this too (but I don't think it's as in-depth as Discord yet)

[–] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 27 points 2 days ago

Relevant issue: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3375

It seems like nutomic is in favor of this idea. He stated that he wanted to implement such a thing in the future when most bug fixing is done. So we definitely could see this during the v1.x.x releases: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/3303#issuecomment-1607459130

[–] QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz 30 points 2 days ago

Dang it! Lemm.ee was formed in summer 2023 alongside the other instances that became the Lemmyverse's biggest, sad to see it go. Thank you for everything!

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Almost as if Lemmy should not tie each community to only one specific underlying server.

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[–] moseschrute@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (16 children)

I’ve only been on Lemmy for a year, but this feels pretty significant. How do we prevent this from happening to other instances? Or do we not see it as a huge problem if we assume most active users will migrate to other Lemmy instances?

Also side note, I think Voyager defaults to lemm.ee.

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[–] Knightfox@lemm.ee 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

What's really disappointing is that I just made my Lemm.ee account because Lemmy.One had announced they were closing down. Kinda disheartening to make a new account only for the new instance to also shutdown.

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