This post is going to be a long one, to spare you some reading I’ll do a TL;DR, but I really would appreciate you reading the whole thing.

TL;DR: Burggit (The Lemmy Instance) will be shutting down July 14th 2024. Due to lack of funding, grievances with the Lemmy software and lack of resources, energy and interest on our part. We’ll be giving one month for everyone to move their local posts somewhere else and download their images. shota.nu will not be shutting down, so images/video hosted there will be fine, but they will not be viewable on the Lemmy Burggit since we’ll be shutting the webpage down after July 14th 2024.


Now for the whole post.

Back when we started Burggit I was in great health, I was managing multiple sites at a time and constantly adding things to my plate, which were managable while I was in that state. Burggit was an excited project that I asked Burger to set up, because I didn’t (and still don’t) have the knowledge to maintain. At worst, I thought it could be a fun little place for us and a few friends to mess around and kinda use as a link archive. I even offered to pay for it, since burger is in a difficult financial situation.

Things went well shortly after it was up, we didn’t have hardly any users, just a few friends like I originally intended. Then the Reddit API stuff started going in full swing and suddenly people started wanting to join. This was a very exciting time for us as the site grew. It got to the point where my wife even had to help us with managing everything, since she was usually up when Burger and I were asleep. Everything was going rather well.

Then I got sick, I got so sick that I almost died twice, I lost half of my lunge and 2 of my ribs, and I was in and out of the hospital for almost a year. During this time, I could not participate in Burggit, and honestly, I was barely able to fund it. Though I eventually did come back, but it was never like how it was before I got sick.

My financial and physical resources decreased significantly as a result of my health, I can’t manage or juggle as much as I could and I will probably forever have a slower paced life because of the events that transpired.

Then there’s the Lemmy software. The amount of hoops that burger has to go to in order to bring you this site is ridiculous. To give you an idea of how bad this software is, there’s no easy way to check all the images uploaded to the site (such as through private messages). When the obvious concern of potential illegal imagery is brought up to lemmy devs, they shrug and say to plug in an expensive AI image checker to scan for illegal imagery. That response genuinely has me thinking that this is by design, and they want it to be like this. We can’t even easily look at the list of registered users without looking through the DB, absolute insanity.

The other thing is there’s no real way to manage storage properly in Lemmy, the storage caches every image ever uploaded to any instance forever.

Also the software is constantly breaking.

This site has become more of a burden for us, for me financially as I have been the sole person funding it (aside from like 2 or 3 individuals who donated a bit ago, thank you to those people.) It’s just not worth our time anymore and it’s not something I want to fund anymore. People seem to like this instance, so much so that it feels like the second it goes down we’re made aware of it. But, aside from that we’re on our own. We’re only federated with a few instances due to the way the threadiverse is, we’ve been literally locked into our own bubble and have been funding this project and been allocating time (sometimes a lot of time) into making it operational. We just don’t have the ability to do that anymore, not unless something big changes, but I don’t see that coming.

Now you might be wondering, “What about the Sharkey?” The Sharkey is easy to manage, is widely federated and is easy to manage storage and much cheaper to fund. It doesn’t cause even a third of the hassle Lemmy does.

I’m very sorry to make this announcement. Both Burger and I were trying as much as we could to keep this up as long as possible, but it has officially reached a point where we just can’t do it anymore.

  • blue_nat@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    Muchas gracias for giving folks a place to land when everything else blew up. I’m sorry to hear how things have been going offline and I hope you and the whole team have smooth sailing ahead.

  • CookieJarObserver@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    Sad to see this server dieing, but understandable. Lemmy just kinda sucks.

    Most here replaced Reddit, a autocratic shithole with lemmy, wich quickly turned into something worse, like everyone is doing whatever they want and there is so much political extremism, especially left wing antisemitism that i thought about going back to reddit for a while, i won’t. But not because of the moderation like here, just because their app and website sucks ass worse than fucking Facebook, idk how they messed up so much in such a short time.

    Oh and don’t get me started on lemmy.world wich is just reddit on crack, and everyone in the censorship system should just delete their instance.

    I’ve begun to hate the internet more and more over the last years, everything went to shitty data grabbing systems or is run by either Nazis or hardcore Commies.

    I still don’t know what to think about Sharkey there is a lot of the political extremism i mentioned (more the right wing than left), even more obvious than here, but it seems its just some very loud individuals rather than entire instances with thousands of assholes.

    This is probably the last thing i do with this account, maybe on lemmy in general who knows.

    In the end, i just want to say fuck you to everyone on lemmy.world, lemm.ml, lemmygrad.ml and whoever else lets me live rent free in their mind (i know some mods and admins on reddit still remember me XD), my ghost reaches back to Digg i had over 300 reddit accounts in my almost 15 years there and ive burned through about 50 lemmy accounts by now, i wont stop trolling, i won’t stop smearing facts into the face of people that get hurt by them and i wont die anytime soon thankfully.

    Thanks to Burger and Disa for one of a few lemmy instances that wasn’t shit and had a nice community, it was fun and welcoming here.

    PS: i have to admit, I’ve blocked all the loli communitys ive encountered… I don’t like it, but i cant be bothered to moderate my communitys (i have a busy work life and travel the world for it, i just want to relax afterwards) and i don’t like getting banned for not guessing the age of a fictional character wich is decided by a dice roll anyway, i also don’t give a fuck about people liking it, its not hurting anyone. Thanks again for a place i liked to be in the internet.

  • What a story Mark@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    Respect for keeping it up as long as possible given the multiple situations. I really dig the Sharkey instance, so I’m glad that will stay alive.

  • OrcishOatmeal@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    Sad to see it go like some others, and hopefully the sharkey thing will get popular

    Also, is there any way to backup my account/favourites?

  • BoredCraft@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    If the sharekey , at least will be up, then the sadness will not be that long. Was good while it last . I hope someday a reddit like(trully) activity pub implemrntation will came and would be without a hassle to maintain. Glad , there was people with balls which trully understand what does it meqn free speech and what bounderies between fictional and reality. I hope your health will be improving as well as financial situation.

    Question about shota.nu . It was developed byone of you and hosted on the same server or it has its source code deployed and ready to use its services?

    Kbin instance was hard to maintain as well or too expansive?

    • Disa@burggit.moeOPM
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      5 months ago

      Kbin has many of the same issues lemmy does, specifically there’s no way to clear old image cache making it essentially a growing storage nightmare. There’s also been no updates to the software in over 4 months and the last time burger tried updating it, everything broke, forcing us to go to a backup.

      It feels like it would be going down a similar rabbit hole where the expense the instance would require to keep running would just grow and grow, and I wouldn’t be able to shoulder such a growing expense.

      However, we’d be willing to look into setting up mbin as the project matures, since it’s getting updates rather frequently.

      as far as shota.nu. It’s running open-source software called linx-server

    • mcuglys@burggit.moe
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      4 months ago

      Ehhhhh head to Dill.burggit.moe, it is not that bad. Make some text posts, it’s mostly just porn pics with no comments (like this site), we could use it. There’s not enough support from other lemmy instances to make a place like this worthwhile but there is enough support from other fediverse instances to make the other site worthwhile. I don’t like that it has a twitter-style interface but hey, there’s people over there.

  • Laffoe@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    I joined rather late so im sad to see it go but reading the story i completely get it. Good luck with your health and thanks a lot for the short time i was able to enjoy it. Now to figure out how to use the sharkey instance

    • Burger@burggit.moeM
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      5 months ago

      I really should write up a guide for it. I’ve just been procrastinating on it. The gist of it is that each timeline has the following:

      Home: People you follow

      Local: Everyone in your instance

      Social: Home + Local

      Bubbles/Reccommened: Servers the admin reccomend (like a network or webring)

      Global: Every server the instance is federated with

      I’ve chosen these instances for the bubble timeline:

      varishangout.net

      bae.st

      pleroma.skyshanty.xyz

      shota.house

      kyou.social

      breastmilk.club

      lain.com

      burggit.moe

      uoh.cx

      shortstacksran.ch

      baraag.net

      shrine.moe

      dill.burggit.moe

      akkoma.kikuri.moe

      binky.fish

      kitty.haus

      cannibal.cafe

  • Spiffy Diffy@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    as long as the Sharkey instance is able to stay up, I’ll be okay. I’m a bit sad about my communities and the posts I made, but that’s mostly all. I hope not having to worry about lemmy anymore will make things easier for you guys

  • BoredCraft@burggit.moe
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    4 months ago

    Will be this domain “burggit.moe” be used to redirect to dill.burggit.moe? Everytime when I search for burggit, always I get the first result(and only) about this. The discoverability of sharkey is very low compared to lemmy instance. May for me only, but I wanted to let you know about it. As last words for the counted days for this instance, citing from a meme(dont take it seriously): “Fuck you and I will see you tomorrow”

    • Burger@burggit.moeM
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, it’ll redirect. If for some reason that messes with federation for the Sharkey instance since a lot of lemmy instances will keep trying to make requests to the site even when the instance is down, I’ll end up putting up an HTML page saying that Burggit has shutdown and link to dill.burggit.moe.

  • MelloNecko@burggit.moe
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    5 months ago

    im on skarky now and its very nice im wonder what that meand for this platform will people still be allowed to post or will this site be like a archive

  • Zorothex@burggit.moe
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    4 months ago

    This is very sad to see happen… I was trying to support you guys so hard, and managed to bring over many Reddit users. I wanted to motivate them, but they saw this platform was not really doing well, and I hoped that with enough help and users it could become better than Reddit.

    But you’re not gonna see me on the Sharkey…

    Not only do i not like that the creators of the platform’s donation page is not “To Sharkey”

    but it’s “To Transfem”.

    Which feels wrong, and shilling something that IMO should remain unrelated to moderating/controlling/financing a platform such as Sharkey.

    On top of that, I saw you guys are welcoming MAPs, and your argument for people not needing to worry is that you will not defederate certain instances. Which is great and all, but they will defederate you.

    But the real reason this is a problem to your users, is that Lolicons tend to not really like being among/compared to MAPs.

    In my honest opinion, the only reason someone is a MAP publicly online, is to bait people into contacting them for it, it feels like a fucking trick to find people to exchange with. It’s something I will never support.

    And as a proud and oldhead Lolicon, I do not identify these people as one of us. No, never. They’re not the same. Not only is their want not fictional, their want IS a risk, and the only difference between a MAP and the real thing, is what moment in time they are in, give it a couple years, they might have Digivolved into the real menace.

    If you had picked a provider where I can trust in unbiased freedom and not have to deal with people who like REAL children, and thus also be accused of being one because I choose to be among them(no thanks), then maybe I’d have stuck around. But this is not it Disa and Burger. This is totally not it.

    You guys are sadly not the cunny Valhalla that I hoped you to be.

    • Burger@burggit.moeM
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      4 months ago

      Honestly? Good riddance. If your opinion on which software we use is what makes you not want to use our instance and the fact that MAPs are allowed on our instance, which is just me feeling like I owe RQD2 a favor for having our backs when we got widely defederated on here makes you not want to join up, then fine. Don’t use it.

      I spent weeks going over which fork of Misskey we’d like to use since they’re all similar but have their own set of issues. Those being, some aren’t maintained (Firefish), others (Iceshrimp) are moving completely to C#, or some are in the beginning stages of their fork (Catodon.) I had my reservations about choosing Sharkey because of the transfem stuff, but the thing is, that:

      • They’re a soft fork of Misskey meaning that if the project dies, we have a way of going back to Misskey if the need arises
      • They have the bubbles feature which is where a list of instances that the admin approves of are in its own separate timeline. A feature I especially desire because the complete fediverse timeline can get pretty noisy, IMO.
      • They’re being actively maintained. Their Discord has a lot of activity. And their git repo has signs of life.
      • It has 1:1 compatibility with the Mastodon API. Which means Android apps like Husky, Tusky, Fedilab all will completely work with the software.

      So me being the pragmatic person that I am chose Sharkey for the reasons outlined above. Again, this was me taking a couple of weeks of my free time trying out the various forks of Misskey to see which ones that I like and will make sure we aren’t screwed somewhere down the line if the project ends up dying or if the maintainers have a falling out which kills the project.

      Now for the MAP thing. I have been outspoken about 100% being opposed to MAPs on our Matrix and RQD2’s Matrix. They haven’t banned me because of this and they have chosen to remain federated with us despite us being more of a free expression-y instance that a lot of the peeps on there would find distasteful, I feel that I owe RQD2 a thanks for having our backs when we have been widely defederated, and that’s why I went with the compromise rule that I came up with.

      This post came across as you pissing and moaning about how we run things despite the fact that we are self-funded and don’t ask for donations. We do this in our free time, so this honestly came across as a slap in the face as well as exceedingly ungrateful.

      • Zorothex@burggit.moe
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        4 months ago

        First off, respectfully,

        you can assume it comes off that way. But we both know that’s not the point, the case, or the intention.

        Lolicons and MAPs are not to be confused as similar or allied. And I will forever hold the statement that one who openly claims to be one in public is not to be given respect. Because it is a form of sneakily solliciting.

        RQD2 is not a thing I entirely trust to begin with, have heard bad things, and on rqd2 itself i see a bunch of Pro MAP shit, yet they ALSO allow people starting at age 13 there. Ridiculous.

        We can spin what I said long and wide. But I didn’t say that. Slap in the face? absolutely not and you know that.

        You don’t need to keep bringing up it’s self-funded, I’m well aware. I actually heavily supported this place for a good while, and taught countless people about using Matrix/Element after learning about it from this place, and did my research on this site to make sure it was a great place to be for the literal 50.000 lolicons I lead that are being oppressed all the damn time…

        I don’t think allowing people publicly attracted to real children is a great way to “thank someone” for having been helpful.

        And I’m sorry if you think differently, but if you’re actually against it, I don’t think it makes sense to allow it. I am pretty sure rqd2 should understand not allowing it, but alas… No amount of “we self fund” will be a decent excuse for such a moderation decision in my eyes. And also not sure how that applies to it in the first place.

        The thing is. Someone can “be” a MAP in silence for as long as they want, right?. But being one PUBLICLY. Online? Sorry, as a psychologist I see this as only being done for 1 purpose, and 1 purpose only.

        I respected the thing yall had going here with Burggit. And I wish you the best on Sharkey. (It looked nice over there. But I don’t like to risk dealing with a platform run with a very gendercentric agenda as their main thing, that type of stuff is why so many platforms are dying. Everything is censored because of that “agenda pushing” culture because everything is too offensive now, that’s why we want to move away from Reddit.)

        But I’m not supporting no MAP type stuff mate.

        Cunny is Cunny. Those who like real kids should not be accepted like it’s some fucking gender identity.

        Again, respectfully,

        I completely disagree with this MAP decision.

        If it was just the Sharkey thing I’d be okay, but wary.

        But outright openly stating “Hey, MAPs are welcome” is not a notification I wanted to see when opening Sharkey yesterday.

        • Disa@burggit.moeOPM
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          4 months ago

          I know you’re replying to Burger, but I had some things I wanted to share about my views on this topic and why I personally think the way I do.

          First, before I add anything, I must clarify I do not support/endorse/encourage any activity involving sexualizing a real life minor.

          Now for my opinions on MAPs.

          You mention that you view MAPs as a way to publicly signal a sort of “Hey contact me for you know what. ;3” And I’m not saying there aren’t people like that, I’m positive there are. How I view it though is being a pedophile is literally the worst thing in the world anyone could be. Like actually a terrible curse. While i’m sure some pedophiles have no issues with this affliction they are given. I feel like the most unfortunate thing is that those who do feel bad about it have 2 options.

          1. keep it secret and never tell anyone ever and just try their best with their own thoughts.
          2. occupy other pedophile spaces and have other pedophiles tell them “you’re normal, it’s OKAY to sexualize children!” and essentially be sent to an echo chamber.

          If a pedophile was to try and get therapy, they’re going to get arrested, they’re not going to get help (with a few exceptions depending on the country.)

          I always felt that was the difference between “pro-contact” and “no-contact” MAPs, the “pro-contact” maps being more likely to be ones who are fine with their affliction and find absolutely asinine ways to justify it and indulge in it. Where as the “no-contact” MAPs are more likely to be people who admit “I have a problem.” And I know this isn’t the case for everyone. I just think excluding these people just serves to further radicalize them.

          This is basically my opinion on other groups as well. I believe that blocking these people off just serves to further radicalize them as they find their own little echo-chambers which do nothing but encourage ever-growing dangerous urges and behavior. This isn’t saying that this will prevent people from finding those places and going into those echo-chambers, but it’s giving them the option not to.

          To be clear I’m not asking you to change your opinion. You seem to be rather reasonable as to why you think what you do, I actually appreciated the clarification in your post. Wanted to kind of do a little clarifying of my own.

    • Disa@burggit.moeOPM
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      4 months ago

      Sharkey is a platform, just like Lemmy. Lemmy is a project ran by several communists (The official Lemmy instance will ban you if you say negative things about the CCP). Sharkey is the most fully featured Misskey fork. We chose it entirely due to that and separate from anything else. It does not mean we agree with their politics (because we don’t)

      We’re not “welcoming” MAPs we just aren’t excluding them. Burggit has always allowed MAPs to exist on the platform, this has never changed. We take a very similar stance (if not the exact same) on the Sharkey, we even explicitly do not allow anything supporting or endorsing actual child endangerment/abuse. It’s stupid to exclude someone if they are following the rules of the platform. If they are managing to behave themselves and maybe subdue their urges through non-violent/non-harmful means, I sure don’t have a problem with that.

      The people who would defederate are going to do that anyway. My own separate instance, Shota.house has been defederated to hell and high water, despite only having a single digit active user count. There’s not realy any instance I can think of which allows loli/shota. But would ban an instance outright for simply allowing MAPs to be on the site, provided said MAPs were behaving themselves and were not encouraging/endorsing any dangerous IRL activities. Anyone else would’ve likely defederate us, regardless of whether we allowed/disallowed MAPs.

      Our stances have never changed. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, you have no obligation to use any of it. Like Burger mentioned in the post before mine, we are entirely self funded. We run platforms we want to be on, and we run them in a way we’d like to see a platform be run, while also taking into account the needs of other users.