Hi all, sorry for a lack of updates but there's been a lot going on behind the scenes and events moved rather rapidly.
I recently posted that we were going to have to move to another instance because our only Admin was missing and problems looked to be piling up.
Fortunately, Tom dropped me a line the other day and he has updated the instance and made GreatAlbatross and myself Admins.
So the immediate crisis has been averted and we've fallen back to the original plan which was get more Admins in place and work to ensure there's no single point of failure, so any one of us could get hit by a bus (bagsy not me) and the instance will carry on.
Soooo bear with us while we thrash out the details of what else needs doing to ensure the continuity of the instance and while I figure out what all the new buttons do (hopefully not by mashing them all at once just to see what happens).
In the meantime there are likely problems that need fixing. I know, for example, that some are still having email verification problems and have been waiting a while, so I'll figure out how to resolve this and work through the pinned post here. If you have this problem then post there and we'll get it sorted.
If there are any other issues you want to flag up for attention then you can do so here or contact one of the new admins.
And, finally, thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm for this instance in the other thread and elsewhere, if the folks on here hadn't formed a great community that they felt was worth the time and effort to save we wouldn't be here now with the future looking more secure. Tom built the house but you all made it a home. So carry on...
edit 1: I'll keep tagging things on as I think of them. Firstly, we'll be keeping the Matrix space - it'll be our fallback if the server goes down and provides people with an encrypted (and private if needed) channel of communication. If you add your Matrix ID to your profile it adds a secure DMs button to your.profile, so Matrix and Lemmy are integrated to a degree.
Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this, honestly, I'm not going to grumble too much because I'm not the one putting in the work - but it felt like a bit of a let-down that all this happened in the first place, and it felt like a fresh start was needed to move on.
You're still free to move instance if you want :)
I already moved 25 days ago when it became clear it was abandoned. The decision is whether to come back, I hoped I would despite my small complaint, but your comment isn't exactly making me feel any warmer here...
Oh nice! Where did you move to? Also - It might feel like a let down that the admin was gone, I'm sure he was just busy - but it's very unlikely to happen again now that there are multiple admins so I think the issue is resolved, really!
I don't want to say anything inflammatory since something terrible might have happened to Tom that we don't know - but it's definitely not OK to start a community like this, get everyone on-board and established, then fail to appoint admins and disappear without explanation (even if busy) leaving other people to pick up the pieces, unless there's a very good reason.
And to be honest I'm surprised I seem to be the only one saying that - maybe an explanation from him (if appropriate to share) would smooth things over. I was genuinely excited about the new instance as an opportunity for the UK communities on Lemmy to put a bad situation behind us and move on.
I also have concerns because it’s unclear who is paying for the hosting and managing the server itself. We could see a situation where the server goes down and Tom is not available. Do we know if the new admins have access to the server?
It's also not best security practice to leave an inactive user with admin powers which still seems to be the case here.