Lemmy.ca's Main Community

Going through the sidebar all the rules are perfectly reasonable. Just curious if some communities implement additional rules in addition to the Lemmy.ca rules, and how would I go about knowing about them?

It would be great if we join it again.

I learned about a bunch of local musicians in the previous editions.

It seems that for the last few days, PieFed.ca has not been syncing with other instances. In particular, I’ve confirmed that my posts have not synced with lemmy.ca. It does look like piefed.ca has been syncing from other instances, though.

I've just completed moving lemmy.ca and piefed.ca away from using Cloudflare's proxy service, this means traffic now comes directly from our server instead of being routed through any US based companies. Pixelfed.ca is still on deflect.ca for the moment.

Let me know please if you run into any problems or errors!

Note that in order to avoid making too many major changes at once, our DNS is still hosted by cloudflare. I'll be moving that away from them later this week

Update April 3rd: We've off their DNS now too, and pixelfed.ca is now off deflect as well. All done rearranging!

Hey folks, given the shit show with Discord, another community I'm part of on Discord is wondering whether to move to Matrix. Was wondering if there's an unadvertised Matrix server that someone at Fedecan is already hosting?

Hi everyone.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about Piefed's rapid growth due to some strategic posts on Reddit, specifically the r/BuyCanadian subbreddit (see here: https://piefed.ca/post/497540). That's great! But I think we need to diversify a bit.

Because, if this growth is to be long-term and sustainable, then one thing our community needs, quite frankly, is more shitposts. Because right now the most active posts on lemmy.ca are links to news articles with serious discussions in the comments. And the memes that do exist are often not very lighthearted. And this sort of content is great! But it doesn't necessarily appeal to the masses.

Think of it: what does your average Jim the Plumber Joe Shmo from Winnipeg or Edmonton want? He wants memes! He wants to laugh! If we are to get more normies on this platform (which is essential for our growth) then we need more shitposts! We need meme pages with lots of engagement! So that is why I am suggesting a new type of Reddit-advertising campaign: one that targets the finest shitposters our Great Nation has to offer. If we can get those guys and gals to join our platform, then we're as golden as a Canada goose.

So the question then becomes, where to these talented shitposters and shitpostees reside? Where can we find them? The answer to that is clear: r/EhBuddyHoser, the beloved Canadian meme page. And what's the best way to advertise on a meme page? Well, through memes of course!

That's right folks, it's time we take our viral marketing campaign to the next level.

This is a monumental task, and it will require input from funny Canadians residing in all corners of the fediverse. But, in the spirit of getting the ball rolling, I have already thrown together a prototype. (Yes, I know its crappy, but it's just a prototype; feedback welcome.)

If you have the time, please also reply with your own memes in the comments, where we can critique them, build them, grow them, and eventually use them for our viral marketing campaign.

Finally, we will also need a brave soul with an established Reddit account to venture into r/EhBuddyHoser and shitpost on our behalf. We need someone to shitpost not just for our entire community, but for our entire country. We need someone to shitpost for Canada. Do we have any volunteers?

Feel free to help out any lost redditors who might need some help and guide them.

With the recent willingness of the US Government to pressure its tech agencies into revealing user data without a proper judicial warrant, we've decided it's overdue for us migrate away from Cloudflare.

We'll be transitioning our sites over to https://deflect.ca/ over the next week or so, starting with pixelfed first before doing lemmy and piefed.

I hope to be able to do this without any noticeable downtime, but it is a major config change that will require some backend changes as well. I'll make an announcement before/after and you can always check https://status.fedecan.ca/

Update Feb 16: pixelfed has been migrated to deflect

Update Feb 20: I'm working with deflect on improving performance before migrating lemmy / piefed over. Currently pixelfed load times aren't great due to traffic often hitting edge nodes way out in Europe

Update Mar 17: Unfortunately performance with Deflect isn't where I want it to be since their nodes are out East and our server is in Vancouver. As a result we're just going to be dropping the CDN altogether and hosting directly off our server. I'm planning to do the switchover this weekend (March 20-22), but in the meantime you can use https://test.lemmy.ca/ or https://test.piefed.ca/ if you'd like to bypass Cloudflare.

I made this post today, https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1quso40/comment/o3evucz/ It got 150k+ views, piefed.social etc. has seen a big spike in users.

If possible I want to copy-paste that recipe in r/BuyCanadian tomorrow to get more Canadians onboard here. But I need a nice image of a graph for the post to work.

Anyone know where I can get a graph like that? Admins?

I found lemmy through Reddit like a lot of the people who’ve recently joined.

I want to use this platform because I value data sovereignty and level-headed moderation.

My personal focus and passion that’s been ever growing is that of using services outside of the US as much as possible - especially promoting Canadian services at home, but also some EU services too.

But then I had a conflict of interest. I started viewing my own business as something which could apply to lemmy.ca, essentially intertwining personal and work life.

I figured, my business aligned with the values of many here. But the more I think of it, the more I question whether this was the right thing to do.

I admire that Fedecan is a Canadian not-for-profit. I admire the Canadian spirit I see in many communities. I thought I could use my business in conjunction with goals of other growing businesses. But now the moral dilemma is creeping up - is this the right place to do it?

I want to use Fedecan personally either way. But maybe it’s best to start over with a purely personal account.

I never meant to take advantage of my fellow Canadians. But I’m starting to think the information stored on a non-profit should be free, and free of business interests.

Can I just get some closure from community members before I decide to change accounts? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Hey everyone, there are a few things I want to post about in the next couple of days/weeks. First of which is for a new community I created called Provincial Discussion Canada (https://lemmy.ca/c/ProvincialDiscussionCanada)

I want to explain the purpose of the community and then ask a couple questions.

I created this community because, as a Canadian focused lemmy instance, I think it's important to understand the importance of provincial politics in Canada. I know there are communities dedicated to specific provinces, but this one is designed for any provincial news, discussion, and friendly debate.

In this sense, I hope we can expand beyond federal politics and beyond our own province's politics. Especially with the current government discussing more open cross-provincial trade and co-operation, it feels more important than ever to stay informed. The more informed we are, the more understanding we are. The more united we are.

Questions:

1. Do you think this community could provide value to lemmy.ca? I will take the majority sentiment and shut down the community if there is an overwhelming negative response.

2. Are any Canadians willing to help moderate this subreddit to follow the rules and spirit listed in its sidebar? Those who can keep their personal beliefs separate from their moderation are necessary. Diversity of provinces would be ideal. A portion of mods being French speakers is also a must.

Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you everyone!

Hi everyone,

I’m new here. I’m happy that this place exists and I hope it grows. I am just learning about lemmy, about Fedecan, about all of this.

I know that the rules were presented to all of us when we registered. I also know that reality isn’t so pretty, and some may have not read the rules. Well, shame on you! Just kidding

I’ll make my point relatively short. We all joined here for our own reasons. Most are likely Canadian, some not. No issues.

But, pre-emptively, as a new and novice user of this platform, there are some things I want to express:

We all joined here for a reason, and whatever that reason was has lead you to a Canadian focused place. With that in mind, I hope we can all try to channel our Canadian values and camaraderie to not just create an alternative platform, but a better one.

What I mean by this is, take the challenge of treating your interactions here as you might do with a friend or acquaintance. Try not to assume bad intentions from others based on disagreements. Try to get your ducks in a row before you post.

I know it can be hard when the platform most of us are coming from is so giant that it’s easy to just type the first thing that comes to mind.

But I really believe that constructive dialogue or criticism, or even a non-response when you feel it’s warranted, is better than stoking the fire.

By no means am I saying you don’t have the right to be angry, sad, disappointed, defeated, etc., and these will inevitably be posted from time to time. You’re human, and if you’re here you’re likely looking for a place of sanity and unity.

By no means am I telling you to fence-sit. Please, your voices are your most powerful tool. You absolutely do not need to fence sit if you are passionate, but just try to remember that outright hateful, hurtful, or inflammatory language are far more likely to enforce others’ beliefs, rather than elicit empathy.

Let’s project our voices here in ways that are meaningful, not counterproductive. Obviously, nobody is to be chastised for the occasional burst of over-the-top anger.

Canada is in the midst of a rupture, to put it in the words of the PM. I just really want us to be able to keep our values and culture along the way, even in the scenarios where you have to be a rabid Canada goose about it.

One more thing which I hope isn’t a pipe dream. Can we try to approach discussion with the initial sentiment of sincerity and authenticity? It’s clear when somebody is trying to get a rise out of you, but let’s try to make that distinction before we release our inner geese.

I’m no authority, I’m brand new here. I have lots to learn. I just want to say this while the platform is in the midst of growing substantially.

Finally, just as it was always important to keep up to date with the state of Reddit as a business, it’s equally important to keep up with the state of Fedecan. They operate this place. I like what I see so far, but you can easily go check the website out and take a look around to form your own opinions.

Many a website have succeeded, many a website failed, many a website changed course for better and worse - we are all collectively responsible for ensuring the reason we signed up continues to align with the values of the website owners.

If you’ve managed to read this far, thanks. I hope it was worth reading to some of you.

Most importantly, remember: Stinky tofu may be stinky, but it’s actually really good. I don’t know where to find it locally, but I sure as hell will keep on the lookout.

Nothing pressing in terms of questions or concerns, but I was just wondering how things are at Fedecan and with the instance(s)? It feels like it's been a hot minute since the last update (big or small), so I thought I'd show my interest in knowing how things are going.

We were still on 0.19.13 so I've bumped us up to 0.19.15

• Changes for 0.9.15: https://lemmy.ca/post/57400474
• Changes for 0.9.14: https://lemmy.ca/post/56551342

Since early December, someone has created 65+ accounts with variations of the same name, and they have used those accounts for vote manipulation.

We reached out to the admin of the instance 4 weeks ago, recommending that they enable registration applications, upgrade the captcha difficulty, and/or require an email address to prevent this. We have not received a reply.

When we checked the logs this week, we saw that a new chain of accounts was created. This is creating extra work for our admin team to find and ban these accounts.

Defederation will block the instance, their communities, and their users from everyone on lemmy.ca and piefed.ca. Similarly, it will block content from lemmy.ca and piefed.ca from going to their instance.

Currently, less than 10 users from lemmy.ca are subscribed to a community there, the majority of which are subscribed to 1 community max.

You can view their communities here: https://lemmy.org/communities

Please share your feedback about this action in this thread.

We will be closing the census this week, on January 15th, 2026.

Link: https://survey.fedecan.ca//s/cmjcnqzgd0002th01dh6naqm6

A lot has changed since our last census in 2023! We would like to take another opportunity to learn about our growing community.

Everyone is welcome to fill out this survey! While this census is being run by the admins of lemmy.ca, sh.itjust.works, piefed.ca, and pixelfed.ca, you do not need to have an account on these instances, and you do not need to be located in Canada. If you do have an account on one of our instances, you can indicate that on the census to be included in those separate graphs/visualizations.

No question is mandatory. You may skip any question by either selecting “no answer (skip this question)”, or by leaving the question blank.

Some questions will be hidden depending on your selections. For example, the Pixelfed specific questions will be hidden if you don't select that as one of the platforms you use.

Sections:

• Section 1: Location
• Section 2: Demographics
• Section 3a: Instance Usage (Forum/Threadiverse)
• Section 3b: Instance Usage (Pixelfed)
• Section 4: Feedback / Closing questions

When results are ready, we will share them on our website and with posts on the main/meta communities in our instances.

The questions were created with help from @Dave@lemmy.nz, based on the questions from their census this year. The banner image was made with icons from flaticon.com.

Due to some issues with the survey platform, you won't be able to click on external URLs while completing the census. You can access those links here:

• Speed test: https://fast.com/
• Ethnicity options: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/dict/app/index-eng.cfm?ID=a2_5
• Education options: https://canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/settle-canada/education/school-types/post-secondary.html

Link: https://survey.fedecan.ca//s/cmjcnqzgd0002th01dh6naqm6

The census will close on January 15th, 2026.

A lot has changed since our last census in 2023! We would like to take another opportunity to learn about our growing community.

Everyone is welcome to fill out this survey. You do not need to be located in Canada, and you do not need to have an account on one of our platforms. If you do have an account on lemmy.ca, sh.itjust.works, piefed.ca, and/or pixelfed.ca, you can indicate that on the census in order to be included in those separate graphs/visualizations.

No question is mandatory. You may skip any question by either selecting “no answer (skip this question)”, or by leaving the question blank. Some questions will be hidden depending on your selections. For example, the Pixelfed specific questions will be hidden if you don't select that as one of the platforms you use.

Sections:

• Section 1: Location
• Section 2: Demographics
• Section 3a: Instance Usage (Forum/Threadiverse)
• Section 3b: Instance Usage (Pixelfed)
• Section 4: Feedback / Closing questions

When results are ready, we will share them on our website and with posts on:

• !main@lemmy.ca
• !main@sh.itjust.works
• !main@piefed.ca
• A pinned post on pixelfed.ca

The questions were created with help from @Dave@lemmy.nz, based on the questions from their census this year :)

EDIT: We've made the links unclickable (see comments). The census is long, so I didn't want people to lose their progress near the end. The links are here:

• Speed test: https://fast.com/
• Ethnicity options: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/dict/app/index-eng.cfm?ID=a2_5
• Education options: https://canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/settle-canada/education/school-types/post-secondary.html

I see links to 'that site' owned by 'that billionaire' all the time, be it in posts or comments...

Is it possible to auto-suggest using xcancel.com instead, if direct links are in posts or comments, or even auto-fix them?

Barely enough time in the day to develop new features? Quit using your "full time job" to post genocide denial and Stalin apologism.

I can't remember the last time Lemmy added a new feature that actually benefits admins or users. The Piefed devs are constantly coming out with new features, maybe it's because they don't waste the whole day banning people for left wing political views like saying genocide is bad.

Does anyone know of any useful extensions for Lemmy? The site is pretty usable without any extensions, but that's what I thought about Reddit before I learned about Reddit Enhancement Suite many years ago.

Hey y'all, keep an eye out for trolls. I have the impression there are a few accounts on here with users whose only purpose is to instigate others and get angry reactions out of people.

Are there any way to report these users? I haven't found a report button for users specifically.