tldr: dmv.social is closing on April 14th. Going forward, the instance will be read-only until the termination date. I apologize for the short notice, but I am setting this read-only to prevent abuse.

I set up a Matrix space for the heck of it in case I decide to open things up again: https://matrix.to/#/#dmvsocial:matrix.org

What do I do?

If you are a dmv.social user, consider signing up for another instance. A few that I like include:

• https://lemmy.world
• https://beehaw.org
• https://literature.cafe
• https://sh.itjust.works
• https://lemmy.zip

If you go to your Profile on the website, there should be a link to export your subscription list. You may import this list to other instances. Do note that some instances aren't federated with everyone, and instances have varying SFW/NSFW policies.

If you wish to start a community for anywhere in the DMV area: I will create a post on the big communities here to help spread the word. Send a private message to @[email protected] by March 23. I will compile a big post on all of the major communities here after March 23 linking to alternative communities.

If you are a server host where dmv.social communities have federated to: I have locked all posts and communities. You should not have to worry about spam. Feel free to delete the communities after April 14th.

Thank You.

I've received about a half dozen unsolicited "thank you" DMs over the last few months. Genuinely, the unsolicited "thank you"s have been uplifting.

To the few users on this instance: thank you for making this instance your home on the Threadiverse the past several months. I've received a few private messages thanking me for running this and providing a SFW-gateway to the Threadiverse, so I hope I reasonably delivered up until this point.

To everyone else: Thanks for the upvotes, the downvotes, the subscribes, occasional comments, and lurking :)

Will you be back?

Maybe. If this does return, I want to give it 6-12 months. If you're interested about this returning, bookmark https://dmv.social and check back in 6 months. In the mean time, I'll post an update to the Matrix space: https://matrix.to/#/#dmvsocial:matrix.org

I still want to provide a federated social network for this area, I'm just not really confident now is the right time.

OK, cut the b-s: Why?

I want to make a few things abundantly clear so there's no unnecessary speculation:

1. This was not a financial decision. The server hosting costs were $55/mo, which were extremely easy to manage.

2. This was not done because dmv.social is still on the smaller/still-growing side. I've spent years building communities elsewhere, anyone would be unreasonable to expect something to take off in less than a year.

3. I'm not playing the blame-game and putting this on the Lemmy devs. They seem like busy folks adding stuff in and I appreciate that releases have been pretty damn seamless from a server-administration side.

4. This was done entirely because of my concerns about being a server host on the Fediverse. 99.9999% of Fediverse folks are wonderful people. The remaining 0.0001% are urinating in the pool, so to speak.

I've been weighing this decision for the last 2-3 weeks. I wanted to build a mod bot to get ahead of the malicious images problem other hosts had since I didn't want that crap coming here. Common sense eventually kicked in, and I realized that the risk of liability just isn't something I want to deal with.

Last year, a few other instances had malicious images posted. The admins and mods of the communities were quick to remove it and explain what was going on, but that was a huge wake-up call that "wow... this is... dangerous."

A few months later, this seemed to happen again.

Now fast forward to several days ago, there was the incident on Mastodon where someone tried to shut down Content Nation by sending CSAM their way.. This event was pretty much the final straw with my confidence level in the Fediverse and the risk of images.

Quite frankly, this is disturbing and I just don't want to deal with the possibility of this crap.

This behavior on the Fediverse is extremely problematic and I can't be the only server host where this isn't sitting right.

Anyways, I can ramble on more but I've typed enough.

Welcome to dmv.social, a Lemmy community for folks in and around the DC, Maryland, Virginia to chat and participate in Lemmy!

Don't have an account yet? Joining should be easy. Sign up here and try to log in a few hours later or the following day. If you get an error, it means your account hasn't been approved yet and you'll need to try again later -- this is only done to ensure there aren't any bots.

Be sure to introduce yourself in !introductions.

Why are you running this?

An open internet can be a good thing. I think it's important to have a site for locals to discuss and chat. As major social media sites work to become more profitable post-pandemic, I've become increasingly concerned with the direction they are going. I've had a lot of fun meeting folks on other sites in the area and participating in local discussions, so I'm hoping to foster an environment for that on federated social media.

Why do accounts require Admin Approval?

I don't want to host spam bots.

How is this funded?

Right now, out of pocket. I have zero interest in making money off this. If this instance becomes something you enjoy and you feel like you have to do something, thank me with a beer or coffee if we do a meetup in the future. If this instance is at risk of being shut down due to financial reasons, I'll post about it well in advance, but hosting costs are fairly minimal for a server that'll handle quite a number of users for a long time into the future.

Can I create a community here?

Absolutely! Right now the process is by request because I am hesitant to open the process up due to Lemmy's limited administration/moderation tools, but I'm fairly open to almost anything as long as it's SFW and doesn't promote hatred. Request the community in [email protected].

How can I find communities?

Check out the how-to guide