So it sounds like money might help then? I could also pitch in a little, I don't mind giving back some if you're willing to maintain the instance. $100 is a pretty low bar to reach. If you are interested in maintaining this Lemmy, then perhaps spend a little time to plan out what resources you would need. Be it volunteer efforts, research, or cash. The community may well step up if you make a post detailing your needs.
Of course, it is entirely reasonable to discontinue the instance if it is too much of a headache or no longer what you prefer to do! I'm just pointing out that if you can present a clear concept of the help you need, you may find that it is available.
If we are talking about a simple platform to make announcements, you don't need interactivity. That means you can go with the simplest option of all, which is in my mind a blog. I don't know what your web hosting setup is like, but if you are running a vps you could configure your web server software to serve up a blog on a subdomain. Other than the issues with the ml TLD your site seems to have remained stable and available (unless I have just missed it going down). I'd reccomend Jekyll for its combination of simplicity, light weight, zero overhead and ease of use.
Is there a criteria I am missing or misunderstanding? Or a feature of your hosting setup that makes this not doable?
Edit: that might come across as pushy, which isn't my intention! Even if it is doable with your setup I obviously have no place trying to demand that you do it, so please don't take it that way
Thanks for the info but yeah, that doesn't seem too solid either. I think a barebones blog on a subdomain of fmhy.net would be ideal, but at least I will know to check there if Lemmy goes down again.
The creators of the content are only one part of the equation. There are also the funders and distributors of content, and the consumers of content, all of whom have an ethical stake in this. The DMCA is a prime example of something created through lobbying by the funders and distributors that harms the consumers. In the unfortunate landscape surrounding intellectual property that we live in, I think it is far more delusional to believe that pirating is unethical. I would far rather live in a world where that wasn't the case, this just doesn't happen to be one.
Please provide another communication channel
I appreciate the effort in creating and maintaining this Lemmy instance. I don't have any long-term involvement with or knowledge of FMHY beyond finding lemmy.fmhy.ml when I was leaving reddit, agreeing with the community values, and making an account. But I have appreciated this place as my portal to the fediverse, and there's nowhere else I'd rather be.
As there have clearly been some issues in maintaining the instance, I think it would be extremely helpful if you were to create a simple blog to act as an out of band communication channel in the event that the Lemmy instance faces any further troubles. I understand you have divolt, but I have had trouble accessing it after initially joining, and in general it would be nice if there were a simple URL I could navigate to from any device with or without my credentials memorized/use of my password manager to see the status or any events that may impact the functionality of the FMHY Lemmy. If you have something of this nature set up already and I have missed it - that's on me! But perhaps a stickied post pointing to it would help.
That's just my two cents - and again, thank you for creating and maintaining this instance in the first place!