Update to version 0.18 and down-votes enabled

You might have noticed the interface having changed a bit. This is the new version 0.18 of Lemmy that changed a lot of the internals. So expect there to be some new bugs as well.

I am still ironing out some problems with it and it seems like the version of the Jerboa Android app from F-droid isn't fully compatible yet. Either wait for the update or install the latest .apk from the developer directly. Edit: the F-droid version works now.

I also re-enabled down-votes. The poll was less clear than I hoped, but there was a small majority for enabling down-votes in the end. But I will monitor the situation and if you feel there is negative vote-brigading going on, please use the report function.

Next on the plan is to look into custom themes to make this instance's look a bit more Solarpunkish.

I am also working on some hardware changes for the server. Basically I will transfer this instance to a smaller server that I can optimize better for the database use of Lemmy. This will also allow to quickly turn this smaller machine into a dedicated database server should the need for scaling up due to a new influx of users arise.

Currently there are 2-3 sign-ups per day (real users, not bots) and we crossed the 500 members earlier this week. So overall things are relatively calm and we see a slow, but nicely organic growth 😊