TL;DR LemmyNZ turns 3 today. I made a video!

For the last two years I've posted a video celebrating LemmyNZ’s birthday. Today it's our birthday again, and I'm back with another terrible video!

As usual, here’s a bit of history of the last year here for those that are unable to watch the video or who just want to know more. If anyone has other memories to add, please do!

About a year ago we added a new frontend Blorp, one of many ways to use LemmyNZ from a browser (Blorp is also a mobile app).

We participated in Canvas, drawing a pretty substantial design, and with LemmyNZ users also contributing to other art across the canvas (and users from other instances also helping us).

We had our usual annual census, which was quite extensive. I will probably cut back the number of questions this year as it was a lot of work to pick through.

In October, we added a new community Maps without NZ.

Around November/December Lemmy.world had federation issues where they would suddenly stop sending us (and a range of other instances) content, which they traced to some faulty RAM on their server.

In February 2026 we migrated to storing images in object storage, and then migrated the server to a VPS when the team providing our hosting for free shut down their operations.

With this new cost, we started collecting contributions to pay for the server, and have collected over $150 already, which should cover 2-3 months of operation. We also had our first financial update ever, covering January-March 2026. I'll do another after June is over, aiming for quarterly updates.

To protect the server from a deluge of scraping bots that are a problem for anyone running sites these days, we implemented a tool called Anubis that weighs the soul of incoming requests. Following this we saw a significant reduction in bot traffic, and could hear the server sigh with relief.

We also added two new admins as a step to removing a single point of failure.

The video also covers some news articles around meth usage, alcohol usage, heath records hacks one and two, as well as climate change related events, research, and sporting impacts. And briefly mentions Wellington's sewage plant disaster.

Not mentioned - when I started a logo vote because I hate the little AI generated gremlin thing, and I seriously underestimated how much people care about these things. So we'll do a better job of getting some options, vote separately for the logo and banner, and hopefully do it a bit more justice.

Anyway, thanks everyone for being here!

Significant investment in social and affordable housing is crucial to solving New Zealand's housing crisis and ending homelessness, a new report says.

The report by Community Housing Aotearoa warns homelessness has reached its highest level ever, with a shortage of affordable housing compounding the problem.

Chief executive Paul Gilberd said New Zealand had the "programmes and the capacity" to end homelessness if there was political will to do so.

"We can solve it as a nation here in New Zealand. It really is a political choice," he said.

More than $1 million in political donations linked to fast-tracked projects have been made since 2022.

An RNZ analysis of the latest donation data reveals $400,000 was donated to National and NZ First in 2025 from people or entities linked to fast-track projects. Labour received $8620.

The introduction of the fast-track approvals process was part of NZ First's coalition deal with National. Since 2022 almost 90 percent of donations from people or entities also linked to projects have gone to the two parties.

UPDATE: While the new logo is marginally winning, I wasn't expecting this much interest. I also regret grouping the logo and banner instead of asking separately as many people seem to like the existing laser kiwi banner. I'll try to drum up some more suggestions.

Hi all! We've had the crappy logo since LemmyNZ started, and I've had on my list to update it. With a bit of discussion in the weekly chats, I now have a proposed replacement.

Please vote on the new logo to see if we will adopt it as the LemmyNZ logo.

Vote here

Labour's finance spokesperson has apologised to the Finance Minister after audio of her calling Nicola Willis a "duck-faced horse" was leaked to media.

Barbara Edmonds told RNZ she got it wrong, and feels "absolutely terrible about it."

The comment was made during a question and answer session at a Labour Party candidate list conference at the weekend, and was designed to test MPs about difficult questions that may be put to them, or questions that didn't make sense.

During the exercise, a random question was used that might be put to an MP, and the task for candidates was to respond in a way that may allow them to present Labour's political messaging instead.

The question posed in the exercise was "would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?"

When it was her turn to respond, Edmonds said "every week I have to stand up in the house and ask a duck-faced horse - did I get that right [laughs] - questions every single week."

Dame Jools Topp has died after living with breast cancer. As one half of the Topp Twins with her sister Lynda, Jools brought joy to generations of New Zealanders.

A gifted country singer and a skilled comedian, she was also a vocal protestor against racism, sexism, homophobia and more.

The Topp Twins knew how to hold an audience in the palm of their hands - and they made countless live appearances from country halls to the stages of London and New York.

Last thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

National and Act will support a New Zealand First member's bill seeking to define the term "woman" in law.

It would define "woman" in law as "an adult human biological female", and "man" as "an adult human biological male".

New Zealand First vowed to fight "cancerous social engineering" and "woke ideology" with the Bill.

Last year New Zealand First quietly withdrew its proposed legislation to fine those who use public bathrooms not for their designated sex.

But Peters suggested his member's bill defining a "woman" would prevent men using women's toilets.

Labour and the Green Party confirmed they would vote against the bill.

Green Party Chlöe Swarbrick said it was "despicable, but unfortunately not surprising" that the government was painting a target on the back of a minority.

"Trans people are not the reason that New Zealanders can't afford their groceries. Trans people are not the reason that New Zealanders cannot afford their power bills. Trans people are not the reason that New Zealanders are experiencing record high unemployment."

Last thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

The Finance Minister has confirmed claims by Winston Peters that the fees-free university scheme, which covers the final year of tertiary education study for students, will be scrapped in the upcoming Budget.

The New Zealand First Leader made the comments to Newstalk ZB Friday evening.

In a statement this evening Nicola Willis confirmed the comments.

"Ongoing coalition negotiations have led to good Budget policy decisions that further the immediate and long-term interests of New Zealanders."

Young photographer Tom Rae tramped over snow and ice, camping overnight in the Southern Alps, to get one of the winning shots of the Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition.

The competition, run by Capture the Atlas, selected 25 photos from over 6,500 submitted from around the world.

His “Night at the Remarkables” shot shows the Milky Way arched over The Remarkables in the Southern Alps, while the lights of Queenstown glow far below.

“I thought, ‘Hey, why not climb to the top of The Remarkables ski field in Queenstown and spend the night up there, have a wild adventure, and be able to have a look down and see an element of civilisation in amongst all of this vastness in the night sky,” Rae says.

His shot was among five other winning images from New Zealand photographers taken in different iconic locations.