....aaaand EXHALE.

Hello everyone!


You may have noticed a lot of things changing on DAREBEE lately - and the changes are still ongoing. There's a reason for that, and we want to be open about it.

We've had a rough few months. A critical funding period, a heavy bot attack, and a database that was quietly giving up on us. We sat down, looked at every corner of DAREBEE - financially, technically, mentally - and asked ourselves some hard questions. Closing DAREBEE was one of the options on the table. It was a unanimous NO.

So we went back to the drawing board.

Since the beginning of April we've been streamlining everything. We let go of a lot of software, freed up server memory, trimmed expenses wherever we could, and re-coded large chunks of the website to keep things running smoothly. The goal was simple: make DAREBEE leaner, faster, and stable for the long run.

Here's what has actually changed for you:

1. No more PDFs (except for books). This alone cuts 30% of our bandwidth - and at 10TB a month, that's significant.
2. Bookmarks now run on LocalStorage - meaning they live in your own browser instead of our server. Website logins will be fully removed on April 12.
3. Challenge, program, DD and EoD tracking also moves to LocalStorage and is managed through your personal dashboard. Both the bookmarks and the dashboard links are currently at the bottom of the site - we'll move them higher once they've been tested properly. The dashboard is in Beta so if you spot any bugs, please let us know!

And now the part we've been waiting to say:

WE ARE OK.

Everything is stable and fast. We've been holding our breath for what feels like forever - and today we finally exhaled.

Long Live DAREBEE!
Thank you so much for bearing with us. It means everything.

- DAREBEE Team

 

[neilarey]

Something worth noting about the PDFs - they were never separate content, just the same image you already loaded converted into a PDF file. No actual content is lost.

 

[graoumia]

Long Live DAREBEE! and thanks for all this work

 

[Antheia & Colossus]

Long live Darebee!

 

[AgileGrrl]

THANK YOU!!

 

[LiteraryMatcha]

Long live Darebee!

 

[GentleOx]

OMG We love you! Keep up the awesome work!

 

[dontmindlosing]

I support Darebee's decisions, and I will adapt, yet I still mourn the loss of PDFs.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I love the Dashboard! And the new Bookmarks! (Which are faster and easier to navigate than the old system, in my experience.) The option to download and later restore the data is wonderful!

Something worth noting about the PDFs - they were never separate content, just the same image you already loaded converted into a PDF file. No actual content is lost.

Yup! I loved the PDFs and always downloaded them for Programs when I lived someplace with unreliable connectivity. But downloading the JPGs works just as well. For Challenges and individual Workouts, the process is literally the same: download the file, then open it later when needed. For Programs, a wee bit more work is involved up front on the end user's part as each day now needs to be downloaded separately. But this is a teeny tiny price to pay to relieve such a massive bandwidth burden off DAREBEE's back. I'd also argue that downloading the individual Program days saves the end user time when needing to call up a workout to do it later, as a JPG loads a lot faster than a 32-page PDF, and there's then no need to scroll through the PDF document to locate the current day. Overall the time requirement is probably close to a wash. (If one only ever works through a Program once. If one wants to repeat the same Program there is a definite time save in having downloaded each day as a separate, smaller file.)

Great work DAREBEE Team!

 

[BlackTwigApple]

I think it bears to reiterate as stated on the https://darebee.com/dashboard page ... "If your browser is set to clear data on close, your progress will not persist between sessions."

My browser is set to do this. What that means is that EVERY TIME I make a change on the website ( check "Done" for an exercise of the day or workout of the day, add a bookmark, etc. ) that I HAVE TO "Download My Data" BEFORE I close my browser OR I will lose that information FOREVER and have to re-enter it the next time I visit the site.

This also means that every time I visit the site, if I have closed my browser since the last time I visited the site, I will have to "Restore From Backup" to retrieve my data.

 

[lizita]

Thank you so much for all your effort. Darebee was on of the best thing happened to my health

 

[Jaga]

Thank you for all the hard work behind the scenes—DAREBEE means so much to so many of us. Long live DAREBEE!

 

[graoumia]

Thank you for all the hard work behind the scenes—DAREBEE means so much to so many of us. Long live DAREBEE!

+1

 

[graoumia]

Thank you so much for all your effort. Darebee was on of the best thing happened to my health

I aggree, especially for this international health day

 

[AgileGrrl]

I think it bears to reiterate as stated on the https://darebee.com/dashboard page ... "If your browser is set to clear data on close, your progress will not persist between sessions."

My browser is set to do this. What that means is that EVERY TIME I make a change on the website ( check "Done" for an exercise of the day or workout of the day, add a bookmark, etc. ) that I HAVE TO "Download My Data" BEFORE I close my browser OR I will lose that information FOREVER and have to re-enter it the next time I visit the site.

This also means that every time I visit the site, if I have closed my browser since the last time I visited the site, I will have to "Restore From Backup" to retrieve my data.

Same here, but a small price to pay IMHO for this resource to stay on the internet. I'll just have to create a new routine before closing down my browser, but that'll only take a few seconds to do, thankfully.

 

[AgileGrrl]

@neilarey I had bookmarked a bunch of fave workout PDFs as an easier reference than having to bring up the whole site. Am I correct in assuming that those PDFs will no longer be accessible at some point? Meaning I should probably download/bookmark the images instead.

 

[agc]

Thank you @neilarey and the rest of the Darebee team. This site has been so incredibly helpful to me and many others, I'm glad it can continue.

 

[neilarey]

@neilarey I had bookmarked a bunch of fave workout PDFs as an easier reference than having to bring up the whole site. Am I correct in assuming that those PDFs will no longer be accessible at some point? Meaning I should probably download/bookmark the images instead.

yep!

 

[neilarey]

I think it bears to reiterate as stated on the https://darebee.com/dashboard page ... "If your browser is set to clear data on close, your progress will not persist between sessions."

My browser is set to do this. What that means is that EVERY TIME I make a change on the website ( check "Done" for an exercise of the day or workout of the day, add a bookmark, etc. ) that I HAVE TO "Download My Data" BEFORE I close my browser OR I will lose that information FOREVER and have to re-enter it the next time I visit the site.

This also means that every time I visit the site, if I have closed my browser since the last time I visited the site, I will have to "Restore From Backup" to retrieve my data.

I think you should be able to exclude specific sites. Can anyone confirm?

 

[lineatatime]

I think you should be able to exclude specific sites. Can anyone confirm?

I have darebee.com listed as an exception in Firefox, but it still clears on close. I've been all through the settings trying to confirm I'm not missing something and still haven't sorted out why it isn't persistent. At some point, I plan to test on other browsers, but haven't gotten there, yet.

 

[lineatatime]

I think it bears to reiterate as stated on the https://darebee.com/dashboard page ... "If your browser is set to clear data on close, your progress will not persist between sessions."

My browser is set to do this. What that means is that EVERY TIME I make a change on the website ( check "Done" for an exercise of the day or workout of the day, add a bookmark, etc. ) that I HAVE TO "Download My Data" BEFORE I close my browser OR I will lose that information FOREVER and have to re-enter it the next time I visit the site.

This also means that every time I visit the site, if I have closed my browser since the last time I visited the site, I will have to "Restore From Backup" to retrieve my data.

I am the same. I clear all data on close and even with darebee.com listed as an exception, it's not persistent. My workaround is similar except I currently have one 'master' backup file (that I created by adding all completions to the dashboard on the same day and am working through to correct completion dates). Moving forward, until my 'master' backup is corrected, I mark my completions for that day, download the data, and add it to my 'master' backup file.

Once I have all the completion dates corrected in my 'master' file, I think I'm going to code something to use as an external log that keeps the master file up to date so I can restore my dashboard, as needed. Still thinking about what that something will look like, but possibly a streamlit app with Python. When I have a working solution, I'll share a link to the GitHub repository (no promises on timeline as I also code for my day job and have to manage burn-out).

 

[lineatatime]

@neilarey, the Darebee team has done amazing work to streamline the service, manage your resources, and preserve Darebee under incredible challenges and contstraints. You've built a wonderful community and clearly have a small and mighty team. I'm so grateful to have finally joined and proud to support your work.

 

[AgileGrrl]

I think you should be able to exclude specific sites. Can anyone confirm?

I tested with Opera, Chrome, Firefox, TOR, & Brave but haven't done Edge yet (because who actually uses that browser ). Chrome doesn't have the option to clear data upon closing, only as an extension that is iffy at best, so not an issue. Like @lineatatime found, FireFox is very inconsistent with following the exemptions for many sites (not just DAREBEE). Brave did not follow the exemption, but I honestly don't believe its exemption protocols are truly set up for this particular situation. TOR - exemptions did not work at all despite being set up properly and designed for this situation. Opera - didn't bother because the easiest way was to just create a new profile for only DAREBEE use where data is not closed on exit and can be used for just this site and its resources - which is what I have done after this change. Easy peasy.

 

[DarkFaerieQueen]

Hello everyone!


You may have noticed a lot of things changing on DAREBEE lately - and the changes are still ongoing. There's a reason for that, and we want to be open about it.

We've had a rough few months. A critical funding period, a heavy bot attack, and a database that was quietly giving up on us. We sat down, looked at every corner of DAREBEE - financially, technically, mentally - and asked ourselves some hard questions. Closing DAREBEE was one of the options on the table. It was a unanimous NO.

So we went back to the drawing board.

Since the beginning of April we've been streamlining everything. We let go of a lot of software, freed up server memory, trimmed expenses wherever we could, and re-coded large chunks of the website to keep things running smoothly. The goal was simple: make DAREBEE leaner, faster, and stable for the long run.

Here's what has actually changed for you:

1. No more PDFs (except for books). This alone cuts 30% of our bandwidth - and at 10TB a month, that's significant.
2. Bookmarks now run on LocalStorage - meaning they live in your own browser instead of our server. Website logins will be fully removed on April 12.
3. Challenge, program, DD and EoD tracking also moves to LocalStorage and is managed through your personal dashboard. Both the bookmarks and the dashboard links are currently at the bottom of the site - we'll move them higher once they've been tested properly. The dashboard is in Beta so if you spot any bugs, please let us know!

And now the part we've been waiting to say:

WE ARE OK.

Everything is stable and fast. We've been holding our breath for what feels like forever - and today we finally exhaled.

Long Live DAREBEE!
Thank you so much for bearing with us. It means everything.

- DAREBEE Team

I'm so happy that you guys are still around! I'm coming back after a year-long hiatus and I'm so looking forward to getting my daily DB fix.

 

[phetanta]

Massive effort has obviously gone into saving this place. It's clear how much the team cares about it and how much it means to every user who has commented and reacted! As someone who has been aware of darebee for a long time but has only recently joined the community, I am so grateful to see Darebee's future being protected and honestly it sounds like that future is very bright! Congratulations on a very successful transition and a huge thank you from this noob who is just starting to find his rhythm here

 

[Haddock]

Thank you so much for the continued hard work you do! I've been using your content for so many years (and chip in when I can) and your work is such an amazing resource. I'm glad you have found ways to lighten your load and continue despite these difficult times. <3

 

[NCBull92]

I'm glad I have kept my workouts saved on my PC. I've followed Darebee off and on for about a decade now and only started using your site on a regular basis in early February of 2025. I started at a worrying 264.2 lbs and lost at least 45 to 50 pounds and 6 pants sizes since, and I have Darebee's various programs, challenges, and your Assassin Training Plan to thank for this. I'll continue to support the Darebee community in any way I'm able, even if it's sharing the workouts I do on my social media. You folks have changed my life for the better, and I can't express how grateful I am.

Thank you, Darebee ^_^

 

[Anek]

Long live Darebee!!

 

[Syrius]

Long live Darebee!!!

 

[THew8]

Thank you DareBee Tram for always striving to improve and sustain these amazing resources and community!!

 

[Sevalys]

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

Another voice for the "Long live Darebee", and bravo to the Dareteam, lots of work under lots of pressure.

 

[AdventurePrincess]

I’m sure someone has asked this already, but it would really help to understand the actual numbers behind things. It would be great to know what your monthly target looks like, or even something like: if X number of people donate X amount, that keeps everything running sustainably. I’m very numbers-oriented, and I think having that visibility could help a lot of us contribute more intentionally. For example, I already donate monthly, but if I knew a particular month was coming in low, I’d absolutely be open to pitching in extra to help hit the goal. I imagine others might feel the same. And that number should include not just keeping the site alive, but also paying you fairly for the work you’ve put in all these years. I know this started as a passion project, but what you’ve built here has real, lasting value....and it deserves to be supported properly.

 

[graoumia]

I'm glad I have kept my workouts saved on my PC. I've followed Darebee off and on for about a decade now and only started using your site on a regular basis in early February of 2025. I started at a worrying 264.2 lbs and lost at least 45 to 50 pounds and 6 pants sizes since, and I have Darebee's various programs, challenges, and your Assassin Training Plan to thank for this. I'll continue to support the Darebee community in any way I'm able, even if it's sharing the workouts I do on my social media. You folks have changed my life for the better, and I can't express how grateful I am.

Thank you, Darebee ^_^

Congrats @NCBull92 it is amazing, you also have to thank you for this result

 

[PETERMORRIS966]

Thank Team Darebee for all the hard work!

 

[neilarey]

@AdventurePrincess hi and thank you for this - genuinely . And thank you for already being a monthly supporter, that matters more than you might think.

To answer your question directly: yes, we know what our monthly costs are, and no, we're not going to publish the number. That's a deliberate choice, not an oversight - and I want to explain why.

We used to publish a funding bar. We just removed it a few days ago. The bar created a dynamic we grew to really dislike. When it was low, it made you feel bad for not doing more and it made us feel bad for asking. When it got close to the goal, people held back - why donate if it's almost covered? And the goal itself was always a moving target because our costs change month to month and unexpected things happen. Hosting alone is $700/month, and that's just one piece. The actual number we need to keep DAREBEE running and growing is always an estimate, never a fixed target.

There was also a real risk in publishing a monthly number: one person could come in and cover it entirely. That sounds like a good thing, but it means we could end up dependent on one person showing up every single month to save us. That's not sustainable and it's not how we want this to work.

What we actually need - and what genuinely keeps DAREBEE stable - is exactly what you're already doing: a broad base of people who give a little regularly. Many people giving small amounts consistently is far more resilient than a few people covering large chunks. It's less dramatic but it's what actually keeps the lights on long-term.

That said - if we ever hit a point where things are genuinely critical, we will say so directly. There will be a clear alert on the site asking for help, no ambiguity. You won't have to guess. The absence of that alert is itself information: things are okay.

So the "what does it take" answer is: more people like you. Not one rescue donation, not a thermometer to watch - just steady community support from the people who use it and find it valuable. That's the only model that works for something that's been free for over a decade and intends to stay that way.

I hope this makes sense. And thank you, again, for your support!

 

[Moony.luna]

Long live Darebee!

 

[Lady Celerity]

I am so appreciative of all the behind the scenes hard work that goes into Darebee. Thank you!!!

 

[DahMagicMan]

Long live Darebee!

 

[AdventurePrincess]

@AdventurePrincess hi and thank you for this - genuinely . And thank you for already being a monthly supporter, that matters more than you might think.

To answer your question directly: yes, we know what our monthly costs are, and no, we're not going to publish the number. That's a deliberate choice, not an oversight - and I want to explain why.

We used to publish a funding bar. We just removed it a few days ago. The bar created a dynamic we grew to really dislike. When it was low, it made you feel bad for not doing more and it made us feel bad for asking. When it got close to the goal, people held back - why donate if it's almost covered? And the goal itself was always a moving target because our costs change month to month and unexpected things happen. Hosting alone is $700/month, and that's just one piece. The actual number we need to keep DAREBEE running and growing is always an estimate, never a fixed target.

There was also a real risk in publishing a monthly number: one person could come in and cover it entirely. That sounds like a good thing, but it means we could end up dependent on one person showing up every single month to save us. That's not sustainable and it's not how we want this to work.

What we actually need - and what genuinely keeps DAREBEE stable - is exactly what you're already doing: a broad base of people who give a little regularly. Many people giving small amounts consistently is far more resilient than a few people covering large chunks. It's less dramatic but it's what actually keeps the lights on long-term.

That said - if we ever hit a point where things are genuinely critical, we will say so directly. There will be a clear alert on the site asking for help, no ambiguity. You won't have to guess. The absence of that alert is itself information: things are okay.

So the "what does it take" answer is: more people like you. Not one rescue donation, not a thermometer to watch - just steady community support from the people who use it and find it valuable. That's the only model that works for something that's been free for over a decade and intends to stay that way.

I hope this makes sense. And thank you, again, for your support!

It absolutely makes sense, I think the biggest concern most of us have is a part you mentioned at the top about the idea of closing being on the table. I am certain that we'd all step up the game to make sure that option stays off the table without causing unnecessary strife on darebees end.

Anyway, it's always good to hear and see you all doing well. The site updates are fantastic! Thank you for sharing the info you did and responding so intentionally.