I understand why they disabled public downvotes (since they're accepting incoming ones now, they don't want to expose everyone's downvotes from other instances), and I remember they gave some reasoning on Github for why it makes sense to not hide upvotes too, but do we really need incoming downvotes? I think that feature should be a toggle where you either have downvotes hidden but federated, or visible but not federated. And then the instance owner can decide what they prefer.
That's really my main issue with mbin. While I've gotten too used to the All Content view and collections, both of those are on their roadmap, so they'll be coming eventually.
To newly federate a magazine with Lemmy, search for it using the syntax !Polytopia@kbin.social in Lemmy's built-in search. This worked for me instantly when I just tested it on lemm.ee, after confirming that it 404s before doing it.
I don't know what this xz thing is about, first time hearing it. But people saying he should get more help are trying to help him, not having malicious plans like installing backdoors or whatever.
I do think people should ask less for more maintainers — the project is already opensource, so it's up to maintainers to join, not him to seek them out. But he should still get some help with managing the instance. Pauses in development are fine imo, but the instance shouldn't be swarmed with spam and account deletion requests lost in limbo just because ernest got sick or something, which can happen with the best work life balances.
Progressive web app. Modern browsers let you install a website to your phone or desktop as a pseudo-app. It'll still run in the browser, but most of the browser stuff, like tabs and bookmarks, are hidden to give you a focused and clean experience. Developers only have to ensure their website supports mobile phones and don't need to develop an entire app project to accomodate phone users.
On Lemmy, users can send each others direct messages. It seems like Kbin/Mbin has no way of displaying those direct messages. Is that correct or is there a way to show direct messages?
Direct messages exist on kbin/mbin, but users are currently unable to send or receive them from other instances than their own. Sending is implemented but intentionally disabled by ernest, for unknown reason, but it might have to do with receiving not working.
Mbin has an open issue on this and yesterday someone said it's planned but low priority. It also links to the related kbin issue.
Edit: Also, to clarify, it's only seeing who downvoted that's made private, the actual amount of downvotes is kept public. It's not a Youtube situation.
Having thought about this for a bit, I think it might actually be better for ernest if this instance died a bit. Not entirely, but it could use some redistribution of users to other instances.
Like, it wasn't meant to be this big main instance of kbin. That's just what it became. And it's got to have an effect on his stress levels and development time.
I feel like the instance is like a ballon that continually gets pumped with fresh air. Ernest constantly has to make sure the balloon doesn't pop. Maybe it would be better for it to pop so he can focus on other things?
I was considering moving to mbin, but their decision to make downvoting private makes that a very unpleasant idea for me. Public voting was one of the initial selling points for kbin for me. If I move, then it's probably to another kbin instance like kbin.earth for now.
I appreciate that earnest made a post yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, saying that he is not dead and hasn't given up on kbin. It's not on this magazine, so I'm not sure where it was since this seems to be the most appropriate one, but in any case.
Definitely. I've applied to a handful of magazines weeks ago and have read about others having done so too. I really think magazine ownership requests should be accepted automatically on kbin.social. There's already requirements in place to whether you can make one, that should be good enough for abuse safety measures.
Instance moderators would be better, but I don't know if there's people lining up for that role whom he also can trust with it.
and contributors.
The issue here is that all contributors have moved on to mbin. You don't just look for contributors, the contributors choose to contribute. So unless he's willing to pay them, I don't think this is a problem he can solve, and I doubt he makes enough money to hire people.
I assume ownership requests need to be manually approved by ernest, right? I've tried applying to some (not ernest-managed ones) weeks ago because of spam on them and nothing happened yet.
The project definitely accepts contributions, the mbin devs have contributed to kbin before and a few weeks ago a minor code change was committed and merged by someone other than ernest.
As I understand it, the issue is that people with merge permissions other than ernest are only allowed to merge their own pull requests, not those of third parties, which require a review from ernest.
(At least that's what I've seen explained before, though I haven't seen any proof of it so I don't fully know if it's real.)
This means a majority of contributors can't get their pull requests merged when ernest is gone. Which is why they went and made mbin when he was gone for months last time.
Ernest hasn't abandoned kbin this time, he did post an update last week.
Today, I'm going for a minor procedure at the hospital, and I won't be available for the next 2-4 days. When I return, I'll push all the corrections and fixes I've been working on and present plans for the near future.
Him not being back yet probably means the hospital procedure didn't go as smoothly as expected, but he's not gone on purpose.
They both federate and they both look the same I think.
However, Mastodon search works by tags iirc. And kbin/lemmy users tend to not use tags. So discoverability is low.
The Microblog section is supposed to add the magazine's tags to your posts there, though I don't know if it currently does. I remember reading issues about it not being the case, but those were rather old, so not sure about the current status.