FYI, I tried the process you mentioned, I'm not sure it's as simple as your post implies (if that process could be called "simple" anyway). I've tried a few different orders of "report, delete, ban", and clicked the "ban" button in at least two spots (one that was directly in the feed and another that comes up under Reports in the magazine panel). No matter what I do, it always shows up as "unban" in the mod log. However, there is a list of bans under the magazine panel, and that does show the accounts as banned.
So, I'm really not sure what is going on here. Maybe it's just a problem with the log and not with the banning itself?
Anyway, thanks again for pointing this out. Hopefully someone can figure out what is going on.
This is a good discussion here. I'm sure I am not the only person to have other accounts (an mbin and a lemmy) but I am pretty invested here. But your #1 option has some relavent points.
Edit to add I have been digging the microblogs and miss that from what I can see on mbin. Maybe my error. I can't even find them.
Mbin does support microblogs. I believe there's a "Microblog" button in the navigation bar for desktop, and the same button found in the side drawer on mobile.
Preventing this issue doesn't seem like a userscript issue (though that's definitely a good start).I think the auto report function is severely needed; it's happening everywhere. If the script can automatically block any user whose post it suppresses, it would be awesome.
But I think the issue is that we need to get support top-down on this.
If the script can automatically block any user whose post it suppresses, it would be awesome.
It does! I've reworded the OP to hopefully make that clearer. After using this approach for a few days, my blocklist (generated entirely programmatically) is ten pages long, and there is nary a bad post in sight. I'm expanding the filters on a daily basis.
I think the auto report function is severely needed; it's happening everywhere.
The idea is that it takes the burden off of myriad (N) users having to manually do this themselves, and lets a single user (the KES custodian) prepare the filters, which then propagate out to any user of KES. Instead of 1,000 people manually blocking, one person builds the heuristics, and everyone benefits.
Preventing this issue doesn't seem like a userscript issue...but I think the issue is that we need to get support top-down on this.
I understand, but the stated goal of KES is addressing issues that can't, or won't (due to some design conflict), be addressed, or which fall through the cracks. At the moment I'm seeing a lot of people voicing frustration, but due to the skeleton crew situation with administration of the site, it seems like screaming into the void. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and hopefully it gets some traction. But my job with KES is just to provide fixes for the end-user, albeit of a third-party nature.
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.
I think I'm going to give up on Kbin. Every time in enter it's full of spam, so is not worth posting anything since is going to be buried in spam anyways
Has there been a change in sourcing new magazines? Last time I tried it I couldn't get anything to matriculate, at least not kbin style with searching etc. Big turn off for me but otherwise mbin seems like the best fit.
Not from what I've seen, unfortunately. Getting new instances to federate, at least from smaller, non Lemmy instances, is a bit of a pain. In the past I've done some testing with the two mags I currently own, and it looks like things don't always properly federate.
I've also noticed the same goes for voting. There's been more than once I've seen differing upvotes/downvotes on a thread depending on whether you're looking at it from kbin vs mbin.
Maybe I should reach out to the person who runs the mbin instance I am on. They were a kbin person before and may have some insight. An mbin version of this meta would be helpful, as mentioned!
@Gordon_Freeman
It really depends on the very magazine. Basically, it's magazines with Ernest as sole moderator where these problems occur. I'd give it a wait. @Haus
Have you been successful in obtaining ownership or moderation to any abandoned mags? I've requested to a couple that I occasionally participate in just in case they get targeted for spam, but I haven't heard yea or nay either way.
Using this approach, I am seeing none of those posts on /science. I updated the filters a bit today. The top post is a legitimate article from 2024-04-13 and is by HeartyBeast.
Now, I understand that this is seen as an unnecessary step (too fancy) for some. People want zero ads out of the box without anything extra. So I'm thinking about the next approach here.
Framing the problem:
Filtering should be automatic
End-user wants zero additional setup
There is no active upstream development
It's not possible to inherit moderation of a magazine due to some queue of moderator application requests that is not being approved
The third point and fourth points are important here, since that's currently intractable. You can't reconcile zero additional setup with that.
But let's suppose becoming moderator of a defunct magazine (point 4) were possible while point 3 remained unresolved. In other words, at least moderators can try to pick up the pieces. Something being underestimated here is how annoying it would be for the moderator to manually cull posts every single day. I think you would have instant turnover after a couple of weeks once the tedium sets in. Manual solution is not good. Clearly, automation is needed on the moderation side.
So assuming you could actually inherit a magazine, but with no guarantee of upstream development, what about restructuring the tool above so that it's for moderators, instead of end-users? That's pretty easy, and I could make it something the moderator clicks once and it's done, auto-banning the posts. This is a pretty good method.
But you can't inherit moderation right now, so that's back to square one.
Realistically, that leaves these options at the moment:
Wait (a long time) and see
Use the tool above and make magazines readable, albeit at some sacrifice of convenience (?)
Migrate to another instance
Third approach is the path of least resistance and is best for most casual users. Second is for diehards who cannot move instances due to some personal or technical reason. First approach is the most annoying and eventually leads to the third approach after frustration sets in.
Pick your poison, I guess. I can't think of any other prophylactic approach at the moment, maybe this comment triggers some idea.
Real posts (from kbin.social magazines) are becoming quite rare. I find myself coming to this site now to do the following circuit:
sort by new and report SPAM and block users
scroll through headlines and read (the few) recent comments/posts to mags I'm interested in
come to kbinMeta and see if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing and feeling the same way
see if the radio silence has yet been broken by the dev
It's a fascinating case study in the rise and fall of an internet community and digital communication platform. And it highlights one important fact about human community management and technology development: COMMUNICATION IS KEY.
Most of the content being federated to my instance from kbin appears to be mostly adverts for websites selling pharmaceuticals - usually advertising controlled substances.
After a couple from the same magazine(? kbin’s term?) I just block the community. But it’s pretty non-stop. I guess it’s not yet considered to be worth defederating, but yowsa.
Kbin got the same rexodus boost as lemmy but since then has many more atrophied communities and far fewer moderaters to do anything about it, hence spamalot.
I've only seen 1 or 2 pieces of spam in my feed and that was months back - interesting that you seem to be seeing more of it on a federated server. I only started blocking those magazines when I noticed the spam on desktop sidebars.
I just saw another one in random(@kbin.social), so I jumped in and scrolled back; there were only a couple in the past two days, but three days ago there was a series of several posts in a row (6? 8? Something like that).
I an not subscribed to any kbin magazines, so I don’t see them in my curated feed; they mostly show up in the uncurated “World.”
FWIW; you expressed curiosity, so I followed up with an example.
Unforcunately the admin\creator of kbin has personal issues and is missing. We need to leave, but that means migrating manually which is annoying. Too bad, there are some good idas here.
If your main goal is exporting your magazine subscriptions between accounts across instances, may I suggest trying EXIT tool. If you are looking for more complex export settings (friends/favorites?), unfortunately, only subscriptions are supported at this time.
A few suggestions that may or may not be satisfactory for you:
Using KES, enable General > Hide sidebar elements > Random threads, Random mags, Random posts. The randomly populated sidebar is fundamentally flawed; I suggest disabling its content altogether.
Next, enable General > Filter advertisements. This second feature is by no means foolproof, but will reduce a lot of noise, and is periodically updated on a rolling basis.
You mean Nijimiss? I'm running the searches for that within Kbin Social, and not the opposite, and tinkering with the VPN, Kbin doesn't seem to have problems with EU IPs (isn't it from Poland? I have the impression I read something on that previously).
yes, i mean the Nijimiss site is actively blocking european IPs, which would include requests coming from kbin.social, and might be the root of your 500 errors. i noticed lemmy.world (finland) also cant make those requests to nijimiss.moe successfully.
my instance is not in europe, so it seems like it can make those requests without error.
We don't really know. Supposedly it is, ernest just isn't pushing the code to codeberg, instead keeping it locally. He has mentioned before he's going to push the latest changes (though he never did that), so it sounds like there do exist changes not reflected on the repository yet. But I have no idea how things went since then.
Yeah, it’s been a while since Ernest has posted anything, and I don’t think he has uploaded any new code in a while. I wonder if there was a roadblock somewhere?
Ernest also said he was having health issues so I hope he’s doing okay.
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