Over the next few weeks, we're facing another server change. I'm doing everything to optimize costs and prepare the instance for long-term operation. More details are available on the status page I'm currently working on....
Good morning, last week we managed to address pressing issues related to infrastructure. Thank you once again for your assistance, Piotr. I will continue work in this area, but it will be less invasive and cumbersome. I have restored the test environments and am slowly getting back into coding....
Thanks for putting in something awesome, @ernest! Not sure if you want feedback, but functionality is as full as I know it to be. Maybe better. It is really fast right now! Hope you are on the mend.
Great, but I think this last several-day-downtime did a number on activity, seems abruptly more like a ghost town now. Unless those are just federation issues or people defederated us due to all the spam.
I'm feeling a bit better. Starting today, I'll be returning to work as much as possible. This week will likely be spent catching up on tasks, replying to emails, reading overdue comments, etc. I also need to work with Piotr on instance infrastructure. I'll be more actively handling spam as well, but it's clear that we need...
I don't mind waiting for things to be fixed what with life interfering with things, but I can't find any activity from Ernest lately. He hasn't been, like... hit by a bus or anything terrible like that, has he?
The nature of software development and internet communities has always been transient - frameworks and projects and websites have all come and gone. Despite how unlikely it may seem, even Facebook is not immune to becoming dust in the wind someday. God knows I've started my fair share of hobby projects and left them behind in states ranging from broken to buggy, so I should be the last person to throw stones. I know how it feels to just hit a complete motivational brick wall, or to have so many other things come up in life that my little project is the last thing on my mind.
For as long as I can remember, from the days of PHP bulletin boards to Reddit to kbin, I've never had only a single profile. So I think it's not a bad idea to prepare for the possibility that kbin doesn't last forever - literally nothing does. Nor do I think that's a foregone conclusion! But even if Ernest has moved on, or he's tied down by other matters, I think what he built is inspiring. I legitimately believe that kbin is cool tech, far far cooler than Bitcoin or VR or AI. Maybe someone else spins up a kbin instance, or mbin becomes the new de facto standard, but I don't mind running this account for as long kbin.social sticks around... no matter how many 503's I see lol.
I recognize each and every other commenter in this thread, y'all are prolific contributors. So if you are leaving, at least link your new profile in your bio.
I've been wondering the same thing. I really like kbin's interface, so I'm holding out that he comes back before I think about trying another instance.
Looks like Kbin is running a pretty huge federation backlog, as it's taking several hours for comments to federate out. I'm not knowledgeable about how these servers work, but is it teetering on collapsing or something?
@ernest, we love you man, and we're grateful for the service you provide. But this site has needs that can't be met by one person: community mod approval, emergency status communication, spam management, and account management are just a few that immediately come to mind....
The main issues with the improper functioning of the instance have been resolved, but it led to additional complications. Currently, using the instance should be quite comfortable, but I will continue to work intensively on a comprehensive solution for the next few days. Therefore, occasional interruptions or errors may still...
The issues that started occurring on Sunday turned out to be more serious than anticipated, extending beyond the application code. We are still working on resolving them to ensure the proper functioning of the website, but we need some more time. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Yeah, It's true. Since Sunday, I've been noting errors that I'm still working on resolving. It doesn't make it easier that it's the post-holiday period, and due to travels and security measures, it's not the easiest task. I'm working to get everything back to normal as soon as possible.
With Meta beginning to test federation, there's a lot of discussion as to whether we should preemptively defederate with Threads. I made a post about the question, and it seems that opinions differ a lot among people on Kbin. There were a lot of arguments for and against regarding ads, privacy, and content quality, but I don't...
@ThatOneKirbyMain2568
given the sheer size of threads, most fedi platforms still lack well-developed moderation tools > this is a tough nut to crack, thus preemptive defederation is a must when it comes to threads
Very well said and you have captured many of my exact fears.
Personally, if the decentralized fediverse was more developed and mature, I would not be as concerned about federating with Threads. But, Meta is entering at a time when everything is really just starting to develop.
They’ll be the big instance and they’ll have a lot of influence over the others as a result.
Just to give an example, What would happen if Lemmy.world decided to cut off kbin? Kbin would lose a ton of content and access to most of the large communities. Threads, thanks to Meta’s resources and huge Instagram user base, will likely gain more active users and communities than lemmy in no time and they could do the same. The difference is I believe Meta may be more likely to down the line because an open fediverse doesn’t fit super nicely into their business model.
I understand many people disagree and that is fine; nobody knows the future. If we decide to federate with Threads then so be it, and if it turns out I am totally wrong then I will eat my words. All I am trying to articulate is that I think there is reason to be skeptical of Meta.
100%. Additionally, there's a difference in magnitude between lemmy.world and Threads. While it's obviously not great that so many of the large communities are on lemmy.world, Threads would have a vast majority of the fediverse's microblog content. If Meta leaves the fediverse later on, people outside of Threads will suddenly lose almost all of the activity their used to and will likely move over to Threads. And Meta, being a profit-driven company, has all the incentive in the world to do this given that it would pull tons of users from competing platforms like Mastodon.
These corporations have shown time and time again that profit is their priority, and that profit explicitly goes against our own interests. You're not going to see Zuckerberg asking people to keep things balanced by joining other instances. He'd love to pull users from Mastodon, Firefish, and Kbin over to Threads, and it's easily doable if he's welcomed with open arms like big instances across the fediverse are doing right now.
Should blocking a user still allow them to vote on your posts? I'd rather have nothing to do with particular users, and it seems that they continue to show up in the activity for every single post I make around kbin.
Blocking someone means, "I want nothing to do with this person," so it makes sense that you'll be unable to see what they do. This should include direct messages, threads, comments, etc. @PugJesus's idea of a setting to hide votes from blocked users is a great idea, as you should be able to fully ignore someone you've blocked.
It also makes sense that someone you've blocked wouldn't be able to do any 1-on-1 interaction with you. If you've blocked somebody because they're spamming or harassing you, it wouldn't be great for them to be able to DM you.
However, preventing them from voting on your posts is something different entirely, as votes don't just concern the creator of the post and the person doing the voting; they also concern everyone who sees the post. Upvoting a comment is a message not just to the creator but also to everyone else that you like that comment, and the same goes for downvoting. Blocking voting is much more farther reaching than blocking DMs, and with votes being visible on the fediverse, it's a great way for trolls to hide people's views on their posts.
@Ernest has pushed an update which allows users to request ownership/moderation of abandoned magazines. Ghost/abandoned magazines were fairly prevalent after the initial wave of hype due to users either squatting magazine names or becoming inactive for other reasons. Now is your chance to get involved, if you were waiting to do...
/kbin next March update (kbin.social)
Over the next few weeks, we're facing another server change. I'm doing everything to optimize costs and prepare the instance for long-term operation. More details are available on the status page I'm currently working on....
/kbin another quick update (kbin.social)
Good morning, last week we managed to address pressing issues related to infrastructure. Thank you once again for your assistance, Piotr. I will continue work in this area, but it will be less invasive and cumbersome. I have restored the test environments and am slowly getting back into coding....
/kbin is feeling great right now (kbin.social)
Thanks for putting in something awesome, @ernest! Not sure if you want feedback, but functionality is as full as I know it to be. Maybe better. It is really fast right now! Hope you are on the mend.
/kbin March update (kbin.social)
I'm feeling a bit better. Starting today, I'll be returning to work as much as possible. This week will likely be spent catching up on tasks, replying to emails, reading overdue comments, etc. I also need to work with Piotr on instance infrastructure. I'll be more actively handling spam as well, but it's clear that we need...
Is Ernest still here? (kbin.social)
I don't mind waiting for things to be fixed what with life interfering with things, but I can't find any activity from Ernest lately. He hasn't been, like... hit by a bus or anything terrible like that, has he?
Federation Delays (kbin.social)
Looks like Kbin is running a pretty huge federation backlog, as it's taking several hours for comments to federate out. I'm not knowledgeable about how these servers work, but is it teetering on collapsing or something?
Unofficial Kbin Guide was updated to include information about Collections! (unofficial-kbin-guide.surge.sh)
I Still Like Kbin.social (kbin.social)
I still like posting here....
Request for an off-site status communication method and more admins to help run the site & communicate with users (kbin.social)
@ernest, we love you man, and we're grateful for the service you provide. But this site has needs that can't be met by one person: community mod approval, emergency status communication, spam management, and account management are just a few that immediately come to mind....
[UPDATE] Issues with the functioning of kbin.social (kbin.social)
The main issues with the improper functioning of the instance have been resolved, but it led to additional complications. Currently, using the instance should be quite comfortable, but I will continue to work intensively on a comprehensive solution for the next few days. Therefore, occasional interruptions or errors may still...
Issues with the functioning of kbin.social (kbin.social)
The issues that started occurring on Sunday turned out to be more serious than anticipated, extending beyond the application code. We are still working on resolving them to ensure the proper functioning of the website, but we need some more time. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Last few days are the least functional kbin has been for me since the July exodus. Just me? (kbin.social)
Just curious if it's somehow got to do with anything on my end. I'm generally desktop-only, firefox-only.
Kbin pages returning "404 page not found" (kbin.social)
The following pages are returning "404 page not found" consistently, for me at least. (Also, breaks infinite scroll on homepage.)...
A case for preemptively defederating with Threads (kbin.social)
With Meta beginning to test federation, there's a lot of discussion as to whether we should preemptively defederate with Threads. I made a post about the question, and it seems that opinions differ a lot among people on Kbin. There were a lot of arguments for and against regarding ads, privacy, and content quality, but I don't...
Blocking and Downvote Stalking (kbin.social)
Should blocking a user still allow them to vote on your posts? I'd rather have nothing to do with particular users, and it seems that they continue to show up in the activity for every single post I make around kbin.
To those genuinely interested in moderating (kbin.social)
@Ernest has pushed an update which allows users to request ownership/moderation of abandoned magazines. Ghost/abandoned magazines were fairly prevalent after the initial wave of hype due to users either squatting magazine names or becoming inactive for other reasons. Now is your chance to get involved, if you were waiting to do...
So, what's the status on the update? (edit: ernest responded) (kbin.social)
I don't want to hurry anyone, just asking what's up, if there's been any trouble or anything....