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.
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...
Researchers have created the first functional 3D-printed brain tissue that can develop and form connections in the same way as real human brain tissue.
kbin.social is being overrun with spammers. Can we disable registrations on this instance so they can't keep creating new accounts? Every day I log on, I have to spend the first 20-30 minutes, reporting and blocking a bunch of new accounts....
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.
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.
In October 2022, Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter. Almost a year later and we have witnessed the gutting of the content moderation department, a huge increase in hate speech, and in real terms the end to API-based researcher access to data. Twitter (or ‘X’) isn’t just unfriendly but actually unsafe for many...
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.
The families of almost half a million food insecure children in Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school lunch debt, according to Sen. John Fetterman’s office. Across the US, more than 30 million kids can’t afford their school meals and the total debt is $262 million annually.
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors the company will "quiet the noise" in a culture war that has pitted social conservatives against the global media and entertainment conglomerate, according to an analyst note on Wednesday.
A new study suggests that tobacco companies, who were skilled at marketing cigarettes, used similar strategies to hook people on processed foods. (adding archive link here: https://archive.ph/cRRVa)
The former clerk in Rowan County, Ky., was sued by two same-sex couples to whom she refused to grant marriage licenses, claiming it violated her religious beliefs. Her attorney says she will appeal.
The French supermarket chain Carrefour has put labels on its shelves this week warning shoppers of “shrinkflation”, the phenomenon where manufacturers reduce pack sizes rather than increase prices....
/kbin is certainly not dying, as @fr0g pointed out, work on new features and bug fixes is ongoing. However, it may give the impression that it is, and for that, I take full responsibility and owe you an explanation....
Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding an investigation into SpaceX after Elon Musk acknowledged he had blocked Ukraine from extending the private Starlink satellite network for an attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.
Microplastics found in blood clots in human hearts, brains, and legs (www.infoterkiniviral.com)
Microplastics have been found in more than 50 percent of the fat clusters of the blocked arteries
/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...
3D-Printed Neural Tissue Grows And Functions Like a Human Brain (www.sciencealert.com)
Researchers have created the first functional 3D-printed brain tissue that can develop and form connections in the same way as real human brain tissue.
Can registrations on kbin.social be disabled to stop spammers (kbin.social)
kbin.social is being overrun with spammers. Can we disable registrations on this instance so they can't keep creating new accounts? Every day I log on, I have to spend the first 20-30 minutes, reporting and blocking a bunch of new accounts....
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.
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...
The Writers Strike Is Over: WGA Votes to Lift Strike Order After 148 Days (variety.com)
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike will end at 12:01 a.m. PT on Wednesday.
Association of Internet Researchers Moving to Mastodon (aoir.org)
In October 2022, Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter. Almost a year later and we have witnessed the gutting of the content moderation department, a huge increase in hate speech, and in real terms the end to API-based researcher access to data. Twitter (or ‘X’) isn’t just unfriendly but actually unsafe for many...
Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks, insurers while building real estate empire (apnews.com)
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.
U.S. Senate Dems Want to Cancel All Student Lunch Debt: A "Term So Absurd That It Shouldn't Even Exist" (www.commondreams.org)
The families of almost half a million food insecure children in Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school lunch debt, according to Sen. John Fetterman’s office. Across the US, more than 30 million kids can’t afford their school meals and the total debt is $262 million annually.
Disney CEO says company will 'quiet the noise' in culture wars (www.reuters.com)
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors the company will "quiet the noise" in a culture war that has pitted social conservatives against the global media and entertainment conglomerate, according to an analyst note on Wednesday.
Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco (www.washingtonpost.com)
A new study suggests that tobacco companies, who were skilled at marketing cigarettes, used similar strategies to hook people on processed foods. (adding archive link here: https://archive.ph/cRRVa)
Kim Davis is ordered to pay $100,000 to same-sex couple she denied marriage license (www.npr.org)
The former clerk in Rowan County, Ky., was sued by two same-sex couples to whom she refused to grant marriage licenses, claiming it violated her religious beliefs. Her attorney says she will appeal.
Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands (www.theguardian.com)
The French supermarket chain Carrefour has put labels on its shelves this week warning shoppers of “shrinkflation”, the phenomenon where manufacturers reduce pack sizes rather than increase prices....
Is Kbin dying? I wanted to address the deleted thread and provide some insight into the current situation. (kbin.social)
/kbin is certainly not dying, as @fr0g pointed out, work on new features and bug fixes is ongoing. However, it may give the impression that it is, and for that, I take full responsibility and owe you an explanation....
Elizabeth Warren Demands Probes of Elon Musk, SpaceX After Ukraine Revelations (www.bloomberg.com)
Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding an investigation into SpaceX after Elon Musk acknowledged he had blocked Ukraine from extending the private Starlink satellite network for an attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.
US to argue Google abused power to monopolize internet search as antitrust trial begins (www.theguardian.com)
Outcome could reshape how public accesses and interacts with the internet, or embolden Google to pursue tighter grip on the market