/kbin meta

4 readers

1 users here now

Magazine dedicated to discussions about the kbin itself. Provide feedback, ask questions, suggest improvements, and engage in conversations related to the platform organization, policies, features, and community dynamics. ---- * Roadmap 2023 * m/kbinDevlog * m/kbinDesign

founded 2 years ago

Do the "Ernest needs to add more maintainers to KBin!" comments remind anyone else of the xz social engineering malarkey? (kbin.social)

submitted 8 months ago by FfaerieOxide@kbin.social to c/kbinMeta@kbin.social

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Comments such as:

letting more people help with Kbin development.
...
Why not getting some help? I know that Ernest already said he has a problem trusting people, but

Why has Ernest insisted on being the only developer to work on this? This creates a potential “single point of failure” situation.

I understand the desire to keep kbin a solo project in order to maintain control over it, but if this is going to see any success in the long term, then there needs to be a team.

come up in almost all threads about KBin's performance. At the time I just read them as nincompoops being whiners.

In hindsight does remind one a bit of similar social pressure leveled against Lasse Collin, does it not?

Not saying people are trying to backdoor this place or anything. The similarity just seemed worth pointing out.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No, he's not. Kbin was recently down for a week. Then voting and comment counts broke. Before all that I had to get into the habit of reloading the page I was on every time I wanted to vote on something. It's a terrible user experience.

That's not to say I don't like him or he's not a good dev or whatever. Just that people have limits and it sure seems like he's bumping against his.

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think Ernest is doing a fine job. [shrug] Especially when you consider none of us are being charged to be here.

Could we please stop talking about if Ernest is burning out though? That was never the question of this thread.

The question was if the comments reminded you of the social engineering that engendered the xz backdoor.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I didn't say anything about burning out. A job can be too big or difficult for a person without them burning out.

Ultimately, it's just a question of results. If kbin.social is working poorly but other alternatives are doing good, I move on. That works well in the Fediverse especially, as evidenced that I am commenting from fedia.io.

[–] OpenStars@startrek.website 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Likewise I also moved on from Kbin. Obviously we have no power over that project, that belongs solely to the person who created it, but we do control our own actions. e.g. I used to sing the praises of the Fediverse and go out of my way to not equate it with Lemmy - always saying like Lemmy/Kbin. Now I still do the former but I actively tell people that Kbin might not be a good match for them. Ernest has kept it as alpha version software - which is fine, there is a need for such things, and it will become great, someday... hopefully. But today is not that day, and that is super good for people to know, e.g. that they don't have to leave the Fediverse entirely to get a more functional experience, just Kbin.social.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

fedia.io is running mbin, which is a fork of kbin. It seems to be doing well, so you could switch to Lemmy/mbin if you don't want to include kbin any more but still want to show alternate clients are possible.

[–] OpenStars@startrek.website 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Thank you for the suggestion. So far I've just taken to saying "Fediverse", perhaps I'm holding out hope for still more clients in the future:-)? Also it's shorter than Lemmy/Kbin/Mbin:-).

[–] ProdigalFrog@kbin.social 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Piefed also looks promising.

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Piefed also looks promising.

That one interoperable with Mastodon like Kbin is?

[–] ProdigalFrog@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

It appears focused on being compatible with lemmy, but I haven't asked the dev what their plans are for mastodon integration.

They do have an interesting image-viewing mode though, which is pretty cool. :)

[–] sab@kbin.social 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nope, and it doesn't seem to be on the agenda either. Kbin/Mbin is still the only platform(s) to try to bridge the two.

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 4 points 7 months ago

Kbin/Mbin is still the only platform(s) to try to bridge the two.

Moreover it seems to have better discoverability than mastodon Mastodon. I can type a word or phrase in the search bar on kbin and find "Mastodon" posts whereas I'm stuck viewing whatever is timeline trending on Mastodon proper unless I follow someone or can figure out whatever hashtag person might have affixed to their post.

Even with kbin being down a good 1/5 of the time it remains the best ActivityPub viewing experience (in my).

[–] OpenStars@startrek.website 2 points 7 months ago

Exactly! More and more products can be added - like now we are hearing about Fedi-wikis (from the original Lemmy developer iirc), and ofc there will be Threads (whether we dread it or not!), so the Fediverse (iirc, defined basically as anything that uses the ActivityPub protocol?) is growing up, spurred onwards by the ongoing demise of Reddit even if started long before. :-)

[–] Canard@fedia.io 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I saw the term "threadiverse" being used to group all Reddit alternatives interoperable with the Fediverse.

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 1 points 7 months ago

I saw the term "threadiverse" being used to group all Reddit alternatives interoperable with the Fediverse.

Yeah, but Meta's fucked up the application of anything containing "thread".

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago

I didn't say anything about burning out.

Fairplay, but that then's two step removed from what this thread is about.