Kbin has seen a staggering amount of growth in the past few weeks, and with it a bunch of discussion about issues and bugs.
Constructive criticism will help make kbin even greater, but i wanted to take some time to appreciate how great of an app it has been to use these past few weeks, and to the sole developer @ernest for all the long hours put in to keep things running smoothly.
Keep up the great work!
Wow ;) I’m incredibly lucky to have come across people like you. The authors of those posts are actually right - managing /kbin is a significant challenge nowadays. It requires extensive knowledge and experience to keep it under control. But also I’ve never hidden that fact - the information about it is placed at the very top of the repository’s readme ;) However, as I mentioned, a lot is changing very quickly https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/122333/Fediverse-won-t-replace-Reddit-as-long-as-Lemmy-is-the#entry-comment-478779. And we’re all working hard on it, to improve and automate as many things as possible. Thanks to all of you, I believe I can face it head-on, and together we can create a better place. Better internet. Not just this instance, but cooperation between platforms is the key here.
Unfortunately, there are delays occurring again - I’ve decided that smooth website operation will be the priority this time. There are approximately 450k tasks waiting in the queue, and everything will be handled, but it will take some time. Today, we’re also conducting final tests of the new infrastructure. It’s taking a while because we’re documenting templates that can later be used by others to create their own instances. I hope these are the last issues we have to endure ;)
Thanks for everything.
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thank you for your hard work and transparency ernest ♡
I’m a firm believer there can never be too many thanks you’s given so: Thank you ernest and everyone working on this.
I myself don’t have much php experience other than one small site that i run, but i hope in the future i can too contribute to this project. But that said i do have somewhat more linux experience and if you or anyone here needs help with anything feel free to shoot me a message.I just logged in and noticed the updated reputation counting system. Ernest is a man of his word, y’all. I know we’re in good hands and look forward to seeing where things go in the future. Really appreciate all your hard work
What you’ve done here is truly impressive. Reach out to the community when you need help and stay healthy. It’s clear you know what you’re doing and thanks for all the hard work!
Thanks for all the work you do, and I hope you find it rewarding. Most of all, look after yourself mentally and physically. The same goes for the whole team.
The fact you are being transparent and honest about your work and plans for the future, is a huge bonus. Even admitting to setback and problems, is refreshing. I certainly don’t expect a super human running the show, and everything to be perfect. If anything, that would make me question the place and avoid it. So many places talk rubbish, spewing out a word salad, but actually say nothing. Even worse, they say one thing and do the precise opposite. You come across as … well, the total opposite of Spez and those running Deaditt.
Maybe it is time to start appointing some additional moderators to the biggest magazines.
(Obligatory thank you for all that you’ve done for us!)
Excited to see where /kbin goes from here! Thank you for the hard work you’re putting into this!
You’re doing an incredible job.
Thank you for putting the time into this. I’m really enjoying what you’re creating here and I look forward to all it can become. Please pace yourself and find help where you can. Don’t burn yourself out!
The status update about queue-size etc is really valuable. I wonder if it might be possible to have a little status space in the sidebar
Hopefully migration to k8s will be soon and will go smooth!
Feel free to buy him a coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kbin
Dropped my nickel in the tin. Hopefully Ernest will bank this rush for future costs.
Funny how it’s easy to donate to a brilliantly run instance like this, but I wouldn’t give spez a penny if he begged for it.
Hopefully more people contribute, and on a regular basis. Even if everyone on average double the default amount, it’s only like $7500 so far, which isn’t that much in the scheme of things.
I went to donate but didn’t want to give my credit card number to a random website. I’d feel way better about it if there was a PayPal option.
@zalack You may want to look into “disposable” credit card number services that some institutions offer. Eg, see https://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/5-reputable-disposable-credit-card-number-services/
It supports ApplePay if that’s any use
I’d give Spez some pennies, but I’d make sure they have lots of sealer on them. For old time’s sake.
Yeah totally. On the other hand it’s be fun to give spez some pennies, one at a time at high velocity like
Just bought him another 3 coffees. Will have to make it a monthly thing.
Thanks, I’ve been looking for that all day. It’s a measure of the man that it’s so hard to find!
I couldn’t login for a week. Trying to test comments now.
I can’t read your comment. Have you tried turning your computer off and on again?
Hold the fucking phone.
Are you really who you say?
looks with sideways squintYou the real deal?
HE RETURNS
Poem_for_your_sprog
Is it … Is it really you, Sam?!
Yeah, we’re going to need proof re: your user name suspicious Fry glance.jpg
Sprog is the cat we all know and love
I’ve asked myself: ‘will he make the move?’
Sprog’s poems make life a little more fun
Hard to accept this joy might be done
Signs of life are a blessing from above!
Very new to kbin, and the fediverse in general - and I genuinely wondered if this was an appreciation post for Ernest P. Worrell. I’m disappointed but now I am educated about this other Ernest! :)
Ernest P. Worrell was pretty cool too so we can appreciate both if you like.
Hey @ernest, keep up the amazing work! I know that it’s still early days for kbin, but I can’t wait to see what you’ll implement next! While it’s still rough around the edges, there’s no denying that it’s getting better and better. Dziękuję!
Kbin has been my go-to since migrating, I hope it continues on this trajectory. He is doing a great job!
is ernest the spez of kbin? I just mean does he have the power to shut me down if he wanted and delete my stuff
wondering because of what’s going on with reddit
On this instance technically yes. But that’s the beauty of the fediverse. Don’t like the moderation of an instance? Move to another! Ernest only has control over instances he runs,and same goes for everyone else.
In a sense. Ernest has control over kbin.social, meaning he could delete any content posted directly to kbin.social, delete accounts on kbin.social, and so on, if he wanted to. The other instance admins have that same power on their own instances. He doesn’t have any control over content on other /kbin instances or on Lemmy instances that federate with kbin.social, and because /kbin itself is free software he can’t fully control that either. Even if Ernest turns evil you would always be able to make a new account somewhere else, subscribe to the same non-kbin.social communities that you did before, and carry on where you left off.
That being said. He is also lead developer of kbin. So currently he is also the admin of the Codeberg repo ;).
You can judge for yourself
https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/68541/kbin-server-update-or-how-the-server-didn-t-blow-up
Imo, he’s a cinnamon roll.
What is a cinnamon roll
Just looked it up. A cinnamon roll refers to someone who is sweet, innocent and deserves better.
A cinnamon roll is an amazing sweet pastry that is soft and gooey and can be eaten with or without a vanilla glaze on top.
The glaze is required
Negative, because spez is a dick and ernest is a cool dude. Having said that, Ernest is the person who build kbin (the software) and also kbin.social (this instance of the kbin software), amongst other things.
He is the kbin admin, who has such powers yes, but he‘s not running a company of underlings or making money off this so it would be in bad taste to compare him to a CEO like spez.
If you are concerned about him, you can make an account on another instance where you trust the admin more or if you don‘t trust anyone at all you can also spin up your own instance on a Raspberry Pi or something.
An important point to make is that even if you make an account elsewhere, you can still access the content and communities here and on other Kbin/Lemmy instances.
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Thus far he’s proven to be a great guy, but in case he lives long enough to become a villain, yes - he owns this instance, and if he’s ever taken over by some space parasite, he has the ability to shut down this instance and delete everything uploaded to it; but the beauty of the fediverse is, if you don’t trust an admin of this instance, you can join a different one, and still talk to people here; if you don’t trust any admin, you can spin up your own instance, and it will still be able to communicate with all the others; and if you don’t trust anyone, even yourself… well, fediverse will not solve that problem.
yes. ernest is the admin and host of kbin.social. however, if ernest abuses his power then people can easily spin up new instances of kbin (and have already done so) and you can simply use that instead. Or you can host your own instance. and all of the content is shared across them.
Or you can host your own instance
People keep saying that, but I can’t find any good guides on how to do so.
that’s because kbin is hardly a month old and still a wip. unfortunately that means to get something up is gonna be more technical.
There’s someone on the issue tracker writing a guide. Let me dig up a link.
EDIT: It went into the main repository two weeks ago. Here’s the PR for that initial commit:
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/409
It looks like the author of the guide – who is not Ernest – is maintaining a branch where they’re writing said guide and that the last commits on that branch are only 11 hours old as of this writing and haven’t yet been merged into the main kbin repo. Here’s their WIP guide, about as fresh as you’re gonna get admin docs for kbin:
https://codeberg.org/lilfade/kbin-core/src/branch/admin-guide/docs
The main repository’s admin docs are here:
Welp, that’s way too advanced for me. And, I suspect, for most people. I’m going to stop suggesting “spin up a new instance” as a solution to fediverse problems.
Like, I’m sure you’re about to say something like, “It’s actually really easy! Just sjuehejsishebjfkoapwlheu jsjudhwnakalziziuw ksksoducyenwon znxjisiwnsbshoo nsjwisiakla. But also make sure you wjowownwnejdicinfnskso mwkslosidubnekskppppmamajsij jdjduhxbdnskoskwnmjcbdbw or else it will explode.” Because that’s what I’m going to hear. We don’t know what “bare metal” or “docker” means, or what a “VPS” is.
I don’t think that that really collides with @Otome-chan’s point, which is how much power Ernest has. She’s saying that Ernest can’t really do what spez is doing with Reddit. Spez controls Reddit in a way that Ernest cannot control kbin, or more-broadly, the Fediverse. Spez could simply deny access to Reddit to third party clients.
There are people who are going to be writing guides and packaging the software. There are a number of kbin instances that Ernest does not personally control, not to mention compatible software. The bar will continue to lower, but it is already low enough that if Ernest cannot “turn off” kbin if there are sufficient people who want to use it.
The overwhelming majority of people in the world cannot deploy or maintain an email server either, if you asked them to do so off-the-cuff. But there are many people running email servers around the world, and many people who can and would do so, were the need to arise. No one company “owns” email and can simply deny access to it because of that.
The point is that kbin and lemmy and such operate as email servers have, or Usenet servers, or IRC. The source code to servers is publicly-available and could be forked, if the need arises. Many different organizations run their own servers. And no one person can deny access to the system.
Right. so while the majority of users may struggle due to the technical nature, the reality is that currently there appears to be 75 different kbin instances. meaning if this (1) instance has problems, you can simply move to one of the other 74 instances and keep using kbin as normal. Even if ernest decided to 100% shut down kbin.social, those other instances still exist and he can’t touch them.
I agree, I was going on a bit of a tangent because people keep saying things like “you can just host your own instance”.
It’s a work in progress about self-hosting an instance of a really new and fast-moving piece of software. I’ve no doubt things will get simpler.
Fair question to ask, in the current context. I think you’ve had good answers from others, hopefully that puts your mind at rest.
Pretty shocking that one person can maintain an instance after a mass migration from another platform while also developing the software among other things in his life. Need time management tips from him, lol.
Huge kudos to Ernest for maintaining such a great site, completely as a volunteer service at that.
Thank you @ernest !
Get that Patreon going.
Even though you can tell that it’s not quite finished yet the experience is already great. Hats off.
Always up for appreciating Ernest!
Dropped something in to help with costs. This thing really should be community funded.
Good luck Ernest!
I’m going to mention the fact that not only ernest made the platform, and runs it, he also made communities of miscellanous subreddits (which helped me as reddit refugee) and posts content into it. And manages to do all of that at the same time. Really grateful for all of that.
