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.

I believe mbin stopped merging kbin changes, probably either when they had their fallout with ernest where he pushed unfinished code that caused issues, or when he started his refactoring which I’ve seen some mbin contributors dislike because it requires changes on their side too.

Either way, there’s definitely features missing on mbin that I know are in the kbin source, like the sort options on profiles. Collections are definitely there too.

when in theory they all use 0.10.1

First of all, there’s no way this is true for mbin. It’s a fork, it has its own versions.
Fedidb says most instances of mbin (on its first page of instances) use version 1.5.3, though kbin.melroy.org uses 1.6.0.

But also, hasn’t kbin been 0.10.1 since forever even before ernest added all the new features? I don’t think that version string means much if anything.

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.

though kbin still doesn’t render the code block correctly it seems

Yeah, I hope ernest (or someone else) fixes it soon. Mbin has fixed it, so it should be possible to check there how it was done.

I did make a frontend fix for it which is included in KES and available standalone on Greadyfork. But it would be much preferable if this was fixed in kbin itself.

I think the big problem is that the issue on codeberg is closed. Ernest never got involved, but other maintainers closed it as a “lemmy issue” which it isn’t. Lemmy is federating completely legal HTML with escaping applied to spec and kbin should be able to understand it. Mbin can understand it.

To newly federate a magazine with Lemmy, search for it using the syntax !Polytopia@kbin.social in Lemmy’s built-in search. This worked for me instantly when I just tested it on lemm.ee, after confirming that it 404s before doing it.

I don’t know what this xz thing is about, first time hearing it. But people saying he should get more help are trying to help him, not having malicious plans like installing backdoors or whatever.

I do think people should ask less for more maintainers — the project is already opensource, so it’s up to maintainers to join, not him to seek them out. But he should still get some help with managing the instance. Pauses in development are fine imo, but the instance shouldn’t be swarmed with spam and account deletion requests lost in limbo just because ernest got sick or something, which can happen with the best work life balances.

Progressive web app. Modern browsers let you install a website to your phone or desktop as a pseudo-app. It’ll still run in the browser, but most of the browser stuff, like tabs and bookmarks, are hidden to give you a focused and clean experience. Developers only have to ensure their website supports mobile phones and don’t need to develop an entire app project to accomodate phone users.

On Lemmy, users can send each others direct messages. It seems like Kbin/Mbin has no way of displaying those direct messages. Is that correct or is there a way to show direct messages?

Direct messages exist on kbin/mbin, but users are currently unable to send or receive them from other instances than their own. Sending is implemented but intentionally disabled by ernest, for unknown reason, but it might have to do with receiving not working.

Mbin has an open issue on this and yesterday someone said it’s planned but low priority. It also links to the related kbin issue.

Having thought about this for a bit, I think it might actually be better for ernest if this instance died a bit. Not entirely, but it could use some redistribution of users to other instances.

Like, it wasn’t meant to be this big main instance of kbin. That’s just what it became. And it’s got to have an effect on his stress levels and development time.

I feel like the instance is like a ballon that continually gets pumped with fresh air. Ernest constantly has to make sure the balloon doesn’t pop. Maybe it would be better for it to pop so he can focus on other things?

I was considering moving to mbin, but their decision to make downvoting private makes that a very unpleasant idea for me. Public voting was one of the initial selling points for kbin for me. If I move, then it’s probably to another kbin instance like kbin.earth for now.

I appreciate that earnest made a post yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, saying that he is not dead and hasn’t given up on kbin. It’s not on this magazine, so I’m not sure where it was since this seems to be the most appropriate one, but in any case.

Are you not talking about this thread?

and invite other moderators

Definitely. I’ve applied to a handful of magazines weeks ago and have read about others having done so too. I really think magazine ownership requests should be accepted automatically on kbin.social. There’s already requirements in place to whether you can make one, that should be good enough for abuse safety measures.

Instance moderators would be better, but I don’t know if there’s people lining up for that role whom he also can trust with it.

and contributors.

The issue here is that all contributors have moved on to mbin. You don’t just look for contributors, the contributors choose to contribute. So unless he’s willing to pay them, I don’t think this is a problem he can solve, and I doubt he makes enough money to hire people.

I know. I’m just saying that the idea people would magically help out on kbin if he was more open about his plans doesn’t work out, because the people willing to do so would either already be contributing to cleaning up the backlog or have moved on to mbin.

Btw, do mbin devs look at kbin issues too or do common problems have to be posted to both repositories to be seen?

I’m just focusing on clearing spam

This is good to hear, but there’s still soooo much spam on the instance, it’s clearly too much for you. Can you please accept some of the magazine ownership requests (and moderator requests on your magazines) so we can actually help you with this? I know I’ve applied to a few, which are still pending, so there’s definitely people waiting in line.

On the other hand, if people really wanted to contribute, there’s plenty of open issues on Codeberg that are unadressed. I agree that it would be better to announce plans in advance rather than surprise drop them, but I doubt there would be more contributions from the community.

@SLaSZT
I’m a bit late, but since no one seems to have given you an answer yet: Account deletion is currently manual and the instance’s owner has been inactive since the year started. He came here every few weeks to remind us he’s not dead yet, but otherwise it’s been silence. Since account deletion is manual, that means there simply is no one there who could fulfill your deletion request currently.

I want to stop having my votes public and just make a new account on another site

Make sure not to switch to another fediverse site like a Lemmy instance. Lemmy hides the votes to its users, pretending they’re private, but still happily gives them out to other sites like kbin to display or harvest.

The project definitely accepts contributions, the mbin devs have contributed to kbin before and a few weeks ago a minor code change was committed and merged by someone other than ernest.

As I understand it, the issue is that people with merge permissions other than ernest are only allowed to merge their own pull requests, not those of third parties, which require a review from ernest.
(At least that’s what I’ve seen explained before, though I haven’t seen any proof of it so I don’t fully know if it’s real.)

This means a majority of contributors can’t get their pull requests merged when ernest is gone. Which is why they went and made mbin when he was gone for months last time.

Open source, non-corporate instances should be able to grow, and that growth will be stunted if most people who want to interact with the fediverse are deciding to go to corporate, profit-driven instances.

The issue is, how does defederating not promote leaving for Threads or instances that federate with Threads?

I think it’s a good argument against Threads federating at all, but a poor one for defederating from Threads.

If Threads produces 95% of content in the fediverse, and your instance defederates from them, then your instance just doesn’t have access to those 95% of content. Threads and its friends will be a lot more attractive then because it has 19x the content of what you have access to on your instance.

I think this will still lead to people leaving for the threads fediverse.

Also, I get the argument for Mastodon, but does /kbin actually have anything at all to fear here? Sure, the user numbers and content would be way higher than the rest of the fediverse. But Threads is a Twitter contender, not Reddit like /kbin and Lemmy. We will only see their content in the microblog tab.

Is the microblog tab actually that important to most people, that the instance could become dependent on Threads for dominating it? I honestly don’t see it happen, I feel like this is an imported issue from microblogging platforms that’s just repeated here despite being a non-issue for us.

I understood OP to be talking about mobile specifically.

And that’s why I said Firefox or Kiwi. Both of those are mobile browsers (the latter is chromium) that support extensions, so you can just install your favorite monkey and stylus and add userscripts/userstyles the exact same way as on desktop.

seeing “span” and other tags instead of the actual code block

If you’re using Firefox or Kiwi, the Kbin Enhancement Suite userscript now has a fix for this. There’s also a standalone version here.

Well, for the span tags, I haven’t seen other tags being an issue. If you see a code block where the same issue occurs with other tags, tell me so I can update it.

If there is another Reddit exodus, for example, or if we get a surge due to the Threads thing, I feel like many will just turn back due to the UI alone.

I don’t know if ernest’s views changed since the last exodus, but iirc people joining the platform wasn’t really his intention, it just happened. Kbin hasn’t even had a proper full release yet, it’s still beta software, so I don’t think people bouncing off is that big an issue yet.

With the abandonment of Artemis (formerly kmoon), kbin is now only really usable by the mobile site.

That’s the case for now, but app development is still happening with other projects:

• ernest has mentioned intentions to revive his kbin app project
• Lemmy’s Lunar (ios) app is adding kbin support
• @jwr1 introduced their Interstellar app prototype for Android recently.

ChatGPT is going to get you rejected for made up sources for sure.