It's such a shame, I really hope Ernest is ok. And I guess the once again lesson here is something like this needs a dev team and not just one person.
I'll stick around for a few more days to see what's going on, but if nothing changes I guess I'll have to move on to something else.
That’s about where I am, honestly. I’m starting to look for alternatives.
I can deal with the site having the occasional problem, but I can’t deal with absolutely no communication at all when things break down. Kbin has gotten too big to be a one-person operation.
This is now the fourth post I’ve seen about people starting to get fed up, and honestly, you know people are starting to hit their limits once people start making posts about their frustrations. I bet a lot of folks have just quietly given up or moved to lemmy or mbin because they’ve gotten frustrated with all the issues.
I’m a pretty patient person and can put up with a lot of goofiness on a site, as long as there’s some kind of communication happening. But there’s none.
@stopthatgirl7 Same. I poked around beehaw a bit, but I am not sure its is good fit for me. Think I will check out lemmy.world, they seem to be really communicative on mastodon during their upgrade process.
But that's all I know about it. I am looking into mbin,too...but I really don't much about it.
I have been spending most of my social media time on mastodon lately.
I bet a lot of folks have just quietly given up or moved to lemmy or mbin because they’ve gotten frustrated with all the issues.
I guess it's not quiet once I post this, but I submitted the account deletion request a couple weeks back and spent some time setting my feedly back up after 1 too many spam posts. I'm already getting my scrolling fix from rss feeds again, and this is the first time I've been on kbin in a week.
tl;dr: you're right.
It doesn't help that whenever this comes up there's a contingent of users who jump to Ernest's "defense" by calling the folks raising these issues "concern trolls" and accusing them of shilling for mbin.
No, this is simply a matter of what is actually working well. The point of federation is that one shouldn't need to have "loyalty" to any particular instance or any particular platform. Use whichever one's working.
I have literally never seen posts like that. I like kbin well enough and tend to defend it somewhat but trolls/shilling thats just redic.
I was at that point last week and ended up biting the bullet and migrating my subscriptions over to this account. Really wish there was a first class account migration tool available though.
Lol, i thought it was the other account. Well, goes to show the mbin instances are pretty much the same. I ended up with kbin.run
Considering his last post was about going to the hospital for a few days, over a month ago, I suspect he's not okay.
Regardless, I just cancelled my $5/mo donation towards the development of the kbin software. Seeing as how there hasn't been any development in over a month.
Oh, thank God! No rush on anything, I was just worried! I hope your recovery and the med side effects smooth out!
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.
Despite how unlikely it may seem, even Facebook is not immune to becoming dust in the wind someday.
facebook's already past it's peak and declining. meta's lucky they own instagram because that's actually popular
Oh, the irony! I'm trying to upvote your comment, but keep getting an error.
I signed up here and Lemmy.world (same username), at roughly the same time, and have mostly used this account. Only in the past few days have I been leaning on lemmy.world, and giving some thoughts as to where my new backup might be. I really do appreciate the added benefits of 3rd party apps, but I'm definitely going to keep checking in here, and hoping I'll be back to using this account (almost) exclusively again soon. I don't even use the microblogging side of things here, but I've really enjoyed the vibes of Ernest and the local community.
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.
Someone in another thread said he had an operation about a month ago, but I don't have any details other than that.
Yeah he did have a medical procedure, on top of just finishing with divorcing his wife. Guy's got plenty on his plate I'm sure.
just finishing with divorcing his wife
Has—against his best wishes—he been shot?
Note: This is an irreverent reference to an event and I have no more reasons to think he has actually been shot than I do to believe she was in hospital having GRS.
In any event I imagine Ernest is fine.
Phew, sure is reassuring that our confirmation of this is that you imagine it.
You want me putting out in the universe the opposite? Them's dangerous vibes to be fucking around with.
Either Ernest is fine and you can take comfort in that knowledge or Ernest is dead and you can take comfort in the knowledge that you can do things like throw up websites and they can keep going months after you kick it.
I don't think if Ernest were dead you and I would be talking about it on kbin.social.
Seems kind of extreme to suggest such a drastic scenario. The possibilities are more numerous than either he’s 100% fine or dead (which, btw, you are the one “putting that into the universe). I wouldn't guess that’s what people were thinking… rather that perhaps he was in ill health, had lost interest or had other projects that were taking priority, perhaps due to practical financial considerations. Thankfully Ernest has posted an update answering this question, and he says while he has been hindered by some health circumstances recently, things are basically on track.
you are the one “putting that into the universe
No, I put out into the universe that he was alive. You are welcome for the vibes.
I wouldn't guess that’s what people were thinking
He hasn't been, like... hit by a bus or anything
That's what people said they were thinking.
Maybe it's time for Kbin and Mbin to be a single project, in the end they are the same thing, just that Mbin has more people actively working on it, so they are faster with pull requests. There is no big philosophical problem, just a maintenance one.
This would be great! Can you merge after a fork?
There's also the issue if Ernest isn't around who gives others willing to be on the dev team permissions so they can assist.
many forks have merged improvements from the other project in both directions when the licenses allow for it.
Last words, circa 29 Jan:
Today, I'm going for a minor procedure at the hospital, and I won't be available for the next 2-4 days. When I return, I'll push all the corrections and fixes I've been working on and present plans for the near future. In the meantime, I'm making sure that the instance operates smoothly.
He hasn't been, like... hit by a bus or anything
Heaven forbid but the hosting bills are paid up through now at minimum.
You got to think if he were (again, forbid) dead or something the site wouldn't refresh and we wouldn't see ads for drugs and pirated MMA streams.
The fact that we’re sitting here theorizing where Ernest is like he’s Kate Middleton is why this can’t be a one-man operation anymore. It’s too much for one person to begin with, and when people have no idea what’s going on, they’ll start going wild with theories as to what’s going on.
The fact we're here talking on kbin.social when for all we know Ernest is talking to aliens right now on some Jodie Foster Contact shit shows how rather robust this place actually is when you think about it.
The site errored out repeatedly when I tried to like a comment, so “robust” is not the word I’m thinking right now.
The site errored out repeatedly when I tried to like a comment
Has there ever been a time kbin.social didn't do that from time to time? 503 is a friend of mine at this point. Neither one of us has abandoned this place for twitter so this place is clearly at least robust enough (code- and community- wise) for us still to be having this conversation here.
Heck, I could (though won't and don't yet) argue the errors are a feature to keep you getting hooked on scrolling. There's at least 2 projects I have finished I wouldn't have worked on if this place hadn't been down at the time.
Has there ever been a time kbin.social didn't do that from time to time?
You understand that’s not a selling point, correct?
Hilariously, I got an error message trying to load the notification for your comment.
And as I’ve said before, I can put up with wonkiness. But I can’t put up with no communication and not knowing what all is wrong or how long things are going to be messy. I like kbin, but I do not like wondering if social is going to go belly up with no warning and no idea when it’ll get fixed when it did start erroring out for days and no way to find out what’s even going on.
It would be more likely to be critically hit by an SUV or pick-up, just saying.
Fuck cars really is a mantra huh?
If you got money to afford to live in place where you can get away without a car, otherwise you paying for it and it won't cheap either
Kbin is still in its infancy.
I have learned a few names though.
ThePicardManeuver is a wonderful memelord pumping tons of S tier content into KBin with little comment presence.
PugJesus is a shitlord who submits and comments a LOT, and sometimes it's okay, but it is always fuggin extra.
Not shocked to see a post with PugJesus going after KBin's god.
PugJesus is a shitlord
PugJesus isn't perhaps as left as some would wish but closer to decent than to douche. The way you describe PJ one'd think you were describing an AnotherAttorney or other fascist douche.
PugJesus is a shitlord
We all recognize our own don't we.
I'm not super active on kbin, but I've never seen anything from Pug to suggest they're a bad person. On the contrary, they're probably one of my favorite posters on here, at least in terms of the content they bring. I also respect anyone here who actually posts content and engages in conversations. It's more than most (myself included!) can say.
Well, I do tend to be aggressive when roused, so I understand that I can rub people the wrong way.
I wouldn't take a thing he said seriously.
... 'going after'?
I've "moved" with the intention of moving back if things turn out alright. It's nice the site is functional for us to talk to each other, but at this point kbin is "down."
@PugJesus I don't know. I really hope he's okay.
I have accounts around the place but this is my favourite so I don't mind waiting.
I hope Ernest is okay.
I am not concerned about kbin since platforms come and go but lives cant be replaced.
Edit: Ernest replied.
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