So, I've been using mastodon a long time, several years in fact, and I never really understood all the folks complaining that it was too complicated; I mean, it was just always intuitive to me. Now maybe that's because I never really did the tweeter.
What I have done is a lot of reddit, and I gotta say, why the hell is this so complicated? :P
I'm only half kidding.
One thing that should always taken into consideration by software peeps is that when making a 'replacement' like this (dont tell me it's not a replacement for reddit, there's too much signal in the noise of this mag about 'reddit migration'), is that users that are relocating their operations will need extra handholding and assistance.
Unlike a lot of us, these peeps aren't casually learning how to do a new cool thing, they're typically perceiving some real and or imagined (Hey, both can cause a lot of stress and anxiety!), they're fleeing something, and trying to settle into a new, safer place; or so they hope.
I may sound like I'm 'asking for a friend', and I am, but that friend is me :D
Please, we need some kind of FAQ that says 'this is the reddit thing you want to do' and 'here's how to do it on kbin'. We need the next section to say, 'You can do these things on reddit, and not on kbin' and one more section in the FAQ that says 'These are cool things kbin does that reddit doesn't'.
A HUGE ask would be user style sheets to make it look and act more or less like reddit; really, as far as I can tell, there's only really a couple of big differences. Hell, it might suffice if we just had a FAQ that pointed out the substantive differences.
The biggest problem is, y'all just kinda 'sprung' the whole microblog/People/Threads on us; those single word descriptors are really only useful if you're 'in the know' already.
I've been posting off and on at kbin now for several months, hoping I'd eventually just soak it up; but it hasn't happened. I still keep screwing some things up here and there; just yesterday I was off to the races posting about some things, and managed to editorialize a title when I thought I was using post body to introduce the link. It's been sent to the ether, now.
I'm not in desperation about anything. I'm not a 'migrator' or refugee, or any of that. I do have a couple projects on reddit I'd like to bring here, I think this is the future of social media, and I think I will get a higher quality engagement here. I also have some projects already here that I'd like to get supercharged, and I can't really do stuff until I know the ropes..
So yeah, it would be great if the devs would drop some smooth pdfs or single page html or damn just if they'd 'own' a markdown document that could be loaded off any kbin page or something, that would be bad ass.
In the absence of that though (or something like it) what do y'all have out there, in userland?
Anyone know, when setting up a #kbin magazine, if there is a delay for #fediverse posts to puplate in to the Microblog section? I've setup the hashtags, but don't see anything coming in. ?
I'm not sure I understand why "Threads" and "Microblogs" are separate entities in kbin. From my understanding, "Threads" are like Reddit's link/image posts and "Microblogs" are like text posts. Why are these only viewable in separate tabs? It seems like a bad thing to completely separate certain content from the same Magazine and make it unable to view everything at once. Am I misunderstanding something?
Microblog = smaller posts, on any topic and seriousness.
Threads - articles, more meaningful entries, longer posts. Where the OP usually expects extensive interaction with other users
For example, your post is a short question. You should get an answer and that closes the topic. In threads in this case, there should be a description of the problem, ideas for a solution, information on what causes what, etc. Or a link to such content.
@bleuy007 Microblogs are where posts from the wider fediverse show up - generally from Mastodon. As they have no attached information about threading etc a best effort is made to just show them.
Magazine mods can associate hashtags with their magazine and then anything from the fediverse tagged with that ends up showing in that magazines microblog section. This is a great way to bring in a lot of content you can interact with even if it's not in the longform KBin/Lemmy format.
Kbin has been really slow in syncing with Lemmy instances today. I've been browsing https://kbin.social/m/gaming@beehaw.org but it seems like it hasn't gotten updated in hours, for example. @ernest is this a known issue?
Made a small update to my userstyle idkbin following the recent #kbin update. Colors the user follow & block buttons + some other fixes. #kbinmeta#kbinstyles
@insomniac_lemon Strange how its inconsistent like that . Can't block even certain "compatible" instance domains (want to block unilem.org bcus its explicit no defed policy , but typing in kbin.social/d/unilem.org does nothing)
Hey @ernest I wish you the best in the coming days, and other than knowing that, I am just dropping a suggestion that you may or may not have already considered.
I see you're using Cloudflare to manage security checks for kbin.social. They also have a product called Waiting Room that might be helpful as your servers become inundated with new users. Yes, they'd get a queued screen, but your servers would be able to stay above water.
Cloudflare Waiting Room Available at the business level at $250 / mo. No long term contract, so you could just use it for June and drop it. I've seen your BuyMeACoffee so I know you might balk at that price. I've thrown some money in the ring, and hopefully others will too, so you can have the options you need to take some of the stress of your shoulders.
Best of luck! I'm already a solid fan and while the hordes beat at your door, I'll be giving kbin a rest. :)
I have increased the server parameters a bit. If there are still issues, there is still the option of an upgrade but still... it's a budget VPS, and it requires a few minutes of downtime for the website. I'll keep an eye on it, and I apologize for the unexpected interruption. I have temporarily disabled upvotes and boosts auto-refresh as well. I will check how much it will relieve the server.
@ernest if you can handle it financially, my advice is to do a maor upgrade now -- and in any case, post some contribution links so that people can help out.
kbin's getting enough buzz that you're going to get a LOT of interest over the next few days so you might as well try to get ahead of the curve.
@ernest If you're planning on opening donations for server hosting now might be the time, lots of people coming in from Reddit and I'm getting a lot of error 500s. Good luck in the upcoming storm.
Another update to my #kbin userstyle idkbin (now at 1.2.6.1)! The "new comment" marker recently added by Ernest is now stylized by idkbin (mainly to work with rounded edges), and a bug with borders has been fixed. #kbinmeta#kbinstyles
"The magazine from the federated server may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance."
I dont understand this issue. Why is it taking a week in some cases for some text or image from another server to make it here? Is it bottlenecking somewhere? If so how do posts from other servers get here in seconds?
@blazera I believe this message is due to the fact that the timeline for these federated magazines is only from the point at which it was added to Kbin. There's no historical context (and never will be) for that federated magazine. This warning is letting you know that there may be more content in the originating instance. (please correct me if I'm wrong!)