Kbin Foundation when?

minnieo, 10 months ago

other comments already answered a big part of this, but i dont think id want some foundation or group of certain people in power of kbin and in power of who has power over kbin, that defeats the purpose of a decentralized platform doesnt it? if this instance gets bad, we migrate to another one, we dont need to abandon the entire platform like with centralized platforms like reddit.

mmaramara, 10 months ago

I don't think you get my point. I'm not advocating to relicense kbin code or make it closed. Everyone will always be free to fork and make their own kbin-like client if they're unhappy with the original. I'm also not suggesting taking kbin off Fediverse.

Right now, I think only 1 person has complete power over the domain kbin.pub, and the git repository. So that is as centralized as it gets. Same thing with the kbin.social instance, but I'd like to keep administration of the kbin project sepatate from the kbin.social fediverse instance (both can live without the other). I'd like the current main kbin client project (the only?) to get proper administration and financing.

rm_dash_r_star, 10 months ago

Usually it takes a pretty big project to warrant a foundation, think like FreeBSD or Apache. Kbin is still pretty small. They’ve grown a lot recently like Lemmy, but not near as big. They don’t have big development expenses since the project host is free and the developers are all volunteers. I think the devs are running kbin.social as well so that’s probably where more of the expense is incurred. Still I’m sure donations are a help even though the project is not particularly expensive.

mmaramara, 10 months ago

Having a foundation/non-profit is easy and virtually free of fees. Small-time hobbyist sports clubs of like 10 people often have a nonprofit to manage the (small) finances of the group where I live. Kbin has potential to be a very big player in the post-reddit times, with millions of users. I don't know what ernest does for living but it wouldn't take much money to pay him full-time for Kbin development, but that would be the kind of expenses I was thinking (and later small-time marketing)

static, 10 months ago

It's open source code, so it can allways be forked.
That mostly takes care of 2 and 3, there is no need to rush.

Donate here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kbin

mmaramara, 10 months ago

Bought him a coffee. See my other comment here though:

https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/109343/Kbin-Foundation-when#entry-comment-442458

Packopus, 10 months ago

@static "I don't even know how pinging works :)"

So for non-techy dude that sounds more business oriente in their question, I can clarify that everything that kbin is or can be is public code that anybody can copy and build from. It's duplicated already by everyone that makes their own instance, and people can make their own edits. for #1, it's all donation. #2, it's all what ernest can churn out before he croaks or gets bored but kbin is just a bin of code that everyone can toss into, there is no singular domain to own. #3 every instance has their own power over their site. It's like Wordpress. Wordpress is the source code to make things easier on the website builder. Kbin is just the website builder like WordPress. What users make of it is up to them and doesn't require a board for each website to be made. We (the user) can request changes that get voted on by other users and can be implemented or not if someone knows how to contribute the code.

@ernest @mmaramara

static, 10 months ago

To expand a bit:

What is already happening is that kbin source code is getting more contributors to the code, his role is changing
from sole developer to gatekeeper.
There are lots of different names here : https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls

mmaramara, 10 months ago

kbin is just a bin of code that everyone can toss into, there is no singular domain to own.

There is kbin.pub and the main branch git. Just because forks can continue working if the main kbin git gets messed up, compromised or whatever, it doesn't mean that the development wouldn't be in serious trouble in the real life. It would be far from smooth

static, 10 months ago

So for non-techy dude that sounds more business oriente in their question, I can clarify that everything that kbin is or can be is public code that anybody can copy and build from.

Correct.

In the long term more stability like a foundation would be best, but I think Ernest needs some time for that, and we have time.