Is the kbin project completely dead?

the repo has nothing going on

the kbin.social website partly loads with error

did it just evaporate? or what?

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    1·
    4 months ago

    Ernest, the lead dev for Kbin, has had a lot of big events happen in his life recently, so he has a tendency to just kinda disappear for weeks/months at a time while the project gets put on hold. He’ll usually come back, announce new plans for development, maybe push out a few updates, and then inevitably go radio silent again.

    I believe he’s got a few people assisting him now, but development has definitely slowed to the point of becoming concerning. I think it might be time for the Mbin team to start getting a little more free with the fork.

    • cum@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      So it basically failed the bus factor

      Hopefully mbin becomes more resilient, or if Lemmy just gets some nice rewrites.

    • RedSquadCampFollower@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      it might be time for the Mbin team to start getting a little more free with the fork.

      the impression i had of mbin was very “anything goes” did that not end up being how things shaped up??

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
        1·
        4 months ago

        its a community. anyone can generate a pr, code it up and it gets discussed. so far there has been no crazy drama about what to include or not… no one has proffered any incompatible ideas. its been quite pleasant

        its all public though, in the matrix or github channels

      • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de
        1·
        4 months ago

        That was the message that was pushed out when @[email protected] started the fork, because a lot of people were not particularly fond of the way he did it. We were trash talked a lot in the first months and obviously (and sadly) that kinda stuck on a lot of people.

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Pretty much, as others have explained here. I wanted to add that in addition to its fork Mbin there is also the Sublinks project to make a new implementation of the ActivityPub protocol and thus surf the Fediverse independent of Lemmy. https://sublinks.org/ (link to GitHub there too)

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
    0·
    4 months ago

    the original developer mentioned handing off the site/project to other people due to personal issues but that was like a month ago.

    this is part of the reason it was forked to mbin. the risk of a project being managed by a single person instead of a community is very real.

    it seems dead, but i like to remember there would be no mbin without kbin

    • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
      0·
      4 months ago

      True that, I just took a look at the FAQ and it still references kbin.

      Question, how do we donate to this project?

      • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de
        0·
        4 months ago

        We do not have a “project fund” or something like that. Some of us have donation sites to keep the servers running:

        My opinion: I do not want to get paid to develop mbin. That creates an obligation and turns it into something like a job. I already have a job and intend to keep it, additionally I don’t want to take the fun out of developing mbin. To commit to it full time or apply for grants or anything would currently be a big mistake I think

        • Ludrol@szmer.infoEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          I do not want to get paid to develop mbin.

          In couple of years you will burn out doing this for free. Not getting paid opens up the project for another Jia Tan to come along and smuggle malware.

          There was recent talk by Rockstar Programmer Dylan Beattie that highlighted this problem. His website https://freeasinweekend.org/ and YT talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYqxo13I1U

          You don’t need to go 100% job or 100% mbin. You could theoretically go for less hours (like Fridays off) to work on mbin.

          • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de
            1·
            4 months ago

            Maybe in the future. Currently so few people are using mbin that I doubt it would be any substantial amount. It also creates a lot more work when doing your taxes. So yeah if mbin gets a user base like lemmy currently has this would be another story. But it does not and it does not look like we will be there any time soon