ThatOneKirbyMain2568

joined 2 years ago
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A take on an "ideal" fediverse in c/fediverse@lemmy.world
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

Let me try to explain a bit better.

Let's take an instance called Instance A. Instance A is currently on the fediverse, which we'll say is pretty evenly distributed. No instance has a large enough portion of users whereby others would have problems with activity loss if they defederated, which is good. If any instance starts doing things that Instance A doesn't agree with, they can defederate, and less activity won't be much of a concern with defederating from that single instance.

But now, let's take Instance B. Instance B is planning to implement ActivityPub and join the fediverse, and when it does so, it will control 80% of the activity. In other words, it has as much activity as the rest of the fediverse combined.

However, Instance B isn't particularly trustworthy. They don't value the open web like the rest of the fediverse does, their moderation is extremely poor, and they haven't cared for general well being in the past if it meant raising profits.

Here, Instance A and instances like it have two options: defederate immediately, or wait and see.

  • If it defederates immediately, Instance A will see some users move to other parts of the fediverse because they're excited about the 5x increase in activity from Instance B. They probably won't go to Instance B now, but maybe Instance C or D. However, a lot of people will be fine. After all, activity is staying the way it is, and Instance B is untrustworthy anyway.
  • If it waits and sees, this allows people on Instance A to enjoy and get used to the 5x increase in activity. Not bad so far.

However, let's say Instance B starts having moderation issues (e.g., widespread hate speech and more-than-usual spam) as everyone reasonably predicted. Instance A now wants to defederate.

  • If it defederated before, no problem! Nothing needs to be done.
  • If it didn't and wants to start defederation now, good luck. Now, everyone on Instance A has gotten used to the 5x activity on Instance B, and you're going to have an extremely difficult time convincing them to cut the activity they see and the users they follow by 80%. Way more people will leave Instance A if it defederates now than if it had just defederated early on.

In other words, if people on Instance A come to rely on Instance B for the activity they're used to, way more people will join the camp of "I'm leaving if you defederate with Instance B" then if Instance A just defederated from the get-go.

Let's take another example. Instance B wants to try to grab a bunch of users, so after some time, they stop federating at all.

  • If Instance A defederated, the people there are fine. They never saw stuff from Instance B anyway.
  • If Instance A didn't defederate, then 80% of the content that people are used to will suddenly be gone. Most of the accounts they follow will be disconnected, and activity will fall a ton. These users on Instance A will have two options: stay, with a horrendous drop in activity and no posts from the accounts they're most interested in; or just go to Instance B.
    In either case, Instance B will be fine. Most interaction was between Instance B users, so this won't be that much of a deal. But for users on other instances that are used to seeing stuff from B, it'd be catastrophic.

In short, defederating immediately has much smaller consequences than trying to defederate when whoever you want to defederate from controls most of the activity that your users see.

I literally just opened Geometry Dash and was met with a terms of service pop up. in c/gaming@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

@juggles
Can't say I'm great at it either. Honestly, platformer game type is a weird concept for Geometry dash, but I don't mind it. The way different game modes are incorporated into it is really fun though

A take on an "ideal" fediverse in c/fediverse@lemmy.world
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That's because I'm not fully sure on how people should act in respect to this Threads situation (which is what got me thinking about all of this in the first place). In the recent past, I was all "defederate defederate defederate defederate," but now considering that multiple large platforms (like Flipboard) will be joining in, it's less likely that one company will control a majority of activity. Of course, you don't need a majority for there to be a problem — just a large enough portion for other instances to have issues defederating due to the amount of content they'd lose — but a mere large portion and not a supermajority may not be reason to defederate. Of course, there are other things to consider as well, and I'll probably make yet another wall of text with my new thoughts on how instances should handle this in the near future. For now, this thread is for me to share the ideals that I think people on the fediverse should prioritize and for others to discuss what they think on the matter.

A take on an "ideal" fediverse in c/fediverse@lemmy.world
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Of course, these platforms have only federated a handful of accounts, so the "chaos" right now is in the reaction and discourse. However, I don't think it's unjustified.

I've outlined my main issues with Threads federation here, and while I'm not as sold on preemptive defederation as I was when I made the post, I still find it reasonable to be concerned about about for-profit companies controlling a vast majority of the content, especially when (A) the users making that content may be unaware that they're on the fediverse to begin with and (B) companies like Meta have a terrible track record and would have incentive to grab a ton of users by defederating if they're able (though with so many other parties joining in, whether they'll be able to pull something off like that is becoming more questionable, hence me being less sure of the need to defederate).

A take on an "ideal" fediverse in c/fediverse@lemmy.world
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 17 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Nah, just some teen making very inefficient use of his time

What's something interesting about your conlang? in c/conlangs@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's a very creative system! What is "ny" reserved for?

What if Reddit joined the Fediverse? in c/reddit@lemmy.world
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Bad bad bad bad bad bad.

I firmly believe that no instance should harbor a large portion of activity on the fediverse, as it makes it difficult for other instances to defederate from them (as users there would lose a massive portion of the content that they see) and easy for them to take users from other instances by just ceasing to federate (as users on other instances would have to go to the large instance to keep the level of activity their used to). And that's in regards to microblogs like on Mastodon.

With communities, it'd be so much worse.

If Reddit federates, and Lemmy/Kbin instances don't defederate en masse, almost every active community will be on reddit.com. No reason to post on minecraft@lemmy.world with its 5 posts a week when Minecraft@reddit.com has millions of subscribers and thousands upon thousands of active users. Nearly all activity will go to subreddits, the exceptions being from people who have blocked Reddit or on communities pertaining to non-Reddit platforms/instances (e.g., kbinMeta@kbin.social). And if Reddit defederates after that, the threadiverse will be a ghost town. People are already (and justifiably) concerned that too many people and big communities are on lemmy.world. Just imagine Reddit coming in with all of its users.

If Reddit federates, it's just gonna straight up be embrace and extinguish — no extend required.

Now that for-profit tech companies are beginning to implement #ActivityPub, I think it's important to establish what we want with the #fediverse and whether federation with #Threads, #Flipboard, in c/fediverse@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

@rah Maybe I'm not being clear. When I say that "we" means "the fediverse in general", I don't mean that everyone should gather 'round and come to a consensus on what values they should uphold and who should be excluded. This is obviously something that should occur on an instance or individual level, as (A) there are a large variety of different people and instances on the fediverse with different priorities and (B) as you stated, anyone can implement ActivityPub and tap into the fediverse if they want to, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

What I mean is that people should be thinking about what they think instance owners should aim for and form their opinions on the current situation based on that. My goal with this post is to show what I think an "ideal fediverse" looks like and have others share their thoughts. Having thoughts about what's healthy for people on the fediverse and having wants based on that isn't misunderstanding the technology — it's simply expressing preferences.

Now that for-profit tech companies are beginning to implement #ActivityPub, I think it's important to establish what we want with the #fediverse and whether federation with #Threads, #Flipboard, in c/fediverse@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@rah I'd say the fediverse in general, particularly those on instances with microblogging (as they're the ones affected by Threads, Flipboard, etc.). Obviously, everyone won't have the same values, but I think it's still important that everyone at least thinks about what they want the fediverse to grow into.

Now that for-profit tech companies are beginning to implement #ActivityPub, I think it's important to establish what we want with the #fediverse and whether federation with #Threads, #Flipboard, in c/fediverse@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago
  1. People on or entering the fediverse understand the variety of available options.

If someone isn't aware that they're on the fediverse, then they can't really benefit from the openness and customizability that it provides. A mastodon.social user who knows nothing of the fediverse won't know that they can move to a different Mastodon instance or interact with the same content using Friendica, as they won't know that the options exist to begin with.

Furthermore, people will have more incentive to preserve an open fediverse if they're aware that it exists. If the fediverse is filled with people who, for example, think that Threads is all there is or didn't come to Threads with an awareness of the fediverse, the fediverse becomes much easier to undermine.

  1. There is no downside to using free and open-source platforms over proprietary ones.

If someone wants to join a closed-source instance run by a for-profit company, they should absolutely be able to. However, that should ideally be because they prefer an instance moderated by Meta, not because the free and open-source alternatives are relatively lacking. Open-source software is extremely important in order for users to have options and agency, so we should aim for these factors to not come with a sacrifice. Otherwise, companies will be able to draw most newcomers to their instance and attain a large share of the content on the fediverse, which is bad as discussed with Statement #1.

Going by this principle, if the owner over a closed-source fediverse platform starts trying to create exclusive functionality that would attract people their instance, they should be regarded with extreme caution. If you're familiar with the whole "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" thing, a company doing such would be the "Extend" phase of EEE, and that's a situation we should avoid at all costs.

3/3

Now that for-profit tech companies are beginning to implement #ActivityPub, I think it's important to establish what we want with the #fediverse and whether federation with #Threads, #Flipboard, in c/fediverse@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
  1. No actor controls a large portion of visible activity.

This is important for instances to be able to defederate from those with bad moderation, harmful values, etc. If a person or group controls a big portion of the content that people see on an instance, then that instance will lose a lot of that content should they defederate. That person or group would essentially be able to do whatever, and instances would find difficulty defederating because they'd lose so much visible activity and thus users.

If a single entity gets enough dominance over activity, they could make defederation from them out of the question for a ton of users. Furthermore, that entity could cripple the fediverse by simply leaving it, taking a bunch of users from other instances with them. This is a big concern many people have with Threads; if 90% of the activity you see on mastodon.social comes from Threads, then Meta would be able to nab a ton of mastodon.social users by leaving the fediverse, facing those users with the choice of either losing a ton of their connections & follows or jumping ship to Threads.

But you don't even need a supermajority of content to cause that much harm. For example, take the threadiverse (Lemmy/Kbin). A large portion of visible activity is controlled by the admins of lemmy.world. Thankfully, they seem to nice people, but if they were to start (for example) being more lax with hate speech, other Lemmy/Kbin instances would either have to deal with it or lose access to a large portion of the activity pool. If any threadiverse instance were to defederate from lemmy.world — even if the lemmy.world admins started acting against the interests of the fediverse and its users — that instance would lose a dangerous number of users.

  1. Users can move between instances without penalty.

One of the main benefits of the fediverse is that you can move to a different instance and still be able to view the same content. If the admins of your instance start making moderation decisions you disagree with or you just decide that you want to be on an instance that you yourself run, you're able to move and still interact with the content pool. Thus, as long as the platform your destination instance uses (e.g., Firefish, Kbin, Mastodon) supports the same type of content as your old one, you should be able to move without any downsides. The more penalty there is for moving, the more people will feel trapped on an instance even if they want to leave.

This is partially a matter of robust systems for moving accounts, but it's also a matter of having good options available. Mastodon has a ton of active, stable instances, so if you ever want to move (e.g., because your instance is or isn't defederating from Threads), you can do so and still be able to use Mastodon. However, the only such instance on Kbin is kbin.social (not counting instances that run Mbin, a fork with different features & development). If you want to move from kbin.social to another Kbin instance, you don't really have a lot of options. And if you're on something that's closed-source, you'll be forced to move to a different platform entirely, which may not be great for the user — an important reason why free and open-source software should be prominent on the fediverse.

Obviously, this is something that might be impossible to achieve. But even if we can't eliminate the strings attached to moving to another instance, we should try to minimize them.

  1. People can create and run their own instances to their liking with minimal effort.

If a user wants to, they should be able to control their interactions on the fediverse through running their own instance, and doing so should require as little effort as is feasible. Many people have already set up single-person instances for the purpose of having more control over their data. If people can't do that, then they're forced to put their account and content under the control of other people. Of course, most people are fine with this provided that they trust their instance admins, but the option to be your own admin should be as available as possible.

This is part of why it's so important to have prominent open-source platforms. If Mastodon weren't open-source, then anyone who likes Mastodon but wants to control their content would be out of luck. If you like the Threads interface but don't want to be on an instance run by Meta, you just don't have that option.

2/3

OK so #Reddit search has always sucked. in c/RedditMigration@kbin.social
[–] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@umbraroze

Why the fuck do people even follow the site any more.

Unfortunately, that's where all the content is. Things like this don't bother a lot of people — for example, discussion about YT videos wasn't something I ever used Reddit for — and as long as Reddit is the only platform providing what they're interested in, they're going to stay.

3
Lord's Prayer in my conlang (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social to c/conlangs@kbin.social
2 comments fedilink
 

I find that translating this is a great way to come up with new bits of grammar & vocabulary when conlanging, so I decided to try translating the Lord's Prayer in my unnamed conlang. Came up with some fun stuff, such a "subjunctive" suffix to change the meaning of auxiliary verbs, a way to write first-person plural pronouns, and the use of second-person pronouns to create vocative expressions.

English
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Conlang
Pen Najo, öx ʌhir ky ilŭ, son jyk'a,
hŭn k'lenĭ hoq'e son pen;
hŭn t'ʌ p'aqlak;
hŭn la kĭr ky nunka;
nɔ qlak ʌn lar ʌhi ilŭ.
Hŭ hɔ nɔ jʌšu k'ejŭ pen qlakɔ son jyk'a ky jyk'a .
Ĭ hŭ ölonɔ pen enpir son jyk'a ky jyk'a,
ʌn ölonɔr son jyk'a ky ʌkk'a öx enpir ky jyk'a.
Ĭ hŭsŭ yrusa pen jyk'a t'ʌ nelosŭr;
špe hŭ ške pen jyk'a isa ʌk öx akokor.
It'ʌ son p'aqlak ĭ ŭšap'rŭ ĭ ŭšap'ap'rŭ pen,
rokri ɔq son k'ejŭ k'an.
Anpen.

IPA
[ˈpen ˈnajo ˈøx ˈʌçiɾ ˈky ilʊ ˈson ˈjykʰa]
[ˈhʊn ˈkʰlenɪ ˈhɔqʰe ˈson ˈpen]
[ˈhʊn ˈtʰʌ ˈpʰɑqlak]
[ˈhʊn ˈla ˈkɪɾ ˈky ˈnuŋga]
[ˈnɔ ˈqlak ˈʌn ˈlaɾ ˈʌçi ˈilʊ]
[ˈhʊ ˈhɔ ˈnɔ ˈjʌʒu ˈkʰejʊ ˈpen ˈqlakɔ ˈson ˈjykʰa ˈky ˈjykʰa]
[ˈɪ ˈhʊ øˈlonɔ ˈpen ˈembiɾ ˈson ˈjykʰa ˈky ˈjykʰa]
[ˈʌn øˈlonɔɾ ˈson ˈjykʰa ˈky ˈʌkkʰa ˈøx ˈembiɾ ˈkyˈjykʰa]
[ˈɪ ˈhʊzʊ yˈɾuzaˈ pen ˈjykʰa ˈtʰʌ neˈlozʊɾ]
[ˈʃpe ˈhʊ ˈʃke ˈpen ˈjykʰa ˈiza ˈʌk ˈøx aˈkokoɾ]
[ˈitʰʌ ˈson ˈpʰɑqlak ˈɪ ʊˈʒapʰɾʊ ˈɪ ˌʊʒaˈɸapʰɾʊ ˈpen]
[ˈɾokɾi ˈɔq ˈson ˈkʰejʊ ˈkʰan]
[ˈamben]

Gloss

Pen Najo,  öx       ʌhi-r        ky       ilŭ, son       jy-k'a,
2SG Father PREP.COM be_above-GER PREP.DAT sky  PREP.POSS 1PL-1+3.PL

hŭ-n      k'lenĭ hoq'e son       pen;
want-SUBJ shine  name  PREP.POSS 2SG

hŭ-n      t'ʌ  p'aqlak;
want-SUBJ come country  

hŭ-n      la kĭ-r      ky       nunka;
want-SUBJ be build-GER PREP.DAT plan

nɔ       qlak  ʌn        la-r   ʌhi   ilŭ.
PREP.LOC earth PREP.SMBL be-GER above sky

Hŭ   hɔ   nɔ       jʌšu       k'ejŭ pen qlakɔ son       jy-k'a     ky       jy-k'a.
want give PREP.LOC DEM.PROX.1 day   2SG bread PREP.POSS 1PL-1+3.PL PREP.DAT 1PL-1+3.PL

Ĭ   hŭ   ölonɔ   pen enpi-r   son       jy-k'a     ky       jy-k'a,
and want forgive 2SG harm-GER PREP.POSS 1PL-1+3.PL PREP.DAT 1PL-1+3.PL

ʌn        ölonɔ-r     son       jy-k'a     ky       ʌkk'a     öx       enpi-r   ky       jy-k'a.
PREP.SMBL forgive-GER PREP.POSS 1PL-1+3.PL PREP.DAT 3PL.SUPAN PREP.COM harm-GER PREP.DAT 1PL-1+3.PL

Ĭ   hŭ-sŭ    yrusa pen jy-k'a     t'ʌ      nelos-ŭr;
and want-NEG lead  2SG 1PL-1+3.PL PREP.ALL enjoy_mischief-GER

špe hŭ   ške  pen jy-k'a     isa      ʌk        öx       akoko-r.
but want take you 1PL-1+3.PL PREP.ABL 3SG.SUPAN PREP.COM be_evil.GER

It'ʌ son   p'aqlak ĭ   ŭšap'-rŭ      ĭ    ŭšap'ap-'rŭ          pen,
For  be_of country and be_strong-GER and  be_very_prideful-GER 2SG

rokri  ɔq  son       k'ejŭ k'an.
before end PREP.POSS day   3PL.SUPAN

Anpen.
amen

EDIT: Fixed some errors in the IPA.
Additionally, a few notes about the gloss:

  • SUPAN means superanimate, one of the three animacies (the others being animate and inanimate). Superanimate corresponds to humans, gods, and other things of great significance like the celestial bodies.
  • This conlang's demonstratives make a three-way distinction between distance (near, slightly far. and very far) and a three-way distinction between person (speaker, addressee, and both). DEM.PROX.1 is the "meoproximal" demonstrative, meaning "that near me".
  • First-person plurals used to be two pronouns joined by ĭ (and). "Me and them", for example, would literally be ju ĭ ʌkk'a (1SG and 3PL.SUPAN). Over time, these constructions got condensed into single words, starting with jy (coming from ju ĭ). Ju ĭ ʌkk'a, for example, got shortened to jyk'a (1PL-1+3.PL), which you can see in the translation.
1
Old Version - Three Ways to Destroy the Universe (iv.ggtyler.dev)
 

This is the older version of Kurzgesagt's most recent video on 3 ways to destroy the universe. It's really interesting to see how Kurzgesagt's style has changed over the course of almost 10 years.

37
Conlangs — A community for discussing constructed languages and language creation (kbin.social)
 

This magazine has existed for a while, but it's now under new moderation. Come over to share & discuss conlangs!

Links:
@conlangs
!conlangs
/c/conlangs

2
Dependent clauses in my unnamed conlang (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social to c/conlangs@kbin.social
0 comments fedilink
 

While I haven't done much conlanging in a while, I figured it'd be fun to showcase a cool feature from my conlang. In this conlang, gerunds are used to make dependent clauses. The best way to demonstrate this is probably to show an example, starting with content (noun) clauses like indirect statements.

Take the following sentence:

Ölo Ken pʌpʌ.
Ölo Ken pʌpʌ.
eat Ken fish
"Ken is eating a fish."

Let's say we want to turn this into an indirect statement, such as in the sentence, "He is saying that Ken is eating a fish." To do this we apply the following transformations:

  • The verb ölo becomes a gerund (ölor) and the direct object of the main verb (lŭk — to say).
  • The subject Ken is given the possessive preposition son (which indicates an agent when used with gerunds).
  • The object pʌpʌ is given the dative preposition ky.

The resulting sentence would be this:

Lŭk' ʌk ölor son Ken ky pʌpʌ.
Lŭk' ʌk ölo-r son Ken ky pʌpʌ.
know 3SG.SUPAN eat-GER PREP.POSS Ken PREP.DAT fish
"He is saying that Ken is eating a fish."
LIT. "He is saying the eating by Ken to a fish."

If the subject of the content clause is the same as that of the main clause, you can omit the possessive constructionː:

Lŭk Ken ölor ky pʌpʌ.
Lŭk Ken ölo-r ky pʌpʌ.
say Ken eat-GER PREP.DAT fish
"Ken is saying that he is eating a fish."
LIT. "Ken is saying the eating to a fish."

In auxiliary verb constructions, the main verb ends up acting like an adverb to the auxiliary verb. For example, in the following sentence, the verb t'ʌ (to go) is an auxiliary verb indicating the future tense:

T'ʌ ölo Ken pʌpʌ.
T'ʌ ölo Ken pʌpʌ.
go eat Ken fish
"Ken will eat fish."

In a content clause, the auxiliary verb gets turned into a gerund, whereas the main verb (again, acting like an adverb) stays the same:

Lŭk Ken t'ʌr ölo ky pʌpʌ.
Lŭk Ken t'ʌ-r ölo ky pʌpʌ.
say Ken go-GER eat PREP.DAT fish
"Ken is saying that he will eat a fish."

Moving on from content clauses, relative (adjectival) and adverbial clauses work in a similar manner. To make one, take the gerund of a content clause and give it a preposition. For example, take the following sentence:

Pasŭ Sali, öx par ky k'ejŭ, tik'ĭ.
Pa-sŭ Sali, öx pa-r ky k'ejŭ, tik'ĭ.
like-NEG Sali PREP.COM like-GER PREP.DAT sun moon
"Sali, who likes the sun, does not like the moon."
LIT. "Sali, with a liking to the sun, does not like the moon."

Here, the gerund of the verb pa is given the comitative preposition öx (meaning "with") to create a relative clause. Like with content clauses, the subject is omitted (i.e., we don't need to write "Sali, öx par son Sali ky k'ejŭ…") when it's the same thing as what the relative clause is modifying (the antecedent).

However, in the case when the object of the relative clause is the same as the antecedent, we still need to write out the object in the clause:

P'a k'eju, öx par son Sali ky ʌk', tik'ĭ.
P'a k'eju, öx pa-r son Sali ky ʌk' tik'ĭ.
be_bigger_than sun PREP.COM like-GER PREP.POSS Sali PREP.DAT 3SG.SUPAN moon
"The sun, which Sali likes, is bigger than the moon."
LIT. "The sun, with a liking by Sali to it, is bigger than the moon."

To make an adverbial clause, we just need to use a different preposition than öx. In the following sentence, the locative preposition nɔ is used:

Nɔ k'lenĭr son tik'ĭ, k'lenĭ ɔqi k'an.
Nɔ k'lenĭ-r son tik'ĭ, k'lenĭ ɔqi k'an.
PREP.LOC shine-GER PREP.POSS moon shine star PL.SUPAN
"While the moon is shining, the stars are shining."
LIT. "During the shining of the moon, the stars shine.

EDIT: Formatting changes

8
What's the point of all these UI changes? (kbin.social)
 

For a long while, platforms have been making tons of usually pointless, often harmful changes to their UI. Reddit & Discord provide tons of examples.

  • Reddit's video player changes have been an issue for as old as time.
  • Discord has forced their new mobile UI, which I absolutely despise.
  • Reddit's new logo looks uncanny. (I wouldn't say the 3D character in general looks awful, and a couple of the expressions are honestly quite cute, but what they went with just doesn't look good).
  • A while back, Discord made messages with multiple images display them in this stupid grid layout that resizes & crops them to death.

And that's not mentioning all of the other changes that don't seem to actually accomplish any purpose.

So, why do you think they do this? Is there some good reason to it that I'm missing? Is it strategic business stuff? My personal theory is that they need to have the UI designers doing something and so roll out pointless changes to justify paying them.

3
@ernest RTR#32 Voting Bug Report: (kbin.social)
 

@ernest RTR#32 Voting Bug Report:

Wasn't able to upvote, downvote, or boost anything in my sub feed without getting an error.

  • Opening a new tab fixed the problem.
  • Refreshing the page fixed the problem.
  • Going back to previous pages and then returning did not fix the problem.

#kbinMeta

2
The Moment Kurzgesagt Changed Forever (iv.ggtyler.dev)
 

Another advertisement for the 12024 Human Era Calendar. Figured I'd post it here since it is another Kurzgesagt video.

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I've been thinking a bit about this post regarding #Mastodon 's responsibility to be compatible w (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social to c/fediverse@kbin.social
15 comments fedilink
 

I've been thinking a bit about this post regarding #Mastodon's responsibility to be compatible with the #threadiverse (#ActivityPub thread aggregators like #Lemmy & #Kbin). Right now, a thread from Lemmy or Kbin usually federates to Mastodon with truncated text and a link to the actual thread. However, many want Mastodon to be more compatible with threads so that the people over on Mastodon interact with the threadiverse more.

I was initially in agreement as a Kbin user. But having given it some thought, I think this is an unwise approach that'll only serve to overcomplicate platforms on the #fediverse. Yes, people on Mastodon should promote other parts of the fediverse (and vice versa), but complete interoperability shouldn't be expected of every platform.

As much as many would like it, you can't have long-form video from PeerTube, images from Pixelfed, threads from Kbin, blogs from Writefreely, etc. all neatly fit in a microblog feed. These are different formats made for different platforms, and the people making them are expecting them to be interacted with in completely different ways. When someone makes a thread in a Lemmy community, they're probably expecting that the people who are going to see and interact with the thread are people that want to see threads and are thus on a Lemmy instance (or another thread aggregator). If someone from Mastodon were to interact with it as if it were a microblog post, there'd be a big mismatch. People interact with microblogs differently than they do with threads — that's why they're separate to begin with. You don't see everyone on Twitter also wanting to use to Reddit because people who want microblogs don't necessarily want Reddit-style threads, and vice versa.

The other option, then, is to separate these different formats into different feeds or otherwise make them clearly distinct from one another. Kbin does this by separating threads and microblog posts into two tabs. While you can view both in the "All Content" tab if you'd like, they're styled differently enough that it's very clear when you're looking at a thread and when you're looking at a microblog post. This distinction lets users treat threads like threads and microblog posts like microblog posts, which is really helpful since the two formats serve different purposes and have different audiences. This option — clear distinction — is a great way to solve the conundrum I've been talking about… if your platform is meant for viewing all these different kinds of content to begin with.

And that's what it really comes down to imo. Mastodon is a platform for microblogging. Most people go to Mastodon because they want a Twitter alternative, not a Twitter alternative that's also an Instagram alternative and a Reddit alternative and a YouTube alternative. Even if you put these different content types in separate tabs, it would inevitably make things seem more confusing and thus raise the barrier of entry. Add a Videos tab to Mastodon to view stuff on PeerTube, and people are inevitably going to go, "Wait, what's this? Is this like YouTube? I thought this was just a Twitter alternative! This all seems too complicated," even if you tell them to ignore it.

It's probably best to leave Mastodon as it is: a microblogging platform that has some limited federation with other formats. The way Kbin threads currently display on Mastodon is fine. In fact, when I post a Kbin thread, I'm expecting it to be viewed via a thread aggregator. If people on Mastodon were part of the target audience, I would've made a microblog post.

Now, if you want to make something that lets you view everything on the fediverse via different tabs, feel free. As aforementioned, Kbin supports both threads and microblogs, though it comes with some challenges (e.g., trying to fit magazine-less microblog posts into Kbin's magazine system). However, this doesn't mean every platform on the fediverse needs to seamlessly incorporate everything else. I'd love people on Mastodon to promote and even try out Lemmy & Kbin more, but that doesn't mean Mastodon needs to also become a thread aggregator.

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xkcd #2862: Typical Seating Chart (media.kbin.social)
 
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Released idkbin 1.3.0! — A few small visual improvements for Kbin (userstyles.world)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social to c/kbinMeta@kbin.social
3 comments fedilink
 

In the past week or two, I've been making a lot of updates to my Kbin userstyle, idkbin, to account for all the new features Kbin has been getting. This weekend, I had a bunch more motivation to work on it, so I decided to make a bunch of additions to the userstyle and make the next version 1.3.0 (as opposed to 1.2.7, which would've just done some stuff with the new comment markers). I'm extremely satisfied with all of the stuff I've managed to add to idkbin, and I figured I'd share it in a thread this time since it's a bigger update.

Install here

Here are a few images that show most of the things that idkbin does:

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

1.3.0 Changelog (that's probably missing something but eh I tried)

Changelogs for all versions can be viewed here.

Additions & Changes

  • Sort options on thread pages and tabs on the magazines/collections page now have icons.
  • The boost button now has an icon.
  • The show preview button has been tweaked to look more like a button and is now colored when the preview is active.
  • The collection subscribe/favorite button is now colored when clicked.
  • Official collections now have a checkmark next to their names.
  • Danger buttons (e.g., account deletion, collection deletion) are now recolored.
  • The new comment marker has been tweaked to work with rounded edges.
  • The new comment marker can be recolored.
  • Comment lines are now solid and slightly thicker.
  • There is now a comment line for descendants of first-level comments.

Fixes & Settings Changes

  • Toggles and color settings for the above additions & changes have been implemented.
  • Image previews are now clipped by the bottom rounded edges.
  • Upvote & downvoting recoloring can now be toggled.
  • The smooth fade added to many elements by this userstyle can be toggled.
  • A bug has been fixed which caused fades on different parts of an object to not occur at the same time.
  • The text next to the search and add icons in the header are now disabled by default.
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just learned that Font Awesome exists and now I'm spamming it on everything lol #kbin #kbinmeta [#kbinstyles](https://kbin.social/ta (media.kbin.social)
 

just learned that Font Awesome exists and now I'm spamming it on everything lol #kbin #kbinmeta #kbinstyles #kbinMeta

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The Magazines page is a bit of mess (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social to c/kbinMeta@kbin.social
1 comments fedilink
 

I've thought the Magazines page has been messy for a while now, though with collections now also being on the same page (at least for the time being), it's starting to get very out of hand.

Firstly, there's the main functionality of listing magazines. There are technically six sort options: subscriptions, threads, comments, posts, creation date (newest), and recent activity (or at least I think that's what active is). Two of these — newest and active — are separate tabs for some reason, and the other four are under the hot tab. And if you click one of those four while you're in newest or active, you'll be brought back to the hot tab. This lack of consistency doesn't make sense and only serves to make the page more convoluted than it is.

Additionally, there are also abandoned magazines and collections, which have no search functionality or sort options like the other tabs (which I assume is just a development priority thing). Having these alongside some of the sort tabs doesn't really make sense, and it'll make even less sense if they ever get their own sorting functionality (e.g., being able to sort collections by newest).

Now, I imagine that Ernest has stuff to do (e.g., federation improvements & new features) that's much more important than messing with page formatting. Should he ever get around to it though, my suggestion for improving this page is as follows:

  • Have only 3 tabs: all magazines, abandoned magazines, and collections.
  • Each tab should have the same sort options: most subscriptions, most threads, most comments, most posts, newest, and active.
  • Each tab should have a search bar.

I'd also consider changing the name in the header to something like "Browse Magazines" though that's nitpicking.

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