This place is getting spammed by bots and nobody acts
This week, I've been dealing with cleaning up instances from spam. Several hundred accounts were removed, along with several thousand posts - these were massive operations. It's possible that due to the volume of requests, other federated instances hit rate limits. I see that some of them are still in the queue with a "fail" status. I will gradually resend them after some time. Along with the update of kbin.social and the first release of kbin, new modeartion options will be available, including spam blocking (such as global blocking domains), a new reporting panel for moderators, and improved federation between instances. I will also address abandoned instances and ensure that each one has at least a few active moderators. I know how urgent this issue is, and it's my top priority. I just need a bit more time as Piotr and I are preparing for the update.
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@downpunxx Kbin is certainly not dying, as @fr0g pointed out, work on new features and bug fixes is ongoing. However, it may give the impression that it is, and for that, I take full responsibility and owe you an explanation.
Several factors have contributed to this situation. The first and most significant reason is my family issues, which I must prioritize. I'm doing my best to stabilize the situation as quickly as possible, but not everything is within my control. The second reason is unfortunate financial matters. When Kbin suddenly gained popularity, the project's maintenance costs far exceeded my initial estimates. While community support still allows for the cluster's maintenance, I also need to take care of my own livelihood and commitments. Another reason involves spam campaigns and other issues that I need to address behind the scenes. I don't want to go into specifics right now, but there will come a time when I can share more. My top priority is to resolve all these matters so that I can return to working on Kbin full-time.
I spend every spare moment writing code and reviewing code? from other contributors. It's a lot of work that goes into development, and I try to verify every accepted pull request and make improvements when I can. It also takes up a lot of time, more than it may seem. I have also delegated some responsibilities and permissions to the Kbin core team (https://codeberg.org/org/Kbin/teams), which has allowed the project to continue to grow, and I am immensely grateful for that. However, I still want to maintain overall control, although over time, we will work on better processes to make it less dependent on me.
I paused updates on kbin.social some time ago until the release of the first version. Hence, the impression that nothing is happening. Kbin is, in fact, developing so rapidly that I wouldn't be able to respond to potential issues quickly enough, adding to the stress.
I've given myself a deadline to resolve all my issues and release the first official version by the end of September. If I can't meet the deadline, I will step down from leading the project and transfer full rights over the repository and instance to the contributors. Of course, this includes the budget I mentioned earlier, earmarked for instance maintenance.
I feel truly awful about this. I can't even keep up with threads on Matrix Spaces, notifications here, etc. Right now, the only way to contact me is through the contact form. However, I want to catch up on everything as soon as possible and stabilize the situation. It's crucial to me, but at the moment, I can't put it above family matters. I apologize for letting you down, and I appreciate your words of support. If it weren't for such an amazing community, I might have given up a long time ago.
@unofficialkbinguide That's amazing. Merloy is right, it would be great to have some of this in the official wiki. I would go a step further, I'm in the process of preparing a new project page. I would be very grateful if I could use your work there. If you don't mind and have an account on Codeberg, please send me your username in a private message, I'll add permissions to the repository, and we can work on this together.
Hi there, I'm currently working on solving the problem. There will be significant changes this month. I know it's taking longer than I initially announced, but this will be a really solid release. The contributors have made an incredible work and I didn't want to miss anything.
https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/381108/Lots-of-new-spam#entry-comment-2209332
This month, the largest update is planned. It's taking a long time because part of the team is returning from vacation, hence the delays. I hope that the update will resolve some of the most pressing issues. I'm also trying to remove spam systematically, but currently, the code is my priority. After implementing the new version, I will seriously address the community.
If there's anything urgent, currently contacting through the form is the quickest option. Cheers!
The mechanism itself is already ready, but there are so many other changes that the next server update won't be that easy. Additionally, I had to solve several private issues that effectively distracted me from work, sorry for that. At the beginning of September, everything will start to stabilize, and that's also when all the changes will be on kbin.social.
Thanks for reaching out, I'll look into it today.
@OvergrownSkeleton more moderate
The magazine also has its own panel, available if you are the owner.
At the end of the day, I wanted to thank you for that reminder. Sometimes I really need it. For now, these two PRs will have to suffice. I'm sure I modeled them after Postmill. I can promise I'll get back to this and do it right.
Thank you for that, Adam.
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/1005
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/1006
It took me from 4 to 6 minutes, I can't determine exactly. I think this is about more than just copying and committing a file - one needs to label specific files or sections of the code. I'm not sure how exactly this should look, so I'm waiting for a consultation.
Most of the indicated code is no longer part of kbin (unlike Pixelfed's code, to be fair). You can see the similarities in the links provided above. However, I need to thoroughly analyze everything once again to make sure nothing slipped past me and there isn't more of it. There might be a tool that could facilitate this. In any case, it's not my intention to hide the original source, even if major changes have been made. I'd gladly leave information about what the code was based on. I have no problem with that, the only enemy is time.
I think several factors contributed to this. First, I prepared the licensing tag, but when the time came to merge the branch - that code simply no longer existed. As you can see, the remaining files are what I call inspiration - it's not copied code but more of an overall concept, quite common in these types of applications (however, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a tag). Another factor is that sometimes you have to choose what to focus on first - eliminate and remove thousands of spambots, fix activitypub communication after updates from other software so as not to crash your server and others, secure the instance from sensitive content, deal with all the formalities related to the legal situation, working on moteration tools, handle pull requests from people who dedicate their private time to it and many more. Additional, I still need to make sure I can pay my own bills, and there's personal life.
And yes, two months is a long time, but for me, it was just a flash this time. A swift reality check occurred because the first release was supposed to come out over a month ago. I'm doing this the best I can, and without the help of contributors, none of this would have been possible. Due to the situation, I have to prioritize certain tasks. This is still marked as high priority, but it's waiting its turn. Nevertheless, I have the opportunity, I decided to seek external help to do it the right way before releasing the first version. I realized that it only seems like a simple task on the surface. I want close the matter once and for all. All of this also pertains to the licensing tags of Pixelfed, btw.
As I said, the markdown implementation that received the main thing has been rewritten by contributors. I need to consult on how it should look in such a case. Now the indicated similarities are between these files (these files will also be changed soon, before release):
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/src/branch/develop/src/Repository/Criteria.php
https://gitlab.com/postmill/Postmill/-/blob/1e98b99bc4a20b396f2fa4089bdb1a308b7e18fd/src/SubmissionFinder/Criteria.php
https://gitlab.com/postmill/Postmill/-/blob/a9704316c1c78f15ca12c2dc5ad477f4ac9f530e/src/Entity/Submission.php#L21-57
Since then, over 230 pull requests have been accepted. I had a branch where I was working on this, but a lot of code has changed in the meantime - among other things, ex the markdown implementation has been rewritten and, in fact, some of it is now outdated. Many files will still change and be rewritten before the release.
Before the first release, it will be done properly, and I will probably seek help and consultation from the right people https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/937. Currently, in the project's readme, I've clearly indicated that kbin is inspired by Postmill. Unfortunately, recently I've been overwhelmed by some personal matters, which caused me to neglect certain things. Now I'm doing everything to bring kbin to the appropriate state.
Hey, this mechanism is already finished. The problem is that I planned the next update after the release of the first /kbin tagged version. There's still about a week left for that because there are really a lot of changes that I'm still testing. I'll try to speed up this process and quickly create some external procedure.
@Arotrios The magazines have been cleaned up and I've deleted the associated accounts. If this happens again, I'll apply a temporary fix. And if the campaigns cease, I'll work on a more comprehensive solution. Thanks for reaching out.
Currently, all I need is a bit more time ;) I'm gradually granting additional permissions and sharing responsibility with contributors. We still need to establish a some policy. If it speeds up work on /kbin, I'm okay with that. They are great and experienced developers. However, it's important to remember that they all do this in their free time.
Hey, that's the plan. After the first release, the status update will probably be every two weeks. Currently, I'm struggling with the preparation of the release, it's taking up a lot of my time because I have many changes to integrate. On top of that, I've been going through a tough period in my personal life, but I've overcome it and starting from Monday, I'll be giving it my 100%. Contributors continue to be active, and their assistance is invaluable to me. To make matters worse, I have to deal with waves of spam that have recently surfaced on kbin.social, which you've probably noticed. Stay tuned ;)
Hey, I addressed this in my previous post. I'm dealing with the issue, but it will take a bit more time. Please have a little more patience.
https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/465872/Spam-from-unmoderated-communities-magazines#entry-comment-2427760