Kbin Cafe Updates - Federation, community spaces and more

Hello,

Firstly, thank you for checking out our small /kbin instance on the fediverse. Development is rapid; many issues are being discovered and quickly fixed by the community. I appreciate everyone reporting errors or unexpected behavior, reaching out to assist, and the many other server owners that have been collaborating to debug hiccups with federation. For those who are new to the fediverse--or, as some say, the threadiverse--thanks for giving it a try! Bare with us as /kbin contributors work through the backlog of issues.

I have a number of announcements to make, so let's jump right into it.

Communication

We recognize how important it is that information be made available in a timely fashion. Communicating via threads is not always viable, especially when trying to solve a complex problem or making suggestions. It's also important that in these early, pivotal days of the threadiverse we work together to make these communities the best places they can be.

In that vein, we now have both a Matrix room and a Discord server. Our matrix room is part of the overarching /kbin space where you can join and peruse what the community is working on. The Discord server has channels for suggestions, issues, development and a feed of the CafeMeta magazine. Feel free to join whichever one you're comfortable with.

• Matrix Invite (kbin.cafe/matrix)

• Discord Invite (kbin.cafe/discord)

Federation

Federation continues to be a rocky road. We're still working through an influx of failed messages, but are making progress on debugging the delivery of them. It's important to remember that since the majority of users are on the main /kbin instance, kbin.social, extreme issues with federation often won't manifest there or will go unnoticed in the noise. Unfortunately, this is beyond our control and the best we can promise is that a resolution will be reached soon.

Relevant issues:

• Kbin-core: #354 - [BUG] Critical errors/failed messages during messenger:consume

• Kbin-core: #448 - Supervisor repeatently crashing (infinitely long)

• Kbin-core: #468 - failed transport errors

• Lemmy: [Bug]: Lemmy 0.18.0 no longer federates outbound with non-Lemmy instances

Federation with Lemmy

Lemmy.ml, the primary instance run by Lemmy's developers, has blocked /kbin instances from sending messages or obtaining profile data on users. Meanwhile, lemmy.ml is federating data inbound to us. I've implemented a provisional fix, but the reality is that the developers may not want /kbin instances to communicate with them. If this is the case, we may be forced to defederate Lemmy.ml.

Note: This is only for lemmy.ml, not lemmy.world or any other largeLemmy instances.

Additionally, Lemmy 0.18 has introduced a bug preventing outbound federation with not just /kbin, but Mastodon and other fediverse software as well. Currently, the majority of Lemmy instances are not running this version.

Local Magazines

A few issues with threads not appearing after being posted locally to local magazines have been addressed. Some people reported this via our email and in the welcome thread. You will need to re-post any threads or microblogs that fell through the cracks. Let me know if this behavior continues and I'll work with you to troubleshoot; I'm available both on Matrix and Discord.

Instance Updates

Server Status

We now have a status page at status.kbin.cafe which tracks outages and latency on various components of /kbin. Go here if you encounter server availability errors, as they will often be shown there.

Code Changes

Rather than tracking the main branch, Kbin Cafe is now tracking the develop branch of kbin-core as to pull in changes quicker. Note that I'm only pulling in changes after checking the relevant commits, and if commits appear to be problematic, I'll avoid pulling down the latest code until they've been addressed.

Kbin Cafe Lab

To ensure the experience on Kbin Cafe isn't disrupted, I now have a secondary /kbin instance for development and testing at lab.kbin.cafe. Expect to see some test posts from there on occasion.

Logo/Design

If you've got the design know-how, we're seeking a logo to replace the /kbin logo found in the top-left corner of pages. Let me know what you have in mind and we can collaborate!

Wrapping Up

Thanks again for checking us out. More will be posted as /kbin evolves, and you should expect to hear from me prior to July 1st. July 1 is when a handful of Reddit third party apps will be going dark, and it's reasonable that we may expect an uptick in users migrating away. Feel free to join Matrix or Discord, drop a comment here or send an email to [email protected] with your input on the direction of our small chunk of the threadiverse.