An update regarding the future of m/AskKbin (heading towards Mbin)
Hello everyone!
This is u/TheArstaInventor, I have contributed to many communities as moderator both here on kbin.social and on lemmy instances like lemmy.world (my profile) and lemmy.ml. I have also made guides in the past to help new users migrate from reddit to the fediverse and was also part of the r/RedditAlternatives moderation team, helping several efforts within the community for migration especially during the Reddit API hype (although we all know at some point that had to subside down and organic growth is the long-term key anyways).
It's been a couple of months since I have been inactive as I am a student and I was very busy and didn't really have any time and was tightly packed, leading me to take a few months of time off social media in general, and I have now noticed that several things have happened in the past couple of months while I have been away, and this affects the future of the communities I moderate, including this one, and where I am planning to head my efforts towards in the future moving forward.
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Kbin: Unfortunately the opposite of what I hoped for, it looks like development have stalled rather than taking off, when I was active a couple of months ago, the development was already slowing down and bots/spams were an issue, and unfortunately looks like things have only gotten worse. I understand and read the thread from Ernest and what he has been dealing with in his life, which has unfortunately negatively impacted the platform and I do hope he is able to turn things around at some point!
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Lemmy: I wrote a post here on lemmy a while back, opened and ran a few communities there side by side with kbin.social and we have seen some nice growth there, I was honestly not yet decided on which platform to go for, as I was wondering if I should just switch to Lemmy due to the slow down of development with Kbin that was already an issue back then as well.
Now, as a moderator, I have looked at everything, the spam/bot has gotten worse and on all the communities I have moderated at Kbin is filled by spammers, I think at this point I must look elsewhere as I've patiently stayed supportive of this project and been here for a long time, and I am certainly not saying Ernest can't take things uphil from here, but I no longer can move forward blindly based on optimism as the past of Kbin has simply shown a downhill so far and that makes life much more difficult for us mods maintaining and investing time in these communities.
Now about Lemmy, as I mentioned, the experiment was pretty successful, after all Lemmy has always been the biggest and the oldest reddit alternative in the fediverse, despite my long discomfortness with the developers (being tankies) and they're not so clean history due to their beliefs, although that directly does not affect development and certainly isn't the reason/influence of my decision to not invest my time at Lemmy. The main problem for me with Lemmy is that the platform feels stagnant, and the development just doesn't seem fast paced either (for new features and etc, as it's pretty big and mature, adding new features or things would be slower compared to a newer/younger alternative with active developers).
At last we have Mbin, I never gave it serious consideration but even after so long after forking, looking at Mbin's development progress at Github after coming back myself from being inactive, Mbin has been developing actively and there seem to be several contributors working and helping the project out, while Kbin has been mainly/only being carried by Ernest so far, which is also because Mbin allows pull requests that can be merged by any repo maintainer (with merge rights in GitHub) and only one approval on the PR is required from one of the Mbin maintainers, this allows for much easie/more contribution - I really like this open community approach especially with Mbin.
That being said, I have made the tough decision to move forward to Mbin, this community will be archived later and I hope to see all of you continue your engagement that you've made so far in the community there at m/AskMbin which is where we will be heading towards, I will personally be moving to https://thebrainbin.org/, one of the many instances of Mbin (find other Mbin instances here). Although if you want to hold off and don't want to move instances, you absolutely don't have to! This is a change that only affects us moderators and the community itself, all you have to do to continue to be part of the AskKbin community in it's new future direction, is subscribe to our community from your existing instance even if that would be in Kbin or Lemmy, it certainly doesn't have to be mbin! The power of the fediverse!
Again we hope to see you there and if you would like contribute to this new effort and direction for AskKbin -\> AskMbin as a moderator, please message me here or at mbin so I can add you as mod in our new community!
Edit: Also wanted to mention, this is just the beginning, I will slowly be moving the rest of my communities to Mbin's thebrainbin.org instance, if you are subscribed to any of my other communities please keep an eye out for a new similar announcement.
Edit 2: We have also opened a discord server! If you are interested in keeping up with my iniatives and show your support, please join my server and stay up to date!
What happened to the billions of investment they promised for hydrogen production? many huge media outlets covered it, but then it was super quiet, what is going on?
I understand what you mean as for privacy, but at the same time, I do think at some point to reach the average user, it will be a must to be on Play store and Apple store. That being said, in early phase APKs are perfectly fine for tech-savvy users.
Cummins Inc. has agreed to pay an over $1.67 billion penalty to settle claims by regulators that the engine manufacturer unlawfully altered hundreds of thousands of pickup truck engines to bypass emissions tests. According to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced the agreement in principle T...
Cummins Inc. has agreed to pay an over $1.67 billion penalty to settle claims by regulators that the engine manufacturer unlawfully altered hundreds of thousands of pickup truck engines to bypass emissions tests. According to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced the agreement in principle Thursday, Cummins' alleged actions violated the Clear Air Act — a federal law that requires car and engine manufacturers to comply with emission limits. The $1.675 billion fine would be the largest civil penalty the Justice Department has secured under the Clear Air Act to date and second largest environmental penalty ever secured.
AskKbin is now back for lemmy.world users with full federation! + Fundamental what/what not to post here issue needs to be solved + Future plans for AskKbin (Plans to recruit more moderators)
AskKbin is back to federation with Lemmy.world!
Backstory - AskKbin was one of the several communities removed from some of Lemmy's instances like Lemmy.world on their side, which means users from Kbin were able to see all the content from Lemmy instances normally, but users from Lemmy on the other side of the fence were not able to see certain Kbin communities and we were one of them unfortunately - This was due to bot spams flowing throughout certain communities with inactive moderators at the time, while the Kbin's development was also temporarily paused back then during that period due to Kbin developer's personal issues that he wanted to handle first, but ever since the development resumed, we've got a new fantastic built-in redditrequest-style system allowing users from our community to takeover communities from moderators that are no longer active. This allowed me to takeover and revive AskKbin, among other communities, removing all the spam, placing bans on spammers while Kbin developers have also removed and addressed spams sitewide with a cleanup which has also helped us decrease this issue in a wider context. (Lemmy.world admins' original announcement regarding the above)
With that being said, as a result, after discussions with lemmy.world admins, Ask Kbin is now back and users from instances such as Lemmy.world should also be able to access our community from now on, we're glad to have everyone back!
Fundamental what/what not to post here issue needs to be solved
There is a fundemental issue (understanding) of what type of posts belong and not belong at AskKbin so far. Our original (and long-term) purpose has and will be a place for thought-provoking discussions across the fediverse, heavily inspired and similar to AskReddit, although so far this community despite multiple heads up from moderators, has had the issue of many people regardless using it as a support sub or asking general questions about Kbin itself or even the Fediverse even though the right community is KbinMeta.
Considering Kbin and the fediverse as a whole is still in a young, but developing stage, we don't want to take drastic actions on this yet although once Kbin as a project reaches more maturity, we will get back to fixing this problem through moderation.
But for now, we kindly ask that unless you are a newbie who is super lost, please make sure your submissions are thought-provoking and not a support or low-effort post. Tons of great examples can be found throughout the internet or even AskReddit itself if you are new to "Ask" type communities.
Future plans for AskKbin (Plans to recruit more moderators and more)
We have so far managed with a single moderator (me), but as the community grows and now that we are back to moderating with Lemmy's instances, we need more moderators to keep the community clean more than ever.
Mod applications are not open yet, but once they are, this section will be edited and a new post linked with mod application will be pinned in our community here, so watch out for that!
We will also upgrade our Kbin sidebar rules and information with guides and other resources linked for new users as AskKbin is one of the biggest communities on Kbin, this can be one of the first places many new users end up landing on.
Lastly, we also plan on designing and implementing new banners that will go well along with the logo, making the community more appealing than ever for Kbin users.
For those who have stayed here and contibuted, even in the dull/difficult times, thank you! And we hope to see more people connect and have great thought-provoking discussions!
That is good indeed, artemis wasn't open source and the whole project's progress and work as a result was lost, glad to know a more open approach is being taken here!
True, but I was still curious about what communities get mentioned here. And also, without communities catering to different users' interests, there will be no engagement.
What communities do you miss from Reddit that wish existed here?
Don't miss one, I want to hear it all.
The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and Dodge Charger HEMI top HLDI’s list of the most-stolen vehicles for model years 2020-22. Four Kia vehicles make the top 20, thanks to a viral trend.
BTW I highly suggest you make a launch announcement on places like m/KbinMeta here with github downloads linked to get more users' attention
EDIT: I think you made a concept post here a while ago?
This is awesome! Keep up the great work and I hope the project doesn't get abandoned like Artemis, seems great so far, maybe you should look into creating a discord too for short-form discussions revolving around the project :)
That would actually be smart, bringing back saturn, I think that brand was really cool and would have a much better image than a buick anyways lol.
Both american automotive companies competing for 1st place! Lol.
I think buick actually is a major brand for GM in china and that has kept the brand alive so far.
What about passanger vehicles? Would be huge loss if these new stations are strictly limited to trucks honestly...
Also it seems like the weight on the Mirai could also be due to the battery it has as a backup after the fuel cell itself, and then electric motors, if you look at the whole package it does get heavier.
it seems like despite the fuel cell itself being relatively small, I just googled the weight of Toyota's hydrogen corolla racing prototype, which weighs 4210 lbs, while the toyota mirai weighs around 4400 lbs, Google bard also says Toyota is aiming to make it's hydrogen combustion corolla weigh less than 3,700 lbs as development continues.
Super interesting, I honestly think ICE development is being pushed to even more advanced levels, I think with the right infrastructure, they can certainly compete and if they take off I don't see fuel cells being favored over them.
It's crazy how despite how old the ICE technology is, these companies can still find ways to keep improving it, despite the engine being much heavier, the overall car weight is actually less than the Mirai which itself is a great feat. I'm personally optimistic about Hydrogen combustion for sure.
Well I really didn't look at your profile much so I am sorry if you feel personally attacked, that was not my intention.
My point is, if we all posted rather than saying "it feels empty" (not saying it just for you, saying for everyone in general here), then it would not feel so empty, as I mod some big communities here and I know for the fact that there are MANY lurkers who barely contribute, which is why it feels empty, but it's good to see you being active.
If it feels empty, then we need to take action and be the change we want to see. That is what I mean't and not targeting any individuals here, just saying in general.
No need to involve jesus christ, chill out :)
The "issues" you list is something companies like Toyota has already dealt with and even if it's small, there is still a growing hydrogen infrastructure in some places in the world like california with people driving these cars.
Yes they are challenging, but we have already overcome and have vehicles and infrastructure in production.
I see many hydrogen critics list how hydrogen is "very volatile, able to ignite, cold as heck, extreme temperature" and etc, well yes, there are challenges, but despite that there are companies out there that have dealt with them and already have products running on the same hydrogen you are talking about.
Not trying to blindly support hydrogen or anything, but in my opinion we are past the point where we debate and claim hydrogen is not possible and has many issues - many of them are no longer an "issue" when its already out there for consumers in some parts of the world, and if these issues were a huge barrier, we won't have vehicles like Toyota mirai selling at all, so these issues are not issues but maybe "tricky", "expensive" and "slow development" would be the right words.
But fuel cells still rely on raw materials and I imagine they are more energy intensive to produce and more expensive as a technology to develop and produce than the already established ICE technology which has been around for decades.
This is why I am personally rooting for hydrogen on ICE to be honest - besides the unmatched emotion an ICE can give you obviously haha.
The main problem is actually with users like you and I mean no offense here, people subscribe which is a great start but they fail to post or contribute in ways that can help content and start a discussion.
This post drew attention and people have commented below, but if you didn't post this, the community's last post would have been 2 days ago.
My point is be the change you want to see, if we want Kbin to succeed, yall gotta start posting, not just looking around.
full-size sedans can be a great SUV alternative for families, they need to make a comeback.
SUVs are literally dominating, sedans are although way better, it's time people stop chasing heavy tall cars for no reason, atleast many people do.
Ford has had 53 recalls so far in 2023, an improvement on its performance in 2022 but slightly worse than in 2021.
The 1,000-store reduction is meant to increase throughput and profits at the remaining stores, according to Duncan Aldred, global head of Buick.
Yeah BEVs make barely any sense over hydrogen for motorsports, there is no debate in that imo.
As an EV owner, I would actually love to get a hydrogen car, home charging is just not as convenient especially for someone like me who travels long every day and unless you are in the main city, quick refills will always be better. Have an ioniq 5, the EV depreciation also pretty much sucks.
That being said EVs have come a long way, great improvements over the years and they continue to improve, charging is not the only issue, battery weight (I can literraly feel how heavy ioniq 5 is while driving compared to my old gas car), depreciation, degradation and etc.
Tesla drivers had 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers, a study found. Tesla recently recalled 2 million vehicles over problems with its autonomous driving functionality.
Hyundai N Vision 74 Reportedly Will be Built, Sold In Low Numbers
A Korean report claims Hyundai will build 100 examples of the exciting hybrid-EV concept, which is also said to have 800 hp.
Germany Ends Electric Vehicle Subsidies Abruptly In Latest Blow To Tesla
The EV giant is straining to hit a 1.8 million delivery target. But the move will also pressure profits.
Today's AM Drive is about Alfa Romeo sticking with a sedan body style for the next Giulia. Genesis shows two-tone cars and a G80 Performance.
Interior of ID 2All concept shows how Volkswagen is responding to criticism about over-reliance on touch controls
The Volkswagen Up GTI I had in France last summer was a dream. It also had 17-inch wheels and low-profile tires. Off the coast, I ran over what seemed to be an innocuous small rock in the road. I knew something was wrong in about the next 10 seconds.
What claims are just not backed by historical facts?
To me, it's: That ancient people thought the Earth was flat.
We have records from around 430BC where Greek philosophers spoke of the Earth being a sphere. In 240BC the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth and was only about 2% out.
The Bowtie's beloved muscle car is going away with no immediate successor in line.
m/Cars is back! Inactive moderators are removed, and new mod team is brought.
Hello everyone!
The original creator of this community went inactive a long time ago and ever since the moderation and activity has gone down to pretty much 0 in this community.
Although luckily, I was able to takeover, and I am hoping this community can be what r/Cars has been for on Reddit, a place for all car enthusiasts to gather and discuss. And speaking of r/cars on reddit, if we can get back to sustainable community growth here, we may be able to partner with r/cars, which can be huge for our community here on the Fediverse.
This community, as a fellow car enthusiast, is really important to me and so far, we have not only removed multiple spam posts and placed bans on spam bots or rule breakers, we've also been testing banners and logos, we have also implemented rules and description which will continue to be refined.
Finally, hope the community can comeback alive, if you are interested in cars, please do consider posting and interacting here.
Thank you!
Why is some Lemmy instances like Lemmy.world don't seem to be federating with Kbin?
Currently moderate m/Cars, m/AskKbin, m/RedditMigration, and while testing out to see if federation works through my lemmy.world dummy account, I can't seem to find m/AskKbin like I used to, same with m/cars.
is anyone else facing this? This is negatively affecting both Kbin mainly and also Lemmy. Would be great if this can be addressed.
To all moderators: Here is how you can add banner using CSS very easily to your Kbin magazines!
> > > Full credit goes to: /u/Pamasich for working on it and helping me out with CSS, the below CSS I will mention is fully made by he/her, again thank you! > >
To all kbin magazine moderators,
Below is the CSS you can use to include your own banner of choice to your Kbin magazine/community:
``` h1[hidden] { height: 12vh; background-image: url(https://i.imgur.com/wbZa4eI.png); background-size: cover; background-position: center; display: block; color: transparent; user-select: none; }
```
DEMO: Check m/cars using this CSS
NOTE: Change height's value according to your needs to fit your banner accordingly. You should also replace the image link in the above CSS with your choice, I used imgur to upload the image there, and copy/paste the image's address/link here.
This is what we have so far thanks to /u/Pamasich, and I hope this comes to rescue all of the moderators just like myself.
Why should you add a banner? This simply makes the community look more appealing and welcoming for users to participate, depending on what kind of topic your magazine is based on, a banner is invaluable.
And if you guys have your own further modifications to the given CSS above, feel free to mention them in the comments so everyone else can find this thread useful in the future!
Feature Requests/feedback from a Kbin magazines' moderator.
Been helping moderate some many huge communities here on kbin such as m/AskKbin, m/Redditmigration and so on, trying to contribute in ways I can.
And over the course of my time here at Kbin, here are some of the features I really, really wish comes to Kbin one day.
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Banners for magazines: Right now we moderators are only able to make new logos and use that for our communities, but unlike Reddit or Lemmy, Kbin has been lacking the ability to make a banner apart from the Logo, the banner would help a lot more with not only the customization of the magazine but the overall appeal to it. This of-course should be optional as not every community would be going for this kind of look based on it's topic, but for the majority, this can really add more to the experience.
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More optional applicable permissions to moderators when owners add them: Right now, when I add a moderator, they can only delete, ban and moderate posts in general, but accessing the mod panel is impossible unless you are an admin, so this means, moderators can't help owners with community rules, description, or even attach a new logo. There should atleast be some kind of supermod option or role that I could enable for the mods, so that this remains an optional but needed feature for some (and I am one of them).
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Community Engagement: This is just, to put it lightly, lacking. For example, if someone make a really good post, everyone else is immediately ready to upvote/downvote and jump on the comments, but taking that first step of posting a good thread is just really, lacking. One of the reasons I believe for that is also because the platform feels very stale or dead in plain sight. To solve this, we could implement online status (OPTIONAL, I know not everyone will be into this), but we seriously need to figure out a way to make the site look more live and active, online status like Discord or Reddit (oh yes, reddit has this too, but this is optional and can be disabled) can really help add a more live and active feel to the community, this can in-directly encourage more engagement and the users will feel more inclined to particpate when they see others online.
Reddit also has some other features like showing "X number of people are viewing this thread", again adding that more of a live engaging feeling to the platform.
- Wiki: I seriously hope we can get a dedicated area to put our wiki stuff similar to on Reddit, right now I have so far done this by making a thread and pinning it, but a wiki built into the sidepanel would a lot more seamless and integrated, plus people wouldn't have to look for in multiple places and will be good to have rules, description and everything in the sidepanel.
If yall have more, add them in the comments, this is what I remember so far.
Thank you for reading!