Pamasich

Pamasich , 4 days ago

That's why I use Copilot.

Asked it for the official documentation, got a link to the /current/ documentation's chapter on operators. Then asked for the heading about the IN operator and it gave me all four of the numbers. No need to wade through outdated or irrelevant results.

Pamasich , 23 days ago

I understand why they disabled public downvotes (since they're accepting incoming ones now, they don't want to expose everyone's downvotes from other instances), and I remember they gave some reasoning on Github for why it makes sense to not hide upvotes too, but do we really need incoming downvotes? I think that feature should be a toggle where you either have downvotes hidden but federated, or visible but not federated. And then the instance owner can decide what they prefer.

That's really my main issue with mbin. While I've gotten too used to the All Content view and collections, both of those are on their roadmap, so they'll be coming eventually.

Pamasich , 1 month ago

though kbin still doesn't render the code block correctly it seems

Yeah, I hope ernest (or someone else) fixes it soon. Mbin has fixed it, so it should be possible to check there how it was done.

I did make a frontend fix for it which is included in KES and available standalone on Greadyfork. But it would be much preferable if this was fixed in kbin itself.

I think the big problem is that the issue on codeberg is closed. Ernest never got involved, but other maintainers closed it as a "lemmy issue" which it isn't. Lemmy is federating completely legal HTML with escaping applied to spec and kbin should be able to understand it. Mbin can understand it.

Pamasich , 1 month ago

It it like he can see us but we can’t see him?

Opposite way around. We can see him but he can't see us.

The reason you can't see him is because you're on Lemmy which will only display microblog posts if they're (1) a reply to a Lemmy post, (2) made from kbin/mbin, or (3) replied to by someone from kbin/mbin (not entirely sure about this one).

Pamasich , 1 month ago

I don't know what this xz thing is about, first time hearing it. But people saying he should get more help are trying to help him, not having malicious plans like installing backdoors or whatever.

I do think people should ask less for more maintainers — the project is already opensource, so it's up to maintainers to join, not him to seek them out. But he should still get some help with managing the instance. Pauses in development are fine imo, but the instance shouldn't be swarmed with spam and account deletion requests lost in limbo just because ernest got sick or something, which can happen with the best work life balances.

Pamasich , 1 month ago

To newly federate a magazine with Lemmy, search for it using the syntax [email protected] in Lemmy's built-in search. This worked for me instantly when I just tested it on lemm.ee, after confirming that it 404s before doing it.

Pamasich , 1 month ago

On Lemmy, users can send each others direct messages. It seems like Kbin/Mbin has no way of displaying those direct messages. Is that correct or is there a way to show direct messages?

Direct messages exist on kbin/mbin, but users are currently unable to send or receive them from other instances than their own. Sending is implemented but intentionally disabled by ernest, for unknown reason, but it might have to do with receiving not working.

Mbin has an open issue on this and yesterday someone said it's planned but low priority. It also links to the related kbin issue.

Pamasich , 1 month ago

Progressive web app. Modern browsers let you install a website to your phone or desktop as a pseudo-app. It'll still run in the browser, but most of the browser stuff, like tabs and bookmarks, are hidden to give you a focused and clean experience. Developers only have to ensure their website supports mobile phones and don't need to develop an entire app project to accomodate phone users.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

I was considering moving to mbin, but their decision to make downvoting private makes that a very unpleasant idea for me. Public voting was one of the initial selling points for kbin for me. If I move, then it's probably to another kbin instance like kbin.earth for now.

I appreciate that earnest made a post yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, saying that he is not dead and hasn't given up on kbin. It's not on this magazine, so I'm not sure where it was since this seems to be the most appropriate one, but in any case.

Are you not talking about this thread?

and invite other moderators

Definitely. I've applied to a handful of magazines weeks ago and have read about others having done so too. I really think magazine ownership requests should be accepted automatically on kbin.social. There's already requirements in place to whether you can make one, that should be good enough for abuse safety measures.

Instance moderators would be better, but I don't know if there's people lining up for that role whom he also can trust with it.

and contributors.

The issue here is that all contributors have moved on to mbin. You don't just look for contributors, the contributors choose to contribute. So unless he's willing to pay them, I don't think this is a problem he can solve, and I doubt he makes enough money to hire people.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

Having thought about this for a bit, I think it might actually be better for ernest if this instance died a bit. Not entirely, but it could use some redistribution of users to other instances.

Like, it wasn't meant to be this big main instance of kbin. That's just what it became. And it's got to have an effect on his stress levels and development time.

I feel like the instance is like a ballon that continually gets pumped with fresh air. Ernest constantly has to make sure the balloon doesn't pop. Maybe it would be better for it to pop so he can focus on other things?

Pamasich , 2 months ago

From what I can tell, it's mostly brought up in the discussion of a pull request for supporting federated dislikes.

That's where I originally saw it. I'm sure there's probably some more discussion on matrix though, that seems to be their main discussion platform.

Some additional links without discussions:

• The commit that removes the public downvotes
• The associated pull request

Edit: Also, to clarify, it's only seeing who downvoted that's made private, the actual amount of downvotes is kept public. It's not a Youtube situation.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

On the other hand, if people really wanted to contribute, there's plenty of open issues on Codeberg that are unadressed. I agree that it would be better to announce plans in advance rather than surprise drop them, but I doubt there would be more contributions from the community.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

I'm just focusing on clearing spam

This is good to hear, but there's still soooo much spam on the instance, it's clearly too much for you. Can you please accept some of the magazine ownership requests (and moderator requests on your magazines) so we can actually help you with this? I know I've applied to a few, which are still pending, so there's definitely people waiting in line.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

I know. I'm just saying that the idea people would magically help out on kbin if he was more open about his plans doesn't work out, because the people willing to do so would either already be contributing to cleaning up the backlog or have moved on to mbin.

Btw, do mbin devs look at kbin issues too or do common problems have to be posted to both repositories to be seen?

Pamasich , 2 months ago

Twitter has taught me that nowadays people are too adaptable, 90% of people will stick with Reddit no matter what they do.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

The project definitely accepts contributions, the mbin devs have contributed to kbin before and a few weeks ago a minor code change was committed and merged by someone other than ernest.

As I understand it, the issue is that people with merge permissions other than ernest are only allowed to merge their own pull requests, not those of third parties, which require a review from ernest.
(At least that's what I've seen explained before, though I haven't seen any proof of it so I don't fully know if it's real.)

This means a majority of contributors can't get their pull requests merged when ernest is gone. Which is why they went and made mbin when he was gone for months last time.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

Depends on what the purpose of the button is.

A setting should show the current state, but an action (referring to the play button example) should show the state it'll transition to.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

Ernest hasn't abandoned kbin this time, he did post an update last week.

Today, I'm going for a minor procedure at the hospital, and I won't be available for the next 2-4 days. When I return, I'll push all the corrections and fixes I've been working on and present plans for the near future.

Him not being back yet probably means the hospital procedure didn't go as smoothly as expected, but he's not gone on purpose.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

Ernest has said in the update I mentioned in my other comment that

When I return, I'll push all the corrections and fixes I've been working on

This means he has made local commits over those 2 months that simply haven't been pushed yet.

Also, there is in fact a commit made 4 days ago. Though not from ernest.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

I don't really get how these "IPOs" work. Someone actually has to pay that money for Reddit, right? Even if they manage to get Reddit temporarily profitable, are people really going to get fooled into investing just from that? Or are they guaranteed to get whatever Reddit's value is at the time of the IPO somehow?

Pamasich , 3 months ago

Perhaps we might see another exodus to lemmy/kbin once this happens?

Don't forget Piefed, the new member of the family.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

I just use the Swiss keyboard layout. Here's an image from Wikipedia.

Don't have any experience with any others.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

Maybe in comparison to the US layout? I'm not having any trouble with them.

If you mean the [] (and {}), they just use the right alt key, which is close enough to them.

Pamasich , 3 months ago

They both federate and they both look the same I think.

However, Mastodon search works by tags iirc. And kbin/lemmy users tend to not use tags. So discoverability is low.
The Microblog section is supposed to add the magazine's tags to your posts there, though I don't know if it currently does. I remember reading issues about it not being the case, but those were rather old, so not sure about the current status.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

I think it would be great if we could change the default sort. Would love to sort by new by default.

If there's not already a functionality like that hidden somewhere (checked in both settings menus), I'll put it on my list of stuff I want to implement via userscripts.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

• Under the post there's a "more" button behind which you can find a "report" option. I assume this goes to the moderators of the magazine, but not entirely sure.
• In the site's footer, there's a Contact link if you need to report something to the instance owner directly.
• And of course you can just message or otherwise contact your instance's owner, in this case Ernest. There's a Send Message button in the sidebar when viewing profiles.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

I'm not sure what KES

Kbin Enhancement Suite. Inspired by the Reddit extension of the same name (RES).

It's a userscript that provides many opt-in atomic features with a shared api and settings interface.

Current features include:

• hiding various sidebar elements
• bringing up a list of subscribed magazines via hotkey
• displaying the instance next to usernames and magazines
• a mail icon next to usernames which starts a new message when clicked
• notifications easily accessible in the navbar
• softblocking magazines
• syntax highlighting
• fixing broken lemmy code blocks
• and various others

Pamasich , 4 months ago

I think you're referring to the black bar below comments that are too long which can be clicked to expand the comment?

That has nothing to do with KES's collapsible comments feature as someone else brought up. It's a native kbin feature.

KES actually has a feature that addresses this by automatically clicking that bar, but it seems to only apply to thread bodies, not comments, currently. If you're interested in having it apply to comments too, try filing a new issue on Github requesting the feature. The mod in question is "Always expand post bodies" in the Threads category. This should be fairly easy to add.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

I know what they mean, because I have the same issue on my work pc (but not at home). I forgot it happens because the personal userstyle I'm using includes CSS to fix this issue entirely.

@speck get yourself Stylus if you don't have it already and try this CSS which works perfectly for me:

div.more:not(:nth-child(1 of .more)) {
    display: none;
}

Can't guarantee it works with kbin's built in custom CSS functionality, as that one seems to filter out some selectors (no logic behind which).

---

@shazbot
Basically, what happens without that CSS is that

1. Clicking the bar once scrolls me down a bit but otherwise does absolutely nothing.
2. Clicking the bar again turns the arrow upwards and spawns a new bar above the existing one.
3. Clicking the upper bar repeats step 1.
4. Clicking the upper bar again turns the arrow upwards but doesn't spawn another bar, nor does it do anything else.
5. Clicking the lower bar removes the upper one again and turns the arrow back downwards.

At no point is the comment ever expanded. When OP says it obscures text, that's just the default state where only x lines of the comment are shown and the bar covers the last line(s). The issue is the comment can't be expanded, so it keeps obscuring the text even when clicked as nothing actually moves.

Looking at the HTML source, I can see five instances of the bar existing at once on the same comment.

I tested just now to turn off my scripts one by one and KES was the culprit. Disabling it fixed the issue. I'll try checking which feature is causing it.

Pamasich , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

@shazbot @speck

For me, the culprit is the collapsible comments mod (or the standalone script if you're using that one).

edit: The root cause seems to be lines 182 to 190. But the actual troublemaker appears to be on kbin's side, not KES. When the mod's main function finishes, the comment still only has only one .more element like when it began.

I've disabled all other mods and userscripts, so it's not one of those. Also just tried to disable KES (and even the monkey) entirely, running the script from the console instead. No change either, it's still happening.

The code fragment in question copies the comment into a new children container. I'm thinking this probably makes some part of kbin confused, leading to the issues we're seeing.
It might be best to just include the userstyle I'm using in the CSS added by the mod.

This is the code between lines 182 and 190, removing which prevents the issue:

let children = previousComment.querySelector('.children');
if (!children) {
    // If not, create one
    children = document.createElement('div');
    children.className = 'children';
    previousComment.appendChild(children);
}
// Insert comment into children container
children.prepend(comment);

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Great to hear the CSS works on mobile too!

I think you pressed the wrong button when you tried to upvote my comment, I can see a downvote there from you.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Teardown isn't working for me, tried multiple devices and turned my custom styling off.

After teardown this is how the site looks like to me. Also, it seems you need to remove the mores on teardown too. The more issue is now fixed when the mod is active, but appears again after teardown.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

This works for me now.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

It's definitely not ideal at all currently. You've already found out how to do it currently, but I'd like to point you towards some alternatives that currently exist to make this easier until ernest adds something official.

Here's the userscripts I know of, each approaches the task a bit differently:

• KES (Kbin Enhancement Suite) has a feature that brings up your subscriptions with a hotkey.
• Improved Channel Select Menu adds your subscriptions and collections to the select channel menu. It's the one with the 3 dots and lines next to your username. This one is the only one that currently supports collections I think.
• Floating Subs List adds a new (collapsible) sidebar to the left which contains your subscribed magazines.

Choose whichever sounds like more your thing, or try each and go with which works best for you.

If you're not familiar with userscripts: just get yourself either Greasemonkey, Tampermonkey, or Violentmonkey from your browser's extension/addon store, then head to the script's greasyfork page (I linked you to them above) and click the big green button. For KES it's a bit special but just as simple, just use this link, it should bring up an installation page. After installing KES, you're looking for a wrench next to the user button to access its options and turn the feature on.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Hey @ernest

I just noticed that, while kbin supports Lemmy-style spoilers, it seems like actual spoilers federated from Lemmy don't appear as spoilers on kbin yet. Are you aware of that?

For reference, here's a thread where I tested this with my lemm.ee test account.

The federated spoiler just displays in plain text still.

Pamasich , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I think the color variation would help me better process what I’m looking at.

You can change the color yourself btw. The traditional method is to install the Stylus extension/addon, but I think kbin now lets you define your own styling in your profile settings, though I haven't tried it. (tried it now and this doesn't really seem possible there, has the same selector deletion issues as magazine css)

In the HTML code, microblog posts and threads are represented differently. Posts are blockquote, while threads are article. This makes it easy to restyle them via userstyles.

So you should be able to just

div#content {
    > article {
        /* thread styling */
    }
    > blockquote {
        /* microblog post styling */
       background-color: red;
    }
}

You can also define the color in rgb rgb(255,0,0) or hsl (hsl(0,100%,50%)).

Pamasich , 4 months ago

The images I'm using here probably won't work as embeds, but opening them as links should work.

Depending on if you use Firefox or a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, and almost all the others), get yourself the Stylus extension (chromium) or addon (firefox).

Once installed in your browser, open the extension by clicking on the icon next to your address bar. If it's not there, there's a puzzle piece button to open a list of all your extensions where you can click on it. I'm writing this from an Edge perspective, so for other browsers, especially Firefox, this might not be entirely accurate.

This opens up a menu where your current styles are listed and can be turned on/off (well, the list is empty for now of course), and there's buttons to "Manage" and "Find styles".
Above those buttons, there's a link to the current page. Click on the kbin.social part of that link.

This should open up the editor in a new window.
Just copy and paste the following code into that window.

div#content {
    > article {
        /* thread styling */
    }
    > blockquote, > blockquote + .comments > blockquote {
        /* microblog post styling */
        background-color: red;
    }
}

Give the style a name to the left and hit the yellow "Save" button. The site will update in real time, you shouldn't even need to reload it for the changes to take effect after saving. In fact, after saving it once, you don't even have to keep saving it after every change in my experience.

I've changed the above code a bit to also cover the replies to posts, that's what the .comments stuff is about.

This will give you a very red background. I just chose this for the example to make the change obvious to see at a glance. You can replace the red with another color name, or an RGB or HSL value for a more granular choice.

I recommend using HSL if you want to tweak the color later without having to open up a color picker. You just choose a base color, how saturated it should be, and how light you want it. And optionally the transparency.
The HSL equivalent for red is hsl(0,100%,50%).

If you just want microblog posts to be a bit lighter or darker (depending on your theme) than threads, you can use hsla(0,0%,100%,0.15) (this makes them lighter, change the 100% to 0% for darker). Tweak the transparency (the last value) to change the intensity of the color change.

Besides the background color, you can also change other CSS properties. Just add additional lines in the pattern property: value;.
For example, you can set a border using border: 1px red solid;, which creates a red solid border of 1 pixel width.
I like to use this site as a reference myself for what properties exist and how they're used.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Thanks, this is the best implementation idea for this I've seen yet imo, will definitely be using this from now on.

I haven't found any bugs yet, but I'd like to request two future improvements:

• Changing the order of magazines and collections

Details

I have like three collections and a ton of magazines, so having to scroll through all the magazines to reach the collections is a bit of a pain. It's still much easier than before this script, but it would be even better if I could move the collections above the magazines.
On the other hand, someone else might have the opposite situation and would prefer it the way it currently is, so unlike the other user I'm not asking you to just swap the order.
I think the ideal solution would be adding a setting somewhere to determine which comes first. So every user can tailor the functionality to their needs.

• Support for turbo mode

Details

Ernest added turbo as an optional mode in the past months (you can find it in the sidebar options). It turns the site into a single page experience, which means kbin.social links don't open the website anew entirely but rather replace the page content, including the changes your script makes. This cuts down on loading time, but it also causes scripts to break.

It would be great if the script were to support turbo mode eventually, especially if Ernest makes it the standard in the future (it is marked as experimental currently, so that's probably the eventual intention).

To do so, you'd have to attach a MutationListener to the body element like I did here. But that will run many times more than just on navigation, so you'd also have to ensure your code does support being run multiple times without breaking.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Kbin.social has just had some big issues recently and still hasn't fully recovered (which is why development is currently stalled), so it's absolutely possible you'll run into more issues currently than usual. Not sure if what you're experiencing there is part of that though.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Patreon or Liberapay.

Pamasich , 4 months ago

Click on their name to access their profile and then there's a Block button.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

I assume ownership requests need to be manually approved by ernest, right? I've tried applying to some (not ernest-managed ones) weeks ago because of spam on them and nothing happened yet.

Pamasich , 2 months ago

Make sure to actually mention him if you want this to be seen. @ernest