In the past months development of Kbin slowly came to a halt, development was bottlenecked by a single maintainer. I have tried several times to start a discussion about the way of working and trying to address the problems and to come up with a plan to keep development doing and more importantly keep contributors happy!

Despite all of this; no response on Matrix and nothing has really changed at Kbin. I saw the project slowly dying over the past months, and I couldn’t let this happen. That’s why I decided to fork the project called Mbin. I wanted to avoid a fork initially, but I didn’t saw any way out.

Mbin is community-focused fork, build upon trust and embracing the Collective Code Construction Contract (C4).

Despite the fact I’m the creator of Mbin, I am NOT the only maintainer, several contributors already have owner rights on the GitHub organization as well as on the Matrix Space and Weblate. We are all maintainers, we peer-review each other’s code and are allowed to merge pull requests from other external contributors and our own. The community of Mbin will now decide what will be picked-up and resolved, what will be merged or not. The community is in charge. And I am “just” another contributor, following the C4 rules.

Mbin development has been accelerated tremendously over just one week time. With tons of improvements in GUI, backend, security and documentation. We have great internal discussions and a friendly community. We work as a team, sharing knowledge and helping each other out. We review and test our code changes together, we all feel responsible. I think all this is the real reason why I created the fork; it’s about the people and about empowerment.

Various instances already migrated towards Mbin, see: https://fedidb.org/software/mbin. Mbin is backwards compatible with kbin, so migration should be straight forward and easy.

Success story: Jerry almost gave up fedia.io, if it weren’t for Mbin, we would already have lost a big federated instance (I genuinely didn’t know he was about to give up). Luckily the fork gave him hope. And hopefully I gave everybody hope again.

  • TheVillageGuy
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    7 months ago

    You did the best thing imaginable for Kbin, given the circumstances. Almost everybody was waiting for something to happen. Not everybody was as outspoken about it as I was, but the vibe was evident.

  • Ignacio
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    57 months ago

    Good news. Although I’m satisfied so far with Kbin, it’s true that development was slowed, or stopped. It’s still too soon, but maybe I’ll consider to migrate over there. I’m too lazy.

  • Blaster M
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    37 months ago

    Time will tell if this saves kbin or if mbin becomes the new kbin. There can only be one!

  • melroyOPM
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    17 months ago

    I’m really impressed what we already achieved so far with our Mbin community, we did tons of GUI changes, bug fixes, introducing new features, improved Docker setup and documentation for both developers and instance owners alike. It’s very impressive. I want to thank you all! I see this a beginning of a new journey.

    Luckily, I think I’m no longer needed to setup the project. I will finish the C4 specification pull request, but apart from that I’m now “just” another contributor to Mbin. It’s nice to see that everyone now feels more responsible for the project and hopefully more empowered.

  • melroyOPM
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    7 months ago

    I only wanted to add the following, this is my personal opinion: Even if Kbin suddenly is also changing to C4 WoW, the damage is already done. My trust is gone. My planning is not to merge anymore personally.

    • @fishos
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      7 months ago

      The community of Mbin will now decide what will be picked-up and resolved, what will be merged or not.

      From your own post up there buddy. Can’t even keep the lie straight for 5 minutes. Your entire attitude has always been “my way or I go”. “I didn’t get what I wanted from the kbin team, so I tried to join the most popular instance and control that. They didn’t want me so I made my own instance. But that wasn’t enough so I made my own fork. But trust me guys, I can listen! Although here’s my opinion on why I will never work with these people anymore so their work, even if it matches mine exactly, will never be good enough and I’ll still want to exclude them. But we’re a team this time guys! I swear!”

      • melroyOPM
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        07 months ago

        Please… why all this hate. If you want to join the community, join us. If you do not want to join us, don’t join us. But this is not helping anybody. Apart from all of this, you don’t even know what really happened and how the situation really was at kbin. These are all made up stories from you, I didn’t even join any popular instance. I don’t even have an account on lemmy or kbin.social, so I have no idea what you are talking about.

        • @fishos
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          7 months ago

          This is what happens when you try to throw a tantrum publically multiple times with multiple groups to sway public opinion to force a private decision. You dragged your dirty laundry out into the open for the whole world to see hoping that you could put pressure on the other people to do what you want. It’s in all of your post history. If you can’t defend your words and actions, you shouldn’t have done that. All I’m doing is browsing Lemmy and constantly seeing your posts pop into my feed and kindly giving people background on what “great injustice” it was last time that sent you running then too.

          As it stands, by your own admissions, you’ve:

          -Been a core kbin developer who no one listened to

          -Tried to get involved with kbin.social’s development and they blocked you out(so you went to multiple communities and ranted about how they don’t know what they’re doing at all and you’re the only possible savior)

          -Started kbin.melroy so you could have your own instance

          -And now finally, after that hasn’t gotten you the attention you desire either, you’re here saying “the wholes code is fucked, I’m forking it and it’s gonna be so much better and if they implemented my new code, they’re still not good enough for me, the supreme authority, to trust, and I wouldn’t work with them anyways”.

          -Oh, but let’s not forget using “lemmy user” as a slur on the fediverse. While trying to host your own fediverse fork/instances.

          This isn’t hate. This is calling out your constant spoiled and immature behaviour and warning others who might not have been lucky enough to already have seen it that they should think twice before making an account with anything you’re attached to.

          • melroyOPM
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            7 months ago

            This is my last message to you, after which I will not put any more time into this discussion. Let me set this straight. I was indeed a developer at kbin, just like many other contributors in fact. Trying to help out Ernest in our free-time. You were most likely not in the matrix rooms (maybe you were?), but anyway, there was not much happening lately and Ernest had personal issues for the past months (if not years). The project development was setup in such a way I was only allowed to merge my own code and no major changes either in fear of regression. Causing development to slowly became to a halt.

            I was already running kbin.melroy.org for quite some time (I also run mastodon, gitlab, nextcloud and other stuff at home. Just as a hobby). But the whole point of Kbin and Lemmy or any other federated software is that in fact can run our own instance.
            I try to help them out in kbin.social server maintenance (not development, since kbin is the software). But sure, nobody want help my help there / got ignored. Doesn’t really matter too much. In hindsight its maybe better to have no single “main” instance on a federated network, which defines to whole purpose of decentralization. The biggest problem was that the development of the software became to a halt, hence the reason to fork the project and introducing a different kind of way of working. Using the Collective Code Construction Contract. So there is no single maintainer and focused on the community. In fact the current owners can remove me for GitHub Org/repo if they wish. Also the code is open-source, so everybody can fork it, including you.

            The “lemmy user” reaction earlier was maybe not helpful, but seeing that you were from a Lemmy instance I wonder how much involvement you had in the Kbin community, kbin development or any thing regarding kbin. Maybe you are here just to troll, I dunno. Anyhow, that was my story. Sorry to say, but this was my last post again towards you. I’m wasting my time.

            • @fishos
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              7 months ago

              I’ll see you next time you pull out your soapbox to rant 👋

              By the way, what’s the “m” stand for in “mbin”? $500 says it’s melroy because you’re just that egotistical. Like a tiny Elon Musk.

  • @fishos
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    -47 months ago

    Oh look, it’s the guy who wanted to be the super hero developer who solves everything and everyone worships. But all the projects you’ve joined have “excluded” you. And then you post long rants about how “no one knows what they’re doing and if they really wanted to progress, they’d listen to ME!”. And now decide “screw you all, I’m building my own fork! With blackjack and hookers!”

    Yeah, hard pass.

      • @fishos
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        -47 months ago

        The planet where this guy claims he’s a “core” kbin developer but somehow no one listens to him at all, excludes him from meetings, and now he has to make his own fork to finally have the control he desires.

        • @zeppo
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          7 months ago

          So what? If someone wants to fork code, great. Go ahead. That’s the entire concept of a free software license.

          • @fishos
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            7 months ago

            Publically ranting and trying to drag your dirty laundry out to try and shame the other developers into giving you a bigger role isn’t something I want in a developer. He is free to form his own code. And I’m free to look at his past behaviour and think “nah, I don’t want to work with you”(which seems to be a common trend with those who deal with him).

            • @zeppo
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              7 months ago

              I see what you mean, I guess. I wasn’t aware of any previous trauma or drama. Developers not always getting along is common with open source projects - and it’s the cause of many decisions to fork. Look at Linus, for instance… he’s super happy to tell anyone to fuck off on the mailing list, but he has obviously very successful projects.

              I have not been following kbin development, but while it’s a great project it does seem to me that Ernest has way more than enough to do.

              • @fishos
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                7 months ago

                Ernest is just kbin.social. melroy here has been claiming “core kbin developer” status for all of kbin, that he’s part of the “kbin.social” team but excluded(so join his instance kbin.melroy instead)and now he’s heading the mbin fork because no one in either team “listens to him or includes him in meetings/group chats”. Melroy constantly fudges his worth and credentials. He’s somehow simultaneously “core/vital” and “ignore/excluded”. Which is it? Sounds like he’s only “core” in his own mind. Every time he has a problem with his teams, he posts publically in various communities to complain to regular users about how unfair he’s treated.

                Melroy is a drama queen.

            • melroyOPM
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              37 months ago

              It’s not about me anymore. Mbin isn’t about me either. I just helped the community forward, if you don’t agree that is fine. I don’t care.

              • @fishos
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                07 months ago

                “It’s not about me, it’s about saving this for the community” is the exact thing you claimed in your last rant and it looks just as desperate here as it did there.

        • melroyOPM
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          27 months ago

          There were no meetings to begin with. Hence the problem of all of this.

          • @fishos
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            07 months ago

            Again, no meetings that they wanted you involved in. Which, again, due to how you handle everything, seems to be a “you” problem and not a “them” problem.

            Ever hear the phrase, “if you smell shit all day, check your shoes”? Check your shoes, champ.

    • @hesusingthespiritbomb
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      27 months ago

      Okay but is he telling the truth about there being a single maintainer for kbin

      • @Serinus
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        57 months ago

        Wow, it took all of three comments to bring out your true personality.

        • @fishos
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          37 months ago

          Dude gives me 14 year old edgelord/PC Master Race/Xbox Master Race vibes.

      • @fishos
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        07 months ago

        Advocating the fediverse and then trying to use someone’s home instance as an attack? That’s your response? Really shows how childish you are.

        But yeah, I’ll bite. Didn’t really like the kbin experience, even though I signed up there first. Which since you’re a “core developer”, means it’s at least partially your fault, right? I’ve had a much better Lemmy experience all around. Especially with a working API so apps work. When is your fork gonna have API support? Cus as it stands, even your fork is still subpar to my current Lemmy experience, and thanks to federation, I can see your posts anyways if I want, so really, no reason to use your fork at all. Especially not if you’re going to be the power tripping admin. People left reddit for exactly that reason.