Hi there! So I’m two weeks in to kbin and I think I have a layman’s understanding of the fediverse, but I’m still not the most technical person, so I thought I’d just post my questions here.

So I know “fediverse” stands for federated universe, so does “kbin” also stand for something? I tried checking the FAQ but the about page just tells me it’s a link aggregator, and google links me to a Japanese manufacturing site or those birth name meaning/ancestry sites. (can anyone tell me if lemmy also stands for something or is this just a word the developers came up with?)

Regarding defederation, does it affect previous posts? If there’s a thread with comments by multiple people under different instances, does defederating break the chain?

In fact who “owns” a thread? Like, in which instance is it stored? If someone posts on kbin, and people from lemmy and beehaw comment on it, does kbin “keep” all of those stored away or do they stay in their respective instances?

And am I correct in thinking that instances who defederate essentially block off an instance, but that instance can still see their posts, but not interact? ie. Instance A defederates from B, so they can’t see/interact with B, but B can still see A but not interact with them? Or is it a mutual blocking? Ergo they both can’t see nor interact. I know beehaw defederated with lemmy recently, so…?

The whole concept of defederating is just so interesting to me. I know I have to read more about it but those were mostly my main questions.

  • Arotrios@kbin.social
    9·
    1 year ago

    Kbin is the software that runs the instance. Kbin.social is the instance (running on Kbin) run by its developers. Instances in the Fediverse can run on multiple types of content management frameworks, the most popular of which is Lemmy.

    When an instance defederates from another instance, it stops talking to it. It stops reading and copying the defederated instance’s posts and comments. The posts still exist on the original instance, and if posted before defederation, still exists on the copying instance. However, the two copies are no longer connected, so if someone posts a comment on the original post in the original instance after defederation, the defederated instance will not see it. Likewise if someone posts a comment on the copy of your post on the defederated instance, it will only be available on that instance, and not copied back to your original post on the original instance.

    Essentially, the content fragments into two copies when defederation occurs, with each separately hosted and no longer in synch in terms of likes, boosts and comments.

    I’m uncertain whether defederation is always a two way street. It’s my undertanding that if instance A defederates from instance B, instance B can still read A’s content unless it chooses to defederate from A as well. However, as instance A isn’t accepting input from instance B, nothing that happens on instance B (comments, likes, boosts) will be shared with A.

    • Potatomache@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      So… Each instance has a copy of all the other instances’ content? I thought they just had access to each other’s content but not a copy?

      If they each have a copy then how would refederation work? I assume they just sync back together. So if instance A has a post with several comment threads on it from other instances, and B defederates, then it gets a copy of the post. If the original author on A decides to delete their post, then their post stays on B’s instance, but if B refederates, does their copy of that post repopulate or does it sync up to be deleted?

      • LambentMote@lemmy.nz
        2·
        1 year ago

        There’s no retroactive syncing. So a regenerated instance would start seeing any new content from the moment federation is switched back on. It’s the same if you’re the first user to subscribe to a community on another instance (from your instance). Until that moment your instance doesn’t know the community exists but one a user subscribes your instance starts copying new content from that community and other users from your instance will start seeing that content in ‘all’.

        • Potatomache@kbin.socialOP
          3·
          1 year ago

          Ohhhh, I see. So it’s only by the users subscribing to other communities that the instance is populated with content from other instances?

          • Arotrios@kbin.social
            2·
            1 year ago

            Your questions sent me down the rabbit hole…

            The answer is yes, it works that way, but it’s not the only way. The protocol that the Fediverse uses is ActivityPub, and:

            In ActivityPub, two servers are federated with each other when there is a relationship between one or more actors on each. A common relationship is following: an actor on one server follows an actor on another server. From there, a whole set of other activities are opened up, like when the followed actor posts a Note or Video, the follower’s account receives a notification (in the form of a Create activity).

            Some data are tracked on both sides of the relationship. For example, if @chris follows @georgie, that relationship is tracked both as a record on example1.org (georgie is in chris’s following collection) and on example2.net (chris is in georgie’s followers collection).

            So, if you subscribe to a magazine / community on another instance, follow a person on another instance, or comment on a post on another instance, you’re creating a data record that connects the two instances. When a server defederates from an instance, they prevent it from creating their half of data record on their server via a blacklist.

            Sauce