I see a lot of comments pointing out bugs and saying something along the lines like “they need to fix this ASAP, otherwise… something something”.
As a software developer myself (not in the fediverse), I can tell you one thing:
Keep in mind that all of this literally escalated pretty quickly, and no one was prepared for that. What started out as a hobby project of some enthausiasts, quickly turned into a high demand over the course of a few days.
Having hundreds of enthusiasts use a software is different than having thousends of “average” people using it. 100 users won’t detect many bugs, and if they do, they’re more tolerant since they know it’s all volunteering. But thousands of users will detect even more bugs that no one bothered to deal before.
Once the userbase grows and the demands are clear enough, this should be tackled, eventually.
So yeah, hang in there.
To add: we are not paying (for) anything, we are not the product, all the costs are covered by volunteers. So if a server is a bit wonky or slow, remember that you’re not entitled to anything.
And as you said, the software needed to go from 20 to 100 in a blink of an eye. Where they thought they would have time to handle everything gently and in due course needed to be done much faster.
Furthermore, most developers also run an instance (which suddenly needs to be scaled and troubleshot), need to answer questions, moderate, handle PR’s on github and solve bugs. All while also having a family and other acticities to attend to.
Thanks for that, it’s true, I need to remember especially about that last point. Later, I will write a few words about what was happening behind the scenes during these days. I wasn’t there alone. Not anymore ;)
kbin is much older; it was a side project. Recently, I took it more seriously :)