EDIT: approximately 8 hours after making this post Putt made a comment in a random thread, so his "days since last comment" counter has been reset, so to speak. This should dispel the baseless concerns about a rogue admin; Putt's still around, as he always is. These things simply take time.
Most recent comment was on November 22nd, in response to a highly-upvoted repeat /v/voatdev post about inactive subverses being disabled (some users want these 'verses re-enabled). This comment continues the theory that high-visibility posts that catch Putt's attention do still encourage comments from him. Thus is seems he is still keeping an eye on Voat and is likely still very focused on the API Port. In this comment Putt said:
I'm nearly done with the API port and will get to house keeping right afterwards.
From my last update it was revealed that Putt's main pre-occupation all this time has been completing the API Port. What I've been telling people in /v/voatdev for weeks is essentially what Putt said in his most recent comment: house-keeping and other issues will be addressed after the API Port is completed. The issues have been piling up and many people are complaining, so, formally, the API Port is the limiting reagent here.
Most recent submission was the Attack announcement, first posted on October 2nd and last edited on October 27th. Nothing much new to report here, except that this announcement was unstickied, and so presumably the attacks ended, except there are still bit-checking screens and rate-limiting in place (which has been annoying and confusing many users, and are examples of the "issues piling up" which will be addressed once the API Port is complete).
Last commit to Voat's GitHub is within the Core branch, and was on September 21st.
Last user ban was on October 18th, over a month ago. /v/ReportSpammers has only acquired 20ish posts since that date, so this isn't too big a deal. However, Cynabuns' last comment was only 17 days ago, and as of the recent banlog updates she has the power to act on reports to ban as well. Her sparse activity lately has been strange, though not unprecedented.
On the Canary issue: many users have objected about the Canary, claiming that it has died because it has not been updated for about 43 days. However, despite SaneGoat's early attempts, the canary was not set up so that it is updated every 30 days, but that it is updated every time a new announcement is posted. Recall what I stated above: the last announcement posted was posted on October 2nd, 59 days ago.
So, based on precedent, the Canary has not died (the Canary was updated arbitrarily after the last announcement was posted in response, I assume, to the first wave of Canary update complaints). However, 43 days for an update is still a long time, and 59 days since a new announcement is also a long time. The community's concerns are, I think, justified.
I sent a message to Putt asking if there was anything the community could do to assist with the API Port, since it is clearly as large a task as the Port proper, with which Putt had at least some help. I sent this 4 days ago; however I don't think Putt checks his messages due to the absurdly large volume of them he receives, or if he does it is probable he has no time to answer them.
NeedleStack hasn't commented for 19 days. I include this because Needle is one of Voat's most prolific users and probably the best-known, excluding perhaps SaneGoat / Amalek. I doubt her absence has anything to do with the rest of this post; probably just IRL conflicts.
Conclusion: There are many changes that the users desire (no more bit checking if unnecessary, no more rate-limiting if unnecessary, re-enable certain subverses, find a fix to various cache / delay bugs, re-activate subverse transfer bot, address user bans for spammers / manipulators, shut down the Voat-sized preview site which is presumably draining Voat's funds faster than they need to be drained (the preview was left open because testing with it is not done), return some form of donation option, etc), but it is very unlikely any of these issues will be addressed until the API Port is completed. The API Port has been underway for quite some time now, and while Putt believes he is almost done, he believed this same thing 17 days ago and 10 days ago. I wish that, if there is something the community could do to assist with this critical process, that Putt would let us know.
Putt has addressed the ebb and flow of software development a number of times, and he worked very hard for a very long time on the database Port, so the delays with the (I assume) almost equally scaled API Port are fully understandable and completely expected.
But this does not mitigate the concerns users have about the many unaddressed issues.
Patience and understanding is all we can attempt to display at this time. Hopefully Putt can resolve the API Port soon; if there is any way we can help with it, hopefully he will tell us.
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[–] heygeorge 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I just caught a spammer yesterday. The account made a couple really terrible comments, waited 30 days, then created their own sub to spam in.
[–] Owlchemy 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Congrats!!!! It gets to be fun hunting them down after awhile - LOL. We don't get many anymore.