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    1. Suggestion: Have academic flair for qualified users. PhD etc..

      I think this idea strongly aligns with Tildes philosophy of promoting "quality content", what is more quality than knowing a poster is qualified to make their claims. It separates the...

      I think this idea strongly aligns with Tildes philosophy of promoting "quality content", what is more quality than knowing a poster is qualified to make their claims. It separates the pseudo-science from the science.

      I understand it is perhaps a cumbersome process to verify qualifications but the reward in return for having verified experts validated is hard to overstate.

      I propose the flair be global and not restricted to within a group(as opposed to reddit) because if we're certain the individual has credentials that still remains in effect when they comment across disciplines. It also removes redundancy and allows the individual more freedom to branch to other communities.

      The idea being if someone has a PhD in math they can flair their name with something like "PhD: Math" per post if they wish. As this is a voluntary addition (not collection) of user-data I don't think it goes against Tildes philosophy.

      12 votes
    2. What are your hobbies?

      I recently took up gardening. It's a lot more complicated and requires a lot more planning than I initially expected. So far I've found it to be rather meditative, sitting and pulling up weeds,...

      I recently took up gardening. It's a lot more complicated and requires a lot more planning than I initially expected. So far I've found it to be rather meditative, sitting and pulling up weeds, watering and such. I'm still not sure whether it's a thing I am "good" at but it's exciting to see something you've planned and nurtured grow! Tell me what you all do for fun/relaxation or to challenge yourself outside of your work.

      45 votes
    3. Looking for a nice pen suggestion

      So I'm looking to get a nice pen for school (£25 max). Metal pens appeal to me although I'd be interested in others too. If anyone had some suggestions for nice pens that are suitable for long...

      So I'm looking to get a nice pen for school (£25 max). Metal pens appeal to me although I'd be interested in others too. If anyone had some suggestions for nice pens that are suitable for long periods then it'd be brilliant :)

      12 votes
    4. I graduated from high school yesterday. Here's what I wrote to my friend about it.

      I summarize the project that the following is taken from here: https://tildes.net/~talk/1yr/are_you_writing_a_diary_if_so_in_which_ways_does_it_help_you#comment-kuy Some of what's discussed below...

      I summarize the project that the following is taken from here: https://tildes.net/~talk/1yr/are_you_writing_a_diary_if_so_in_which_ways_does_it_help_you#comment-kuy

      Some of what's discussed below builds on ideas familiar only to my friend and I, but the gist is probably understandable enough, and as the occasion for my writing this is a momentous one, I want to share and see what people might think of some of my thoughts on it. Some of the language is probably a little flowery or seems silly, but that's okay—who has time for shame?

      Feedback, questions, discussion, etc., are all welcome.

      . . .

      Something you may have gleaned by now from my entries and our private discussions both is that I've been wondering for a while at the sheer scope encompassed by the whole of life's perspectives taken together. Something you said to me tonight seems particularly acute in relation to this thought:

      "but it makes sense that anthony bourdain could kill himself
      to us he represents just a random facet of the universe
      but to him he was the universe, painting it with his eyes, and he hated his eyes."

      The Universe is made in the eyes of its beholder. The philosophers (and the philistines alike) have been making that observation for a long time now; they call it solipsism, or subjectivity. So I'm not unique in my also identifying it. But that's okay, because the idea is as valid as it ever was. If there's anything our recent discussions have made clear to me, it's that we can believe in nothing but that, and can't but trust in the Universe in its every moment of presentation as a mirror.

      In my saying "wonder" above, I mean just that; it is wonder which I feel towards this thought. Life as experienced in the moment is ossified in the next; as soon as an experience is registered it is passed and past, becomes one among many tomes relegated to the bookshelves which fill to the brim the expansive vault called Memory, and with time it and its shelf are pushed further and further into the ever growing obscurity. One can walk those halls again, venture far into those depths, but with distance one finds the shelves dustier and the names of the tomes which line them more difficult to make out.

      In such a recognition everything has become compressed (but wasn't it so all along, and it's only now that I've come to see it?). Life is become compartmentalized, broken into bite-sized pieces for its more comfortable consumption. Everything is a mood, a color, a sound, a smell. The terms 'synesthesia' and 'aura' become interchangeable. Part of the difficulty in trying to retrace one's steps through that maze of shelves—and most frustrating is to set out in search of just one particular tome among all the multitudes, some of which cry out like sirens in hopes of diverting one's attention—is that all the colors which mark each shelf are so easily mixed up, confused with each other, and with that of the present moment, that their being received just as they were in the moment of their edification seems probably impossible; and should one come to the right shelf after all, where is the book that shines with just the same sheen with which it shone upon its binding? There's a great deal of work to be put in, it turns out, in seeing in Shrek exactly what one saw in watching it as a child.

      By "consume", as I use the term above, I mean just that. Life is consumed in the moment of its passing, just as experiences become memories and thoughts are born and die in the same moment. Everything is in constant movement (remember Heraclitus? A man never steps in the same stream twice). Enter the importance of momentum. Momentum can now be better defined than it was when first I dealt with it (and we can do away with the whole discussion around dialectic, though that doesn't preclude taking what is useful from it—a kind of [auto-]cannibalization). We can call it a refusal to linger on suffering, a choosing to embrace rather than curse the inevitability of movement, of passing, of distance. In movement of this sort is to be found the Promethean, if that term can be recycled also. Love flowers in a maintenance of momentum; love is the seed, momentum the water.

      In memory, too, can we find ourselves renewed. An aura lost is not lost forever, and part of the thrill of retracing one's steps is in the search itself. True, the shelves become dusty, the tomes decrepit, as towards a more distant past one reaches; but what child loves not to get lost among old sheafs and musty stacks, places of secrets and lost knowledge? And is it not taught, and can we not agree, that there is far more to be said for a reader's interpretation of a text than for the text itself? One must remember to chew mint from time to time; it can make a big difference.

      On this day I graduate from high school. The following pledge is my choice of commemoration in marking that accomplishment: I choose to look towards the future with as much optimism and positivity as can be mustered, to spurn resentment and suffering, nostalgia and hate—the last being permitted only in its manifestation in opposition to all things anti-life. We must remember to remain lovely and loving beings, to take things seriously enough to be able to take things easy, to appreciate as beautiful what is foolish, but ours in its foolishness, and to love delirium of the sort known by the psychonaut convinced of the profundity of a truly meaningless revelation. We must in our approach to life in all its majestic whole say as Nietzsche (and, more recently, the writers of Futurama) would have said if asked to go through it all again: Fuck yeah.

      5 votes
    5. How do you think social networks should handle hate speech?

      A bit of context: in July 2017 germany implemented the Netzdurchsetzungsgesetz, a law which allows german authorities to fine Social Media companies with over 2 million users if they persistently...

      A bit of context: in July 2017 germany implemented the Netzdurchsetzungsgesetz, a law which allows german authorities to fine Social Media companies with over 2 million users if they persistently fail to remove obvious hatespeech within 24 hours and all other cases within a week. A write up of the law and background information. Information about the definition of hate sepeech in germany.

      I am interested in your opinion: Is this governmental overreach and infringes on the freedom of speech or is this a long needed step to ensure that people feel safe and current german law is finally being followed?

      16 votes
    6. Health insurance in the US sucks rocks

      In case you don't live in the US and don't know, it is very common for health insurance to be tied to employment. I've held four jobs over the last twelve months. Health insurance has been the...

      In case you don't live in the US and don't know, it is very common for health insurance to be tied to employment.

      I've held four jobs over the last twelve months. Health insurance has been the most frustrating part of it. I'm married, I have kids. I don't want to go months without health insurance. My wife is self-employed so no employer subsidized insurance for her. We live comfortably so no option for government subsidized insurance.

      The cheapest plan with insanely high annual "deductible" of something like $10,000 (the money you have to pay before insurance will pay) I can get independently is around $1000 / month. For comparison, with my current employer, my part of the insurance is around $440 month with a $3000 / year deductible.

      During the past year I've four different insurance companies, one of them paid entirely out of my own pocket, no coverage for dental care for a while, no coverage for eye care for a while. Really WTF? Why are teeth and eyes so different from other medical care?

      I'm now three weeks into my current position, insurance coverage with this employer began on the first of the month (so after about one week of working) — another gripe, the waiting periods to start coverage; my position before this had me working six weeks before coverage began; this time I had no idea when it would begin until I spoke to HR on my first day. I finally got my new insurance cards yesterday.

      So today I decided to try to cancel my out-of-pocket coverage. I have until the sixteenth to cancel for this month. Haha, no. I can't. Not only are the human operators not working today (which granted is a Saturday), but the website is shut down for the weekend. I can't make any changes until Monday.

      If the cost to me was the same, or close, I'd just buy my own insurance all the time instead of dealing with the hassles of constant change. But the costs are no-where near close. And I've got college tuition costs coming up very soon, so it's not like I'll have money to spare.

      I feel like health insurance in the US is the worst of all possible worlds.

      27 votes
    7. Markdown

      So I've been having a slightly off-topic discussion on a thread here and figured this would be a good subject to have wider input on. I don't think markdown adds anything to Tildes and I think it...

      So I've been having a slightly off-topic discussion on a thread here and figured this would be a good subject to have wider input on.

      I don't think markdown adds anything to Tildes and I think it actually degrades the experience for new users. Right now we're mostly old experienced reddit users and mods, but that hopefully will change. To me, markdown adds a not insignificant hurdle to formatting. Markdown has very few uses besides reddit and Github, and even then there's a few different types.

      I suggest a WYSIWYG text box with a tabbed HTML option for those who want to use code formatting. Let's use something that's standard and encourages users to learn useful code.

      Tell me why I'm wrong Tildes!

      Edit: I primarily use mobile, so maybe that's part of the disconnect here. But it seems I'm the only person who cares and still thinks markdown is almost useless. I'm fine being in the minority. I still feel it's a good idea to look beyond the bleeding edge to the time when there's 300,000 or 3,000,000 uses.

      Have a good day everyone!

      14 votes
    8. Implementation of some sort of mini-referencing system

      I think it would be rather cool and suited to tildes style of conversation to have some sort of referencing system built into markdown that is similar to Wikipedia's. Users can format a link so...

      I think it would be rather cool and suited to tildes style of conversation to have some sort of referencing system built into markdown that is similar to Wikipedia's. Users can format a link so that it appears as a superscript number in the main bulk of the text and then also appears at the bottom of the post automatically after being posted in the classic number referencing style. It could look something like this, where the webpage title would be given as well next to the page and cutoff after a certain amount of characters (please excuse my terrible paint skills). This is clearly not a necessity as we could still just use standard square and normal brackets to insert links, but I think it would be rather nifty to have a built in system that automatically creates a mini list of references, especially if the user writes a rather long, well thought out argument that might require more than a few citations.

      12 votes
    9. Quickest way to learn C# before placement begins

      I am a university student who has just finished (survived is probably a more accurate word) third year and am going to begin a placement year at a programming company at the very start of July. I...

      I am a university student who has just finished (survived is probably a more accurate word) third year and am going to begin a placement year at a programming company at the very start of July. I have been told that I will primarily be coding in C#, and that they will also teach me coding on the job, however I would like to get some form of a head start prior. I've already done some basic C++ beforehand, but I know that C# is slightly different and was wondering if anyone could suggest some resources that would not only teach me C# properly but also quickly. Like I mentioned previously, the place I am working at does not require me to know how to code properly, but it would be nice to have some footing before the placement starts. Additionally, I am also hoping that it will impress them so that my chances of landing a graduate job with them after my fourth year are increased!

      5 votes
    10. E3 2108 - EA post discussion thread

      Trailers Battlefield 5 Official Multiplayer Trailer FIFA 19 Official Reveal Trailer with UEFA Champions League Origin Access Premier: Official Reveal Trailer Unravel Two Official Reveal trailer...

      Trailers

      Thoughts?

      7 votes
    11. Any way to save a post?

      One of the features that I use on Reddit is the 'save' button. I like to be able to return to a post a day (or two) later and see where the discussion went after I first looked at the comments...

      One of the features that I use on Reddit is the 'save' button. I like to be able to return to a post a day (or two) later and see where the discussion went after I first looked at the comments section. Is this functionality going to be implemented into Tildes as well?

      Save button: https://i.imgur.com/eVBA839.png

      13 votes
    12. Suggestion: ability to have multiple subscription groups

      Haven't been on much for a few days, so this may have been discussed, but I think it would be really nice to have the ability to have multiple subscription groups per user (I'd be happy to work on...

      Haven't been on much for a few days, so this may have been discussed, but I think it would be really nice to have the ability to have multiple subscription groups per user (I'd be happy to work on this once the code is open-sourced if people are interested).

      The reason I suggest this is that I was realizing earlier that sometimes when I log in I'm just looking for computing, tech, and science stuff while at other times I'm looking to engage in some longer conversation about current events. I think it would be very nice to be able to have multiple subscription groups so that, depending on what I'm looking for during a given visit to the site, I could focus on that but still change it to something else easily next time I come online.

      3 votes
    13. What are your favorite songs for the gym and cardio?

      I'm always on the lookout for more tracks to add to my gym mix. Here are a few from mine that I think work well, with YouTube links. This is rock-heavy; I do love hip-hop and R&B in my gym mix,...

      I'm always on the lookout for more tracks to add to my gym mix. Here are a few from mine that I think work well, with YouTube links. This is rock-heavy; I do love hip-hop and R&B in my gym mix, but everything I have there is really well known.

      3 votes
    14. Tildes E3 Bingo?

      So, it seems bingo cards of hype or disappointment have become all the rage nowadays, and with E3 coming up in a few days I was wondering is Tildes wanted to make their own hype/disappointment...

      So, it seems bingo cards of hype or disappointment have become all the rage nowadays, and with E3 coming up in a few days I was wondering is Tildes wanted to make their own hype/disappointment bingo card. Feel free to chime in with suggestions.

      Here's a few:

      "Microsoft does something actually cool." - wishful thinking, but I love my xbox and just want to see it flourish.

      "Video Game movie announcement that doesn't look like shit" - how hard can this be?

      "Sony gets exclusive content" - this is just me being bitter about the exclusive dlc in PS4 Destiny.

      "God of War sequel" - I know it's guaranteed to happen at some point, but it would be hype if they dropped some sort of teaser or something even though it's incredibly early.

      "0 charisma presenters" - why can't these studios just hire someone to hype them up?

      "Awful fucking 'gamer' dialogue" - you know what I'm talking about. Just look up E3 last year with Anthem.

      "Over-focusing on a lack of microtransactions" - this point is gonna be over sold so hard because of Battlefront.

      12 votes
    15. Suggestion: Search functionality

      I'd like to suggest site search as a Tildes feature. It would be useful to know if a topic has already been discussed by people on the site. For instance I don't know if a search feature has...

      I'd like to suggest site search as a Tildes feature. It would be useful to know if a topic has already been discussed by people on the site. For instance I don't know if a search feature has already been discussed.

      Or perhaps I noticed a topic I wanted to follow up on later that I can't find now. Or I there was a reply that said something interesting I wanted reference, etc...

      4 votes
    16. Any concerts?

      Any concerts you guys plan on going to/went to within the last/next few months? Last Friday there was a Kendrick Lamar concert I went to, it was pretty fun, although there were a lot of "odd"...

      Any concerts you guys plan on going to/went to within the last/next few months? Last Friday there was a Kendrick Lamar concert I went to, it was pretty fun, although there were a lot of "odd" people there. This Friday I'm going to attend a Journey/Def Leppard concert. I also plan on seeing Pouya this summer, he's an underground rapper that I like, I also want to go to an Iron Maiden concert in Germany with a close friend but I'm not sure if I should spend the money at the moment.

      13 votes
    17. News Desk Updated!

      A few weeks ago I posted a project I was working on to read news from the command line. I incorporated the suggestions given in that thread (license, requirements.txt, etc), incorporated...

      A few weeks ago I posted a project I was working on to read news from the command line. I incorporated the suggestions given in that thread (license, requirements.txt, etc), incorporated suggestions I've received elsewhere, and added a few features.

      Here's the updated link: News Desk

      Any feedback would be much appreciated!

      Edit: And a specific point for feedback. I store the user's API key in ~/.nd_config/key which I think is a step up from requiring the user to set their key as an environment variable (which is how I had it originally). Still though, is there some way I can not store the key in plaintext and still have it in a format that is readable by the computer and can be used to verify API access?

      7 votes