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  • Showing only topics with the tag "suggestions". Back to normal view
    1. A building block for the trust system

      This is something I've been thinking about for a while. One of the future mechanics for tildes is the trust system (see https://docs.tildes.net/mechanics-future). People talk about building it but...

      This is something I've been thinking about for a while.

      One of the future mechanics for tildes is the trust system (see https://docs.tildes.net/mechanics-future). People talk about building it but I think we already have a small part of it in place.

      Invites are a form of trust.

      By allowing inviting the community is trusting you with the ability to add new members. That ability can be taken away or could even result in the banhammer if you persistantly invite assholes. I know that made me cautious with who I've invited to join.

      With there being a clear trail of who invited who, bad actors will have to work harder to get a foothold here. I also think that spammers are deterred with having to get an invite for every new account they make.

      A simple analogy is that you're having a party and a friend asks if they can bring a friend of theirs you don't know. Your friend says they're cool and you trust your friend due to past experiences with them so along they come. Now if this person ends up kicking your cat, pissing in the fridge, and then trying to burn your house down then the trust you had in your friend is going to diminish. Next time they want to bring a guest the answer is hell no!

      We can use the invite system as an initial way to build trust.

      10 votes
    2. Banned accounts should have their past comments visible

      So, this is, in part, in response to the alibaba ban. I think it's bad practice not to know why someone got banned. Firstly, it may lead to excessives from your part ("I will ban anyone and...

      So, this is, in part, in response to the alibaba ban.

      I think it's bad practice not to know why someone got banned. Firstly, it may lead to excessives from your part ("I will ban anyone and everyone I want and no one will know"). Secondly, it fails to show other posters that X behaviour will get you banned.

      8 votes
    3. "Spoiler" tags should also display on comments in tagged posts when viewed from a user page

      Right now if a post is tagged with 'spoiler', that tag appears in its own color which is good. However, if you are interacting with a user and click through to their profile, there is no...

      Right now if a post is tagged with 'spoiler', that tag appears in its own color which is good. However, if you are interacting with a user and click through to their profile, there is no indication that some of their comments may have been in these spoiler threads and thus contain spoilers (just happened to me, thankfully for show I don't watch). It might be nice to somehow indicate these potential spoilers on the user page so that they can be skipped over.

      15 votes
    4. Add spoiler tag to all comments containing X

      It would be nice if one had the option of adding the spoiler tag to all comments containing X. For example, I haven't watched endgame yet. I would feel safer if I knew that all posts containing...

      It would be nice if one had the option of adding the spoiler tag to all comments containing X.

      For example, I haven't watched endgame yet. I would feel safer if I knew that all posts containing the word "endgame" were hidden behind a spoiler-tag.

      9 votes
    5. View all comments in a group (tildes?)

      On Reddit, it's possible to view all the comments in a subreddit by going to the subreddit comments url. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/tildes/comments/ As a separate request, would it be...

      On Reddit, it's possible to view all the comments in a subreddit by going to the subreddit comments url. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/tildes/comments/


      As a separate request, would it be possible to add a new comment sorting method. Perhaps an option to disable comment nesting and sort by new. It would make it easier to see new comments that are added to a post.

      7 votes
    6. Friend mechanic

      I personally think a friend mechanic which allows you to follow what other people say on the site would be quite nice. Right now the only way you could do this is by checking their profile every...

      I personally think a friend mechanic which allows you to follow what other people say on the site would be quite nice.

      Right now the only way you could do this is by checking their profile every now and then which is... tiring at best.

      I don't think there's necessarily room for abuse but I'm interested to see what you all think of this.

      Edit : I've made a top-level comment to clarify certain things

      14 votes
    7. Option to temporarily hide read posts

      It would be nice to have an optional feature that filters out posts that a) you have read and b) don't have any new unread comments. When a post gets new comments it should reappear. That way we...

      It would be nice to have an optional feature that filters out posts that a) you have read and b) don't have any new unread comments. When a post gets new comments it should reappear. That way we could see more unread content on the page, but still keep long running topics going. Have it not affect search, so people can still find posts for reference.

      11 votes
    8. Feature suggestion: Suggest related tags

      The recent implementation of automatic tag suggestion has inspired another idea for me. What if Tildes could suggest related tags to the one(s) you've already chosen? You select a tag for your...

      The recent implementation of automatic tag suggestion has inspired another idea for me.

      What if Tildes could suggest related tags to the one(s) you've already chosen? You select a tag for your topic, and then Tildes suggests other tags to add to your topic, sourced from tags which have been commonly used in association with that tag you've selected.

      For example:

      • You tag a topic with "facebook", and Tildes suggests "social media" and "privacy" to add.

      • You tag a topic with "world war ii", and Tildes suggests "history", "nazis", and "military" to add.

      • You tag a topic with "avengers", and Tildes suggests "marvel" and "superheroes" to add.

      The data could be obtained by monitoring the frequency of associations between various tags: if tag B is frequently used in association with tag A, then tag B would be suggested as an additional option whenever tag A is used.

      6 votes
    9. Suggestion: searching through comments

      Right now, the search function only works by searching the titles of posts made. I'd like to be able to search through my comments on an occasion where I'd like to link someone to it to further...

      Right now, the search function only works by searching the titles of posts made.

      I'd like to be able to search through my comments on an occasion where I'd like to link someone to it to further the information provided. If I'd already written on the subject somewhere, I'd like to be able to provide the source, and add commentary more pertaining to the subject matter if necessary.

      Lacking that, is there a way to use Tildes' API to perform automated search myself?

      12 votes
    10. Do not bump topics from offtopic comments?

      Should offtopic comments bump up topics? IMO, offtopic discussion is not “real” discussion. Seeing a topic at top with 7 new comments only to discover that all of it is offtopic, meta discussion,...

      Should offtopic comments bump up topics? IMO, offtopic discussion is not “real” discussion. Seeing a topic at top with 7 new comments only to discover that all of it is offtopic, meta discussion, is annoying and disappointing.

      As an example, there is one topic on the front page (don’t want to link it), that was bumped by the biggest offtopic discussion I’ve seen on Tildes so far. The discussion itself is not wrong, and is quite interesting, but it’s not about the post. The comment chain should IMO either be in it’s own topic, or not bump the topic up.

      11 votes
    11. Mod annotations for removed comments

      I just came across this field of 13 admin-removed comments and frankly it left me feeling rather unsettled. That's a lot of content to just nuke all at once. Contextually, the thread up to that...

      I just came across this field of 13 admin-removed comments and frankly it left me feeling rather unsettled. That's a lot of content to just nuke all at once. Contextually, the thread up to that point was genial and non-controversial, so it seems especially odd that there's just this black hole there. What struck me mostly was how opaque the moderation was. There is no indication of what kind of content was removed, why it was removed, or specifically who did the removal or when it happened.

      Then I scrolled down and at the very bottom I found what I guess is meant to address these concerns, a comment from Deimos:

      Sigh, I saw this thread was active and thought it was going to have an actual on-topic discussion in it. Let's (mostly) start this over.

      It's not always clear online so I want to say that I'm not rage-posting or bellyaching about censorship or any of the usual drama that tends to crop up on sites like Tildes from time to time. I trust Deimos' moderation and give this the benefit of the doubt. What I'm actually doing, I guess, is making a feature request about better annotation for removed comments.

      Would it make sense to show a note (like Deimos' comment) in-thread at the position of the deleted content? Instead of down at the bottom of the page or unattached to anything relevant? In my opinion some kind of "reason" message should always be provided with any moderation activity as a matter of course. Even if it's just boilerplate text chosen from a dropdown menu.

      Also, would a single bulk-annotation for all of the related removals make for better UX than 13 separate ones? I think that would be both easier to read, and easier for Deimos to generate on the backend.

      I feel like we may have had this conversation previously, but I couldn't find it. Apologies if I'm beating a dead horse.

      13 votes
    12. Feature request: Use "/t/" in alternative to "~" in the url of a tilde.

      My title sucks, couldn't word it better. So, I hate having to use the tilde char. Doing tildes.net~tildes is much harder for me than tildes.net/t/tildes. It would be cool if tildes also supported...

      My title sucks, couldn't word it better.

      So, I hate having to use the tilde char. Doing tildes.net~tildes is much harder for me than tildes.net/t/tildes. It would be cool if tildes also supported using "/t/". I am not suggesting to remove the "~", but make one redirect to the other.

      22 votes
    13. Suggestion: Notify topic submitters on Topic Log–related changes

      I suggest that if a user other than the topic submitter makes a change to the topic that is reflected in the Topic Log (e.g., tag/title/group change), then the topic submitter receives a...

      I suggest that if a user other than the topic submitter makes a change to the topic that is reflected in the Topic Log (e.g., tag/title/group change), then the topic submitter receives a notification.

      This may or may not apply to topic deletion and/or topic locking—to be discussed.

      19 votes
    14. Suggestion for users: avoiding excessive use of acronyms

      The internet slang is full of acronyms. Some are harmless and well known, such as "lol" or "IMHO", but others not so much. Tildes is explicit by design, with a preference for clear text labels...

      The internet slang is full of acronyms. Some are harmless and well known, such as "lol" or "IMHO", but others not so much. Tildes is explicit by design, with a preference for clear text labels instead of icons. In my opinion, that's a great design choice, and maybe we should take inspiration from that in our communications. On Reddit, it's common to find obscure acronyms. Some subs require glossaries to understand their particular lingo. Sometimes this is necessary, but, in excess, acronyms can be annoying and even excluding, especially for non-native speakers. Because there are situations in which the use of acronyms is required, I don't think there should be a rule on the matter. That's merely a suggestion. What you lovely Tilda Swintons™ think about it?

      22 votes
    15. What are people's thoughts on CAPITALIZATION in headlines/titles for EMPHASIS?

      One of my favorite YouTube channels, Linus Tech Tips, does this all the time, but I have seen many others doing this as well, and I personally find it rather obnoxious. I understand that it's more...

      One of my favorite YouTube channels, Linus Tech Tips, does this all the time, but I have seen many others doing this as well, and I personally find it rather obnoxious. I understand that it's more effective at getting them views, which they rely on to stay in business... but I see it as just another form of clickbait, and so when I submit LTT videos I tend to remove that capitalization.

      However, are there any cases where capitalization for emphasis is appropriate in a headline/title? And if not, should titles be edited to remove them?

      p.s. Acronyms and Initialisms are obviously different, so let's ignore those and put them in the "clearly acceptable" category.

      19 votes
    16. Differentiating between comments collapsed via noise versus user-actioned & old collapses

      Quick thought. Is there currently a purely visual way of distinguishing the rationale for why a comment is collapsed? It seems to me at the moment there's three distinct ways a comment can take on...

      Quick thought. Is there currently a purely visual way of distinguishing the rationale for why a comment is collapsed? It seems to me at the moment there's three distinct ways a comment can take on a collapsed property:

      • The user actively collapsed the comment while scrolling through the topic. This type of collapse is transient, and is neither persisted on the Tildes server, or in the browser, after the users leaves the page.

      • The comment was collapsed via the "negative weighting" heuristic as the community applied noise/joke tags to the comment. This is permanent, until presumably the comment gains enough votes to exceed any negative weighting causing its collapse.

      • Thirdly, the comment can be collapsed because the user has enabled "collapse old comments" in https://tildes.net/settings/comment_visits. Once a user visits a thread, any comments that existed at the last visit to the thread will be collapsed on any subsequent visits to the thread.

      Is there any visual way of distinguishing a user-collapsed comment from a community-collapsed comment currently? And if not, should there be one? Perhaps by making the collapsed text slightly more translucent? I'm actually looking to contribute to the Tildes source code in some small way, so this would potentially be an interesting shoehorn for that.

      26 votes
    17. Crazy idea to help stop the spreading of untruthful news

      One of the main issues with news on social media is the spread of fake or false news. This happens on every platform that allows sharing news. If Tildes continues to gain popularity, this will...

      One of the main issues with news on social media is the spread of fake or false news. This happens on every platform that allows sharing news. If Tildes continues to gain popularity, this will likely happen on Tildes. I had an Idea: what if tildes had a group of fact checkers that check to see if the news is truthful, and block posts that link to untrustworthy new sites? could be like a 3 strikes thing, where if a new source has 3 articles posted that have misinformation, they would be blocked (the post also removed).

      This is just an idea, feel free to highlight any issues with it.

      10 votes
    18. Merging threads?

      I think it'd be useful to merge duplicate threads when there's two topics that are very close to each other. I don't want the stackExchange style "closed as duplicate of x," but I think it would...

      I think it'd be useful to merge duplicate threads when there's two topics that are very close to each other. I don't want the stackExchange style "closed as duplicate of x," but I think it would be worthwhile to simply have the comments moved to the oldest thread and transfer any votes that are different users on each topic.

      This way, we aren't losing discussion by flat-out deleting topics that are dupes, and we're also able to take some sort of action on threads that are dupes.

      Just a thought.

      8 votes
    19. Can we have a dedicated ~econ group?

      Hi, simple request here, can we have a dedicated channel group for the economy & related financial topics? It is an important enough field of topics that deserves to be on its own and not just...

      Hi, simple request here, can we have a dedicated channel group for the economy & related financial topics? It is an important enough field of topics that deserves to be on its own and not just labeled via tags, IMO. Especially with interesting developments and happenings which may be driving political and other news, it would be nice to have them easily in one place.

      Now that I look again, ~politics probably deserves its own too, although I can see how that might turn into the most raucous part of the Tildes community. Economics is usually a bit more dry though--it's nicknamed the "dismal" science after all--so hopefully that would be less of an issue.

      Thanks.

      14 votes
    20. Openly editable posts. Crazy idea?

      I've been somewhat of a lurker here, actively reading posts, but today I came across a topic which had a small typo in it. No big deal, but if this was wikipedia, I could easily go in and fix...

      I've been somewhat of a lurker here, actively reading posts, but today I came across a topic which had a small typo in it. No big deal, but if this was wikipedia, I could easily go in and fix it... Then it hit me, what would a site like tilde be like if anyone could propose an edit to a post, and have that edit go into effect if the original poster approved it? Of course revision history would need to be available too, for accountability. Good idea? Bad? I'm just curious how that might play out.

      19 votes
    21. User Groups?

      I was just wondering if there would ever be user editable groups (like subreddits) If so, I would like to suggest a few features: 1: Public/Private. Users could choose whether or not to require an...

      I was just wondering if there would ever be user editable groups (like subreddits) If so, I would like to suggest a few features:
      1: Public/Private. Users could choose whether or not to require an invite to access the group.
      2: Stickies: The creator of the group and specified individuals should be able to create posts that are always at the top, such as a rules page.
      3: Other controls: #Posts/user/hour. Enable or disable voting. Allow or disallow images/videos etc.

      4 votes
    22. Group suggestion: ~socialmedia

      Hereby I suggest that there be a dedicated Tildes group for social media–related topics. Current State The (recent) number of topics tagged social media exceeds the number of topics in several...

      Hereby I suggest that there be a dedicated Tildes group for social media–related topics.

      Current State

      The (recent) number of topics tagged social media exceeds the number of topics in several existing groups:
      https://tildes.net/?tag=social_media
      In addition, there are more topics without the social media tag but with tags related to individual social media, e.g.,
      https://tildes.net/?tag=reddit
      https://tildes.net/?tag=facebook
      https://tildes.net/?tag=twitter

      These topics are quite scattered across the site (many of them are in ~tech, and some were moved to ~tech from places like ~talk and ~misc).

      Why Not Just ~tech?

      The topics are often focused on non-technical aspects of social media, and the mentioned moves from more general groups might suggest that social media are perceived as a general rather than a purely techn(olog)ical phenomenon. In addition, ~tech is already the biggest Tildes group.

      Special Relevance

      Tildes is itself a social medium site, and many of the above topics are thus specifically relevant for Tildes. For this reason, I suggest ~socialmedia as a top-level group rather than a subgroup (of ~tech, apparently).

      6 votes
    23. Comments, bumping, trees. Helping user discovering newer comments.

      Suppose you want to participate in an old post with hundreds of comments. You made your fresh new comment, injecting your thoughts and effort into it and hit the post button with hopes and dreams....

      Suppose you want to participate in an old post with hundreds of comments. You made your fresh new comment, injecting your thoughts and effort into it and hit the post button with hopes and dreams.

      The post is bumped to the top under Activity. Other tilders saw the old post on the top, they are intrigued, perhaps as much as you are and wonder what you can add to the discussion, but they couldn't find your comment.

      Why is that?

      You replied to a thread with a very old top-level comment.

      As Tildes is still relatively new, this isn't much of a issue now, but one that I feel needed to be addressed eventually as the site grows. It is certainly a low priority issue for the time being.

      Sort by new only sorts comments by the time when top-level comment is posted, which is an inherent characteristic of comment threads. If my last years of memeing on redditting has taught me anything, it is that a new post gathers the most views in the first few minutes when it was posted (This might be a few days on Tildes).

      Bumping helps extend the longevity of a given post if the thread gathers enough attention and discussion value to warrant a comment, but that alone would not alleviate the fact that new comments is seen by less and less people as the post gets older (as indicated by votes). If we want to make high-quality comments seen by more people, we need to make comment age a less limiting factor.

      Tildes needs to help its users to discover new comments.

      A few solutions come to my mind.

      1. By presenting comments in a linear fashion like the good old bulletin board does without any hierarchy such that sort by new would truly be sort by new.

      2. By highlighting ( or whichever other means ) comments that meet certain criteria (Comments that are among the latest 10 or comments that were posted within the last hour, this can vary depending on the activities of the comments)

      3. I would like to propose a novel solution to this problem by compacting the comment threads to a forest of trees with navigable nodes. This sounds totally outlandish, it might very well be, but its an idea that I think worth sharing.

      The editing is rudimentary but I hope the idea is communicated well.

      Cheers!

      15 votes
    24. Adding number of search results found to search results page?

      I recently did a search for "Wikipedia" and got quite a few results. I think it would be nice if somewhere it showed how many results were found as I had a search term or two I could've added to...

      I recently did a search for "Wikipedia" and got quite a few results. I think it would be nice if somewhere it showed how many results were found as I had a search term or two I could've added to narrow things down. Is this something anybody else would find useful?

      8 votes
    25. Removing or editing "Exemplary" labels?

      Might it be useful for our Exemplary (and I imagine Malice) labels to be removable or editable? I recently added an Exemplary label with a description that was a bit more "fuck that other guy!"...

      Might it be useful for our Exemplary (and I imagine Malice) labels to be removable or editable? I recently added an Exemplary label with a description that was a bit more "fuck that other guy!" than I would've liked, and despite it not being publicly visible, I still felt the need to in some way correct my mistake to not drag the other user into my hostility, but there's no option to do so. If we can't remove the labels because users shouldn't be juggling the timer or something, I get that, but editing seems like a good (yet low-priority) thing to implement.

      I can't recall this being explicitly outlined anywhere when labels were being introduced, sorry if I've forgotten something. Knowing me, I probably argued against it somewhere :P

      16 votes
    26. I feel it would be convenient to make theme changing faster

      If I'm the weirdo in the minority here, feel free to let me know, but I ideally switch between day and night modes almost daily on my websites and apps based on time of day. Here, it's usually...

      If I'm the weirdo in the minority here, feel free to let me know, but I ideally switch between day and night modes almost daily on my websites and apps based on time of day. Here, it's usually between the White and Black settings. And while it's not a big problem by any means, navigating between 3 different pages (the homepage, my user page, then settings) is a tiny hassle that I feel could be avoided by placing the theme switching option on the homepage. I don't know if my usage of themes is normal or an abnormality, so I understand if putting it directly on the homepage isn't ideal if most users don't switch themes constantly. It would still be a fair bit faster if it were to be placed on the profile page somewhat similar to Reddit or YouTube (I'm not talking about the overlay, just moving the switcher from settings to maybe part of the User Menu).

      I have noticed that most apps with a dark mode tend to bury it in settings, clearly indicating that it's designed to be a one time change, so again, maybe this is just a me problem, but I am curious on how others feel about a more easily on hand theme option.

      13 votes
    27. Feature suggestion: Highlighted text in comment automatically creates quote when you respond to that comment

      I'm fairly sure it's either a Reddit or RES feature, but whenever I select text in a comment and then click Reply, it'll copy that text to the comment box and add a > in front so it'll turn into a...

      I'm fairly sure it's either a Reddit or RES feature, but whenever I select text in a comment and then click Reply, it'll copy that text to the comment box and add a > in front so it'll turn into a quote. It makes it a little quicker to respond to a specific part of someone's message.

      I'm no IT bird and as such I don't know if this is something that can be implemented easily(if at all). It'd also require more JS, not sure if that's an issue as well.

      In any case, let me know what you think.

      Edit: I'd like to suggest something else, should I make a secondary post or append it to this one? I'd like to avoid cluttering up the front page.

      37 votes
    28. Feature suggestion: Bookmark posts from front page

      I'd like to be able to bookmark posts from the front page. Right now it really isn't an issue yet since posting frequency is low, but I often quickly check the front page for interesting reads,...

      I'd like to be able to bookmark posts from the front page. Right now it really isn't an issue yet since posting frequency is low, but I often quickly check the front page for interesting reads, while not having the time to actually read them. I'd like to see a "Bookmark" button on front page posts that allow me to save those posts for later when I actually do have time to read the posts.

      For quick scrolls over the front page, tapping the post and then bookmarking is one click too many.
      You could argue I'm lazy, I call it efficiency.

      While on the subject, if I click "bookmark" on a topic, it'll read "bookmarked" but does not offer an "unbookmark" option until I refresh the page. Since I have big thumbs(large bones) I often tap wrong, so it could be nice if there was a quick way to undo this, similar to how we can undo votes.
      Edit: this seems to be a bug: it does work for comments.
      Edit2: Made this into an issue.

      24 votes
    29. Can we make the new "Back to top" link optional?

      I just noticed we got a back to top link, floating on the bottom right. It is easy to block on desktop, but on mobile, not as easy. I think it'd be great it we had an option to disable it in user...

      I just noticed we got a back to top link, floating on the bottom right. It is easy to block on desktop, but on mobile, not as easy. I think it'd be great it we had an option to disable it in user settings.

      11 votes
    30. Thoughts on the idea of "subscribing" to a topic?

      Basically, the ability to receive a notification whenever someone comments on a subscribed topic. Currently, there is a save option (Unless it's been removed? I'm looking now and can't seem to...

      Basically, the ability to receive a notification whenever someone comments on a subscribed topic. Currently, there is a save option (Unless it's been removed? I'm looking now and can't seem to find it) which makes for a decent solution for the time being, but personally I know how easy it is to forget all about what you have saved and have it fly completely under your radar. I, for one, think it would be a good idea if you could subscribe to a topic you're interested so you don't completely forget and miss some discussion.

      15 votes
    31. Longer (or configurable) duration for topic read comment tracking

      Comment Visits Setting This data is retained for 30 days. After not visiting a particular topic for 30 days, the data about your last visit to it will be deleted. We've had discussions before...

      Comment Visits Setting

      This data is retained for 30 days. After not visiting a particular topic for 30 days, the data about your last visit to it will be deleted.

      We've had discussions before about long-lived topics, resurrecting old topics, etc. and the general consensus is that they were good and encouraged. Unfortunately, with the limited 30-day memory for topic read-vs-new comments, resurrected posts become a real pain. The current activity-sorted all-time front page has three topics from 2018, each with over a hundred comments. It'd be nice to read the new activity, but that takes either some tedious Ctrl+F with various terms ("minutes", "days", etc.) to find newish comments or re-reading everything.

      I'd like to avoid relying on a third-party extension to handle this (browser and device support, issues with syncing multiple devices, etc.), and I understand the privacy goals. What are people's thoughts on making read-comment memory user-configurable, even if it's just "default 30-days" and "all-time"?

      10 votes
    32. Merge ~tech and ~comp and create a separate ~privacy

      The whole suggestion is in the title. I find the split between ~tech and ~comp to be very overlapping. Such a vast proportion of the content both places is ~privacy -material anyway. Content...

      The whole suggestion is in the title.

      I find the split between ~tech and ~comp to be very overlapping. Such a vast proportion of the content both places is ~privacy -material anyway. Content tagged privacy is effectively rendering ~tech a semi-privacy board as it is now anyway.

      I think the suggested categorization makes more sense than the current organization based on the content actually submitted to tildes now.


      Here's the ~comp privacy tag overview: comp

      Here's the ~tech privacy tag overview: tech

      9 votes
    33. Should Tildes, or its users, try to make "official discussion/review" threads?

      Similar to how other forums go about making review or discussion thread on newly released forms of entertainment. I think tildes would be a pretty neat platform to try and host some of these. More...

      Similar to how other forums go about making review or discussion thread on newly released forms of entertainment.

      I think tildes would be a pretty neat platform to try and host some of these. More so with the discussion nature of tildes. Seems like they would work really well here but I often don't see any pop up. Would anyone like to see them here?

      8 votes
    34. A case for why labels should be removed

      EDIT: I'm only talking about the Exemplary tag Greetings. I'm Alexis, and I signed up for this site back on May 30th, when it was just beginning. However, I have returned and I see something that...

      EDIT: I'm only talking about the Exemplary tag

      Greetings. I'm Alexis, and I signed up for this site back on May 30th, when it was just beginning. However, I have returned and I see something that doesn't seem like that big an issue, but I fear it will lead to the same sort of 'circlejerk' that Reddit has.

      The issue is with this comment. At first, it doesn't really seem that bad - it is a person (we'll call them Adam) replying to someone else (Barbara) who says the subject matter (Charlie) is using white nationalism as a means to cause chaos. Adam takes this to mean Barbara supports Neo-Nazis, as Barbara states the following:

      Hate to say it, but neo-Nazism is better than this, if by a small margin: at least its followers have an ideology.

      Adam asks what "lofty ideology do you think Neo-Nazis" have, including a long rebuttal of this miscommunication.

      The real problem with this is the labels. On the top of Adam's comment: "2x Exemplary". I have not seen any labels whatsoever anywhere else on this forum when I have been browsing it. On a miscommunicative post. Adam seems to claim Barbara is downplaying the issue, despite the miscommunication.

      To see why this is an issue, let's take a second post discussing a network of paedophiles on Youtube. As on 1:14 PM EST, Feb 21, 2019, not a single label is there. This is in spite of communication being just as civil and developed.

      My theory is that the Exemplary labels were not used as a "Well done" to Adam's post, but rather as a "We hate Neo-Nazis as well", or "super-vote". What I fear is that this will lead to an echo chamber where Devil's advocates, such as Barbara, are shunned for things from a simple miscommunication to having 'wrongthink' and defending ideas that people think should not be.

      Let me be clear: I am not conservative or a Nazi. If anything, I am a socialist - but it shouldn't matter. You should be allowed to discuss the pros and cons of relevant political views as long as it is in a civil manner.

      35 votes
    35. Vote box should be on the left-hand side

      Why? My mouse, as well as my vision, are focused on the left. The vote box feels like its light years away on a 16:9 screen. It's on the opposite side of the screen from everything else I might...

      Why? My mouse, as well as my vision, are focused on the left. The vote box feels like its light years away on a 16:9 screen. It's on the opposite side of the screen from everything else I might click in the GUI. Its a waste of time/movement.

      HTH!

      28 votes
    36. Idea: ranking alternate links to prevent linkspam and improve access to quality sources

      I was reading this thread and the important concept of finding the original source came up. I think two things that a lot of content aggregators run into as they grow is people will often post...

      I was reading this thread and the important concept of finding the original source came up. I think two things that a lot of content aggregators run into as they grow is people will often post links from low-quality sources, and when a big newsworthy event happens a lot of similar links from multiple sources appear at once. Obviously not a big problem here now, but it may happen as Tildes grows.

      Both of these issues often require significant moderator input, either through deletion of duplicates or banning of unsavory sources. One way we could instead approach this issue could be to allow for "alternate sources" to a story. For example, if a user is unsatisfied with a link to a news article, they could submit an alternate source to the thread that would show up in the discussion. If enough other users prefer that source, it could replace the link in the OP. The original source would still be visible, but all alternate links themselves could be ranked within the thread.

      It seems the primary focus of Tildes is to be a discussion board, and so in my mind that means the link that engages the discussion doesn't matter much -- if we are voting on individual links anyway, this could be a way to automatically compile multiple similar threads into a single discussion.

      13 votes
    37. An option to hide topics from the front page.

      As per subject - it'd be nice to hide topics from the front page. The use case is very simple - if I see a topic that I have no interest in, I'd rather for its spot to be taken by some other topic...

      As per subject - it'd be nice to hide topics from the front page.

      The use case is very simple - if I see a topic that I have no interest in, I'd rather for its spot to be taken by some other topic that currently sits "below the fold".

      Hiding a topic should remove it from the front page only, but leave it visible on the group page. It would also probably make sense to mark the topic there in some way and have an "unhide" option there.

      Alternatively, have a switch for the front page to toggle between "full view" and "view without hidden topics".

      12 votes
    38. When will there be a group for photographers?

      Hey everyone! I'm pretty new here, and I'm already enjoying this place, but I was wondering when there will be a group to post photos. I take photos and I'm sure some of you do as well, and I...

      Hey everyone!

      I'm pretty new here, and I'm already enjoying this place, but I was wondering when there will be a group to post photos. I take photos and I'm sure some of you do as well, and I thought it would be cool to be able to share the photos we take and get honest feedback on them like we have honest discussions in the news articles, share tips and tricks, and generally have another way to connect.

      I know generally photos are kind of taboo, as places like instagram have kind of ruined it and turned every single person with a camera on their phone into a photographer, so I get it if you have reservations. I have some myself, but I still want to take the chance.

      Idk, I thought it would be cool. If not, then whatever, I ain't picky about this place I enjoy it very much.

      22 votes
    39. Few thoughts on the index page design

      Freshly minted user here, so here is a bit of feedback from the first hour of using ~s. #1 Having topic-info line below the topic-text-excerpt block creates some usability friction, because if the...

      Freshly minted user here, so here is a bit of feedback from the first hour of using ~s.

      #1

      Having topic-info line below the topic-text-excerpt block creates some usability friction, because if the the excerpt is large-ish, then the "xx comments" link is pushed way down, sometimes below the fold.

      https://imgur.com/FUwKHo7.jpg

      This is an issue (at least for me) because it interferes with efficient selection of topics to read.

      You spot a promising topic, you open excerpt, skim through the top part, if it still shows promise, use the "xx comments" link to open it in.

      Key point is that I would very rarely read the whole excerpt before deciding to see the comments. However with existing layout the "xx comments" link sits at the very bottom of the excerpt, requiring scrolling down, correcting for an over-shoot (if the link was below the fold) and then zeroing in on the link.

      In comparison, if the link were to stay above the excerpt, it will be within few pixels from where my mouse is after clicking on the "open excerpt" triangle.

      #2

      If this were my site, I would probably just swapped topic-meta with topic-info, like so - https://imgur.com/fJ3tKxc.jpg.

      The rationale here is that meta carries information that is less important and less frequently used/needed that topic-info. I know that I would be more interested in the comment count and the topic age than in tags.

      #3

      The topic-text-excerpt font size is too big. The index is nice, compact and has a very light feel to it. Then you click to expand the excerpt and it's like - WOAH, HERE'S SOME TEXT FOR YOU.

      12 votes
    40. Tildes should not use hard line breaks for line endings

      I'm new to Tildes, but I've been using Markdown-based comment systems for more than a decade: both Reddit and GitHub. My programming blog has been written in Markdown for the past 8 years. Overall...

      I'm new to Tildes, but I've been using Markdown-based comment systems
      for more than a decade: both Reddit and GitHub. My programming blog has
      been written in Markdown for the past 8 years. Overall I've probably
      written several novels worth of content in Markdown in my life.

      I've already noticed that Tildes has made a serious mistake in its
      handling of line endings: All line endings are treated as hard line
      breaks
      . This diverges from CommonMark and most uses of Markdown in
      practice. If I wanted a hard line break, I'd put two spaces at the end
      of the line, as specified by both CommonMark and the original Markdown.
      Line endings should be otherwise be soft.

      GitHub made the same mistake with its "GitHub-flavored Markdown," though
      fortunately this mistake has been limited to issues. GitHub README.md
      files don't have this behavior, nor does GitHub Pages. It the only other
      Markdown system I've used with this flaw.

      Why does this matter? If I'm writing more than a single sentence, I
      never edit my comment inside my web browser. I edit it using my text
      editor of choice, Vim, since it's far more comfortable. I don't even
      have to copy-paste the text between applications. Instead, I have an
      add-on, Tridactyl, that does this seemlessly and effortlessly.

      Hard line endings just don't work well with long prose — exactly the
      type of content that Tildes is encouraging — particularly when edited in
      a proper text editor that knows about paragraphs and can do its own line
      wrapping. Editing long lines is annoying and takes extra care. That's
      why we have soft line endings after all.

      I'm leaving all my line endings in this post so that you can see the
      mess Tildes makes with it, with the ragged right-hand side due to font
      differences. If I had written this in nearly any other Markdown system,
      the text would have flowed into the page without issues. It is a mistake
      for Tildes to do differently. This sort of compatibility issue is
      probably going to be annoying enough to keep me off the site.

      23 votes
    41. Suggestion: Color the names of new users differently.

      Many websites like hacker news, lobsters and stack exchange put an indicator next to usernames to show that the user is new. This lets regular users know that this user may need some help fitting...

      Many websites like hacker news, lobsters and stack exchange put an indicator next to usernames to show that the user is new. This lets regular users know that this user may need some help fitting in and following the rules.

      What does everyone think about such a feature on tildes?

      16 votes
    42. Thoughts on permanently limiting the number of people who use tildes?

      It used to be considered an honor to become a default subreddit. Then when it was seen what happens when a sub became a default (tons and tons of people came flooding in filling the threads with...

      It used to be considered an honor to become a default subreddit. Then when it was seen what happens when a sub became a default (tons and tons of people came flooding in filling the threads with what were often mediocre comments and destroying the sense of community) becoming a default lost it's shine. The same can be said about Reddit as a whole though. It's extremely impressive that it's become such a huge website, but at the same time, it's not a small, quaint town. It's now just another place for the masses to congregate (both for better and for worse).

      Right now Tilde is a small website. And a smaller website means a stronger sense of community. smaller threads means that your comment is more likely to be read. less upvotes (or just votes in this case) but when you do get one or two it means more. Smaller also means that you're more likely to talk to specific people again and again (as opposed to just a new totally random person each and every time).

      Tilde said no NSFW. No porn. I agree with that. A bajillion porn sites out there, no need for another one. Well...There's a number of massive social media websites as well out there as well. The number of users on them are puffed up by bots, but they're still going to have millions upon millions of actual users.

      I put forth that same basic question here as to what Tilde should become. If all it does is say no to NSFW stuff (essentially the exact opposite of voat) then, to put it bluntly (and kinda cruelly) it will in time just be some Reddit clone. If however the makers decide to keep it very small, and permanently so, I think we could foster something special and unique. Not something that's exclusive (I don't know about any of you but it's certainly no amazing prize to have a one on one interaction with me :-P) it would just be a way to create a small community that I get the sense that a lot of people on here desire. less memes, less sh*tposting, less a lot of stuff that doesn't actually contribute to any sort of actual interesting conversation.

      Please don't tear my head off, but I look forward to seeing what people think of this.

      38 votes