I imagine that I'm not the only one here now that was part of the Digg exodus to Reddit many years ago and I wonder what you all think we can learn from the rise and fall of these platforms to better design our new community.

Is it inevitable that our social networks degrade with population until a new one rises from Its ashes, so to speak?

What can we do to protect ourselves from this pattern and maintain a healthy populace?

Hi tilders (tildes? tilded?),

I thought it might make sense to group threads by hobby for now, to start -- and the hobby I've been spending the most time with recently has been fountain pens. They're great! I hope you like them too.

Wrote something out to kick things off: https://i.imgur.com/vNOS7QK.jpg

Write something back in return?

I don't have the land to do it yet, but my dream is to build a year-round greenhouse in a back yard, so that I can have green all throughout the monochromatic bleakness of a New York winter. This is pretty much a daydream at this point, but I'd like to get some feedback from folks in the know.

The feature wish-list is as follows:

• a dug-out trench, shaped like a V with a flat bottom. Thinking something like 12' (or go metric and make it 4m) wide in the middle, with sides at a 60° angle going to ground level (total depth of around 10' or 2.5m)
• a double-paned glass or plexiglass roof, for insulation and lighting
• heating elements in the outer layer of roof, for snow and ice removal
• a space heater, to regulate temperature during the cold months
• an aquaponics tank (probably using goldfish, but possibly tilapia)
• aquaponics grow beds lining the angled sides
• compost-activated biochar beds on the flat part

The idea would be to run the aquaponic outflow to the top of the sloping sides, supporting herbs, leafy greens, and flowers. The runoff collects at the bottom of the slope, where it is returned to the fish tank. The flat surface would be used for root vegetables and bulbs like onions and garlic.

I realize that this is a tad ambitious (and that I may just be throwing the biochar bit because I think its cool), but part of why I'm posting this is to get the benefit of collective experience. Any thoughts?

You probably know the drill, but in case not - you get an unlimited supply of one specific beer to drink when marooned on an island - presumably til death.

I love California blondes. I want to try some others that ~ loves, and thought other folks might like to do the same.

Firestone Walker 805 for me. You?

edit: just to say, oops, not dessert...desert.

I went to the local farmers' market on Saturday and was impressed by both the mushroom guy and the stand selling venison. I've only been able to find venison a few times (don't have any hunter friends), and the times I've made it before, it's gone into chili. So, I bought a pound of stew meat, a half pint of Cinnamon Cap Chestnut mushrooms, and some produce to finish out a stew. I braised it all up last night in some beef broth and red wine. That may have been a mistake, as the venison basically came out tasting like stew beef. Process went a little like this:

• chop up the venison into bite-sized chunks
• brown the venison in a bit of butter
• add more butter and some flour to make roux
• add a splash of red wine and about a carton of beef broth
• add mushrooms, potatoes, garlic
• realize I'm out of onions, so add onion powder
• reduce until gravy-like

All in all, it was tasty (the mushrooms were great!), but the venison was basically very tender, $9 / lb stew beef. Did I treat it wrong by using beef broth, or is that just the way it tastes?

I've read the docs and I personally have not seen this topic come up yet.

I've been weary/afraid to post any more of my own content since my very first post here on ~Tildes. Are there currently any unofficial rules for self-promotion? We all know Reddit once had that stupid 10:1 (or was it 5:1?) ratio rule before they chucked it. I don't want to feel like a selfish person or a spammy person if I submit content that I created and/or links to accounts that promote myself as a brand.

I believe that France has the best chance to take the whole thing away. However teams like Spain and Brazil can also easily put up a show. It would be interesting to see as there are no clear favourites in this World cup.

So I'm moving soon and I was just curious about how those of you who move around a bit go about finding new people to hang out with. I usually just try to find the nearest gay bar and go from there. But I'm curious what all you people do.

I have been writing for quite some time, but always look for new ideas, new perspectives, new genres, new ways of promoting or improving or sharing my work. I'm not a professional and still have lots to learn. I am open to all kinds of writing and levels of expertise, and want to open a space where there is genuine and helpful sharing, rather than snarky and dismissive barbs.

I don't think this should be a place where someone writes a quick and sloppy sub-first draft and then eagerly begs for only positive comments. Writing is hard work. It is a craft and takes serious study and time. It can also be lonely and discouraging.

I envision a virtual coffee shop where we have all gathered with our latest work, wondering what our next step is, how a good editor can be found, how to write a query letter, is self-publishing a good choice, how did you get an agent...those sorts of discussions.

How is a new group formed?

I feel like it's been pretty well established that Tildes is supposed to be a place of discussion with maybe occasional fluff here and there that can be filtered out. But there's a large grey area that I think should be addressed.

I'll take a few of Reddit's subreddits as an example.

I think it's pretty clear that a group resembling /r/aww should not be allowed on Tildes since it is pure fluffing and does not really bring a big quality of discussion to the community as a whole.

But how about a community such as /r/QuitYourBullshit? That could arguably be either unnecessary or a place of good discussion. There's a lot of grey area regarding the quality of that subreddit.

Now, I know what some people might try to say. We shouldn't try to replicate Reddit, and we should instead let the communities grow organically.

Yet, if Tildes is going to grow at all from Reddit, people are going to want to replicate the communities they so dearly loved on Reddit, regardless of quality. People who were active on /r/dankmemes are going to want a /r/dankmemes equivalent here. People who were active on /r/todayilearned or /r/JusticeServed are going to want an equivalent here as well. So the question is: how are we going to deal with the large demand for variably fluffy groups while simultaneously keeping the quality of discussion up?

I think this is a real issue that is going to have to be dealt with before widespread adoption of Tildes can occur.

I'm a serial car/bike addict, and have owned close to 50 cars and 10 or so bikes. Usually at least mildly modified for performance/handling/modcons, if not heavily modified. I'm not so much into visuals, as I am into improving cheaper cars so I can get more bang for my buck (I'm not well off).

I've owned everything from 1960s Mercs and Holdens to brand new Subarus and VWs. V-twin sport bikes to show-level streetfighters. I just like weird/unique vehicles, and tinkering with them.

Currently got a '97 Nissan Stagea RSFour imported from Japan. RB25DET with a few mods. FMIC, turbo back exhaust, intake, boost controller, turbo timer, TE37 reps, BC coilovers, and currently converting the centre console to a 7" RPi-driven touch screen with CONSULT integration to the ECU for sensor readouts, and setting it up for track days (half cage, etc). Pic.

Also about to take on a late 80s JDM Honda Goldwing which I want to fully restore to meticulous detail, for no other reason than I think they look retro-cool and are massively underrated for cruising. I plan on doing a small turbo conversion, and upgrading the brakes and suspension, but keeping it looking 100% stock and perfect down to every last bolt.

Quite a lot of us will have them. They are pretty damn useful, and make for decent lazy meals.

Apart from stock, here is one of the recipes I really like for the IP.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/pressure-cooker-pork-belly-kakuni/

Japanese pork belly slices. Works brilliantly and stunning flavour. In fact Just One Cookbook is generally a great site, but this was the first of theirs I tried. I make it every time my wife goes away as it's not her thing, but I love it.

Interested in your favourites!

My friends and I just finished our first run through EDF 4.1, and we had a blast. We each accumulated about 60 hours in the game doing so. Some of that was probably spent goofing around on other classes or strengthening up a bit for the three or four missions we got stuck on. All in all though, I'm amazed that it took us that long to get through.

Actually, I'd say that's my response to this game in general. For something I had never really heard of, it was surprisingly good. The game was ridiculous at the start with the giant bugs but as it went it somehow just got crazier and crazier. The scale of the game was just fantastic in terms of enemy variety and size. The hilarity of the B movie writing paired with the outrageous gameplay made it an uproar between the four of us.

The progression system was decent and probably the weakest point. The sheer amount of equipment was a big plus, since it's always exciting to see something new at the end of a mission and find out if it's any good or not, but it was pretty easy to identify an optimal strategy for each mission. There were some classes of weapons (for ranger at least) that were outright useless in a practical sense, which is disappointing. The variety in weapon design is great, but it's unfortunate that it couldn't be more balanced.

Are there any other games that really scratch this itch? I can think of a lot of four-player co-op games that don't really fill that void. EDF is too fast-paced, has too many good "wtf moments", and has too enjoyable a progression system. For those of y'all on ~ who have played it: what other games did you enjoy that were sort of alike to EDF 4.1?

So I'm a teen and am starting a new school next year. I get a 12 week break so would really like to try and get in shape, mainly to boost self confidence. What types of exercise / diet would people recommend?

I don't think I'd ever get skinny but I'd I could swap out some fat for muscle that would be fantastic!

Just wondering...

Like, not even movies or games, just books. Recently I've been reading this book called A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, which is about his experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. The book talks about this root (?) called cassava, and something about the author describing it made me really hungry for it, even though I had never heard of it before. Its really weird, and I don't really know why books incite such a reaction in me.

At some point reddit had plans to implement a federated protocol and let users run their own instances, but that was throw out of the window to satisfy shareholders interests. Does tildes has plans to implement a federate protocol in the future or is something that hasn't been considered?

There seems to be a solid community of Linux people growing here, so thought I might try asking...

I'm building a head unit for my car, using a Raspberry Pi to a 7" (and eventually 10-14") touch screen.

I'd like to have a fast-booting Linux distro with tiling windows that lets me set up a config file to launch a bunch of programs that are tiled perfectly edge to edge, with minimal border (a 1px line us OK), minimal header (just the name of the program? or none at all maybe), and have them all locked in place so I can't accidentally drag one or resize one when touching audio controls, for example.

The idea is to have a few windows, such as an audio player, a GPS map, 2 dash cam feeds, and an OBDII style sensor readouts, all on screen at the same time, each sized differently.

I've got each individual program working fine on Raspbian right now, but no idea how to go about the tiling-on-boot, locking them in place, etc.

Can I do it with Raspbian with some specific window manager? or do I need a different distro?

Thanks in advance.

So I've nearly finished my exams and am going to have a bunch of free time soon. I want to try and learn to do some electronics stuff. I already have an Arduino and Pi and have done the basic flashing lights projects, but want to try something a bit more interesting (but not too expensive either)

I had this game on my phone for awhile but only just started last night. So far I think it's neat what kinds of landmarks can be pokestops, like a little fountain by a restaurant or a very old building. It also reminds me of those pokewalker things from long ago, the ones that counted your steps. It also kills me when a church is a gym.

Now I'm not walking everywhere or buying plane tickets trying to do this but it's pretty pleasant so far. What are your thoughts, Tildes?

Edit: I took my first gym at a quaint little church and the Nidorino I left there came back about 6 hours later. There's more people playing this than I realized, also more churches lol.

I use Lastpass at work but don't have experience with any others. Last time I looked into it Lastpass and Keepass were the only two viable options if I recall (though my memory isn't the most reliable thing). A few quick searches seem to indicate that the market has opened up a bit since then. I'd like to use something open source with Linux, Windows, and Android clients. So, what's your preferred password manager and why?

Since AP Lit in high school, I’ve wanted to get into reading. Recently I started making a list of things I want to read (both fiction and non, fantasy and sci fi, bios and commentary), but am not making the slightest dent in it. Im able to read magazine writing and online publications throughout the day, so what do y’all do to read more books?

Let's do it guys! Every good forum/community from Ars Technica to the XKCD forums has had a go taking turns playing the most detailed simulation game I have ever seen. I can generate the world for ideal 44.10 (and hopefully 44.11) settings with my extra adventurer reactions.

Now that dwarves can get angry and stressed again, now is an opportune time. Who's with me?

Coincidentally checked right after this went up, hi gay friends!
As someone living in the South, Pride is actually a fall/spring thing, so I don’t have much to look forward to offline with Pride this month.
What stories and events do y’all have?

And why is it Ravenclaw?

I figure we might as well get a thread going about the Harry Potter series of books, show that it is popular and that ~HarryPotter needs to be a thing.

Which Hogwarts house are you? Find some like-minded friends and start the seeds of a community here.

As the title says I got into my first relationship this past week (Im 22; male) and boy do I feel happy. Now I gotta be the best me I can be, any relationship tips for a dude? (I'll take advice from all genders).

Thank you!

1 week later edit: Thank you to everyone who offered advice based on their experience. I got a taste of different stories however the tl;dr seems to be:

• be honest, even if the truth is ugly
• constant open communication
• stay true to yourself
• dont rush things; let things happen naturally
• if things don't turn out well; then thats just life

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• http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1378337-loss
• http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/loss

What book are you reading currently? What's your favourite book of all time? Suggest books for us to read this month and maybe a short blurb as to why we should read it.

I'm currently reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, a book that is widely regarded as one of the best recently-released motivational tools for cleaning up and sorting your life and living areas. Ms Kondo puts forward a method of sorting possessions to keep vs ones to discard, one that appears to work for a decent number of people based on discussions I've seen.

Anyone have any good stuff to put on for just a chill weekend morning?

My usual go-tos are
-Salad Days and 2, Mac Demarco
-Wakin On a Pretty Daze, Kurt Vile
-Random Spotify jazz playlists
-What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
-A couple of Wilco albums

What do you guys like to play to start off a morning right?

New group, new topics, this is all so exciting. I'm a chef myself and enjoy discussing the business and philosophies of what I do. I'm wondering if other people in the industry have found their way unto Tildes at this point.

I'm grateful for being invited and I'm happy to see the community enjoy a smooth ride so far.

I really hope the platform does not follow in the footsteps of Reddit's karma mechanism. I find that this cumulative store of points attached to each user to encourages them to seek more points, regardless if they steal content or repost their own old material for another karma-harvesting run. Instead, if users can be appreciated by the actual number of posts they've submitted much like the bulletin boards of old, it would be more fair in my opinion. It'd be a measure of the effort and contribution made by a user, not only what others think of them.

For example, my profile would say "Eyehigh posted 20,000 posts" instead of "Eyehigh seemed to impress 20,000 people enough for them to leave an upvote, so here's the 20,000 upvotes."

What do you think?

I can't be the only one who looks at discussions about moderation, community norms, etc. and wonders who we are and aren't hearing from. What's the strategy for ensuring we have a breadth of perspectives (not talking US electoral politics, here) while setting early (possibly persistent) standards and structures?

I think automation is coming quick and fast and think that a landmark event will be when food can be farmed, packaged, shipped and sold without requiring any humans to be involved. I see the foundations in place already with Amazon Go and autonomous vehicles and it doesn't seem like too much longer before this kind of automation could be possible in my mind.

Anybody want to weigh in with thoughts/discussion? What effects might it bring? Will it lead to a sort of monopoly as the food could be sold so much cheaper? When might this scale of automation be plausible? Anything really, just looking to spark some discussion :)

I'm a big fan of Peter Watts (Blindsight, Echopraxia) and Greg Egan (Schild's Ladder, Diaspora) and always looking for more to read. That said I find myself a little bit difficult sometimes as I'm not really a fan of massive scope stuff like operas or anything too dated. Granted I really haven't given either of the latter much of a chance as I think I just prefer tight, focused stories with a small cast of characters.

I recently started The Quantum Thief and am liking certain aspects of it but you're really thrown into a blizzard with that one.

I started gambling on sports at the start of the 2016 NFL season. Using a popular offshore site that takes bitcoin for wagers, I managed to get around the stringent US laws against sports betting. I got very lucky early on, and I thought I had a knack for picking teams. Obviously, that luck doesn't last forever (a tale as old as time) and now I have to watch games for "fun" instead of relying on the outcome to make money.

I still throw money on playoff games from time to time. That said, there really isn't a thrill like watching a fuzzy stream of two high school football teams halfway across the country, hoping for a safety to cover the spread. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Or does anyone have an edge on the BIG3 summer league they wanna share?

If so, what build are you going to use at the start?

I'm relatively new to PoE so really looking forward to this new league. Thinking I may start with Molten Strike or something like that. Still undecided, like usual :)