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    1. Harvest time: Share your favorite garden bounty recipes!

      My tomato and pepper harvest this year is going to be negligible (thanks, deer!), but I have tomatillos coming out of my ears. My favorite Salsa Verde recipe freezes well. To the extent that...

      My tomato and pepper harvest this year is going to be negligible (thanks, deer!), but I have tomatillos coming out of my ears. My favorite Salsa Verde recipe freezes well.

      To the extent that everyone who grows tomatoes will have lots of green ones, here's a good chutney recipe that works well for water-bath canning:

      Green Tomato Chutney

      Servings: 3 pints

      Ingredients:

      2 1/2 lbs green tomatoes (a few ripe or partially ripe are fine to be included)
      1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
      1 cup chopped red onion
      1 cup golden raisin
      1 cup cider vinegar
      2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
      1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
      1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
      1 teaspoon coriander seed
      1 teaspoon kosher salt
      1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
      1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
      1 cinnamon stick
      1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
      (***For my taste, I'll mince in a couple of whatever fresh hot peppers I have in the garden, and increase other spices to taste, and add a chopped large knob of fresh ginger.)

      Directions:

      Place all of the ingredients in a medium sized (about 4 qt) thick-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and simmer uncovered for an additional 15 minutes to thicken.

      Notes:

      Note: If desired, this recipe can be canned by processing filled (sterilized!) jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Recipe will fill six 8-oz jars or three 16-oz jars. Otherwise, chutney will keep in the refrigerator for a few months.

      The other garden success story this year, heavy rain, weird weather, bugs, and pestiferous ungulates notwithstanding, is basil. Freaking huge bushes of every variety I planted: Italian Mountain, Genovese, Persian, Thai Kaprow, Thai Holy, and Purple Opal.

      I'll be processing fresh Italian basil with olive oil and freezing it in silicone trays. Internet rumor has it that freezing doesn't treat fresh garlic well, and you're better off making pesto from frozen basil as needed.

      I may do the same thing with neutral oil for the Persian basil, and peanut oil for the Thai, unless someone else has suggestions.

      We'll also have about 50 lbs. of apples from a single tree. They're a little too organic for eating out of hand, unless you're comfortable with inadvertent insect protein ingestion. But drying, pies, and cake are definitely in the picture. This is a simple, reliable apple cake recipe that's easy to share around. I'm still digging for my old bakery Caramel Apple Torte recipe.

      16 votes
    2. What is your most annoying (minor) movie trope?

      What is a relatively minor trope that is in way more movies than it should be that just bugs the crap out of you? For me it is knowing that the driver/pilot AND copilot of any vehicle will get...

      What is a relatively minor trope that is in way more movies than it should be that just bugs the crap out of you?

      For me it is knowing that the driver/pilot AND copilot of any vehicle will get killed when the antagonist and protagonist are in a vehicle together. No pilot ever uses autopilot either so the plane just goes into an instant death spin immediately afterwards.

      59 votes
    3. Question about a bug encountered while transferring photo and video files between devices

      This is my first Tildes post and I'll remove it if needed! I recently dumped some photos from an old cell phone on to an old windows 10 laptop to be stored on an external hard drive. The phone is...

      This is my first Tildes post and I'll remove it if needed!

      I recently dumped some photos from an old cell phone on to an old windows 10 laptop to be stored on an external hard drive.

      The phone is a 4 year old Galaxy with 128g onboard storage.

      The laptop is an HP running windows 10 and is a notebook-like machine with about 30g total hard drive, the max usable is like 4 or 5 gigs after the OS etc.

      At the time of transferring files, I found it quicker to use the available 2.5 gigs I had to put pictures directly on the laptop and then transfer them from there to the external hard drive.

      Here is my problem:

      2 folders, from separate camping trips, totalling about 380 photos and a few videos are stuck on the desktop and are claiming to take up 4.02 terabytes and thus cannot be moved.

      I did notice the file type .heic is not recognized by windows 10, but all my other photos (several thousand,) are the same file type and take up a normal amount of space.

      These individual photos in question are claiming to be around 7 to 8 gigs each.

      There's not 4 TB between the phone(128g,) laptop(30g,) and the external drive(3tb.)

      So the pictures are stuck on this laptop which is only acting as a surrogate computer while I'm building a real desktop PC.

      I can keep this laptop forever, even though I'd rather donate it or something, but one of these folders has pictures from the last camping trip with my brother before he took his own life last year, I'd really like to keep them archived and backed up.

      Any ideas? Anyone have a similar experience? Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any suggestions!

      Again, I'll delete this post if it's inappropriate.

      Cheers.

      EDIT: I just realized while proof reading this, that if I can update the codecs where windows can view the files, I could screenshot the photos, but that still leaves me at a loss for the videos.
      I miss his goofy laugh, and want to preserve it for his son also.

      23 votes
    4. Three Cheers for Tildes (Android version) is open for alpha testing on the Google Play Store

      Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes Alternatively, opt-in to testing via web:...

      Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes

      Alternatively, opt-in to testing via web: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.talklittle.android.tildes

      Three Cheers for Tildes is an unofficial mobile app for Tildes, originally announced on Tildes' 5th birthday. The original announcement answers some basic questions about the app.

      It is still missing tons of features—hence "alpha"—but I felt it would be better to release something instead of waiting too long. Alpha version 0.5 is currently good enough for light use, to help check on Tildes once or twice a day. You can log in, vote, and comment.

      Notable missing features as of v0.5: Submitting topics; Markdown editor; In-app notifications; Comment labels; Sort options.


      The iOS version is underway and I am aiming to have it done by the October deadline achieved during our June fundraiser.

      Other iOS apps are already in beta testing: Backtick by @wababa and Surfboard by @earlsweatshirt.


      I'll try to keep this post updated with changelogs and known bugs.

      I don't have a public issue tracker for feature requests; feel free to leave requests in comments here. Thanks my Tildren!

      552 votes
    5. Having trouble staying logged in here, and elsewhere on iOS

      I’ve been running into a minor annoyance of late, I tend to get logged out of ~ on a page refresh (I.e., pull the screen down) on iOS after about a day or less. I have also noticed that my outlook...

      I’ve been running into a minor annoyance of late, I tend to get logged out of ~ on a page refresh (I.e., pull the screen down) on iOS after about a day or less. I have also noticed that my outlook web also does a thing where it seems to forget that I’m signed in under an account, and asks me to input an email, but if I refresh, there’s a 50/50 shot it will see I’m logged in and drop me into the outlook web client.

      I recall some of these threads from a few years ago here (but having issues finding them in search) and seem to remember the consensus being “check your add-ons”…. But this is happening on the super nerfed Firefox for iOS (I.e., there are no add-in’s to my knowledge).

      I’m running Ffirefox 115 if that helps at all

      12 votes
    6. What do you think on how suicide prevention is handled in the world? What can be done better?

      I was inspired to write this after reading this reddit post. It ranted about people who attempt to disuade people from commiting suicide by telling them that they are selfish because of the impact...

      I was inspired to write this after reading this reddit post. It ranted about people who attempt to disuade people from commiting suicide by telling them that they are selfish because of the impact it will have on other people (I do think it is explained better in the post if you are interested).
      However I have also been thinking about how suicide prevention is handled by most governments. I am not sure of exactly what process happens in other countries, but in America if you fail a suicide attempt you can be involuntarily put into a mental health asylum for a temporary period of time, and from reading many accounts of what people have experienced in these asylums and from my ongoing experience with suicidal idealation I very much feel i would be 10x more likely to commit suicide if I was put into such a facility once i got out.
      But I also wanted to talk about other ways individuals may try to disuade people from suicide which i find problematic. Before i continue, i do want to say that I am not blaming these people, they have very good intentions. But something that has bugged me for a while has been that whenever people discuss suicide/mental health problems the first thing that is done is just recommending suicide hotlines/telling the person in question to seek a therapist/psychologist. While these options can be good for many people, i want to mention that

      1. Suicide hotlines (mainly 811) are known for reporting people to police and having them put in mental health asylums (often times unnecisarlly). And staff at these suicide hotlines are often uneducated or rude to callers, or will just not answer or even hang up.
      2. Many people in these circumstances do not have access to trained proffesionals. Even if you live in a country with public healthcare, you may be in a situations (mainly abuse) where you cant get access to one either way.

      Anyways sorry for the rambling, my brain is tired and i just wanted to get this out there. But based off of the above points, do you think that suicide prevention in society is flawed, and what could be better? While i do agree that it is flawed and there are ideas related to government on how to handle suicide prevention, i do not know what could be done on the individual level. To me one of my only resources apart from seeing other people experiences online is music (mainly Elliot Smith, Linkin park, Soundgarden and Nirvana) which I deeply relate to. But anhedonia can prevent enjoyment of such things.

      29 votes
    7. Can we talk about BattleBit Remastered? It's kind of a big deal.

      Three devs just made one of the best selling games this year. A throwback to when games were more about actual gameplay than story or graphics. I think it's pretty cool. What do you think so far?...

      Three devs just made one of the best selling games this year. A throwback to when games were more about actual gameplay than story or graphics. I think it's pretty cool.

      What do you think so far? What are your favorite classes/loadouts? Any sneaky/funny shenanigans you feel like sharing?

      Did you know the PP19 quick mag is horribly bugged and so the gun has the lowest recoil in the game? It isn't the best weapon, but it is pretty much a laser.

      53 votes
    8. Cosmetic bug: a.link-group:visited in groups list has same colour whether subscribed or unsubscribed

      See this image. Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited. The link-visited colour...

      See this image.

      Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited.

      The link-visited colour set by a.link-group:visited is taking precedence over the default colour otherwise set by .group-list-item-not-subscribed a.link-group, hiding the colour change associated with -not-subscribed. This is particularly troublesome when unsubscribing from a group, since one must go to the group's page – visiting the link – in order to unsubscribe.

      6 votes
    9. Unsubscribing from a parent group doesn't automatically unsubscribe me from its subgroups

      Hello! Tildes newbie here. I wasn't sure if this is a bug or if it's working as intended, so I wanted to ask. I unsubscribed from https://tildes.net/~sports but noticed that I still saw a post...

      Hello! Tildes newbie here. I wasn't sure if this is a bug or if it's working as intended, so I wanted to ask.

      I unsubscribed from https://tildes.net/~sports but noticed that I still saw a post from ~sports.hockey in my home feed. It took me a while to figure out that I also had to go to each of the ~sports subgroups and unsubscribe from all of them too. Am I doing this correctly or did I miss a button somewhere that would let me unsubscribe from a parent group + all its subgroups in one go?

      Thank you!

      --- EDIT ---
      Thanks to everyone for the replies! Confirmed that it's working as intended. And there is now a new post by cfabbro on Gitlab suggesting that "unsubscribe from all subgroups" be added as a new function.
      https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/issues/802

      29 votes
    10. Bug with notifications

      Apologies if this isn’t the right place to put bug reports. I’ve noticed an issue where comments which are bookmarked don’t display as such in my notifications. For example: A bookmarked comment...

      Apologies if this isn’t the right place to put bug reports.

      I’ve noticed an issue where comments which are bookmarked don’t display as such in my notifications.

      For example:

      A bookmarked comment displaying as Unbookmarked in my notifications.

      Is anyone else seeing the same ?

      10 votes
    11. Is Apple's "walled garden" as bad as it was when the first few iPhones came out?

      I've never owned macs for desktop use because of the expense and my general preference for windows pcs. I had a first or second gen iPhone and was incredibly frustrated by how limited it was - you...

      I've never owned macs for desktop use because of the expense and my general preference for windows pcs.

      I had a first or second gen iPhone and was incredibly frustrated by how limited it was - you couldn't set an alternate default browser, access your own file system, customize you home screen, etc, etc. So I've been an Android user since then.

      I'm not really looking to make a switch for either phone or PC, but my brother bought an Apple watch which spurred a conversation that made me realize I don't really know if the issues that bugged me about Apple are still relevant in 2023.

      Anyone want to weigh in?

      32 votes
    12. How do I filter out topics from subgroup?

      Unless I'm missing something, it seems if I subscribe to parent group but not its subgroups, the topics from subgroups still show anyway. Back when they were just tags at least I can use filter...

      Unless I'm missing something, it seems if I subscribe to parent group but not its subgroups, the topics from subgroups still show anyway. Back when they were just tags at least I can use filter but that doesn't work anymore. Is it just me or isn't that the opposite effect we'd expect from subgroups?

      Edit: Everyone explained that it's a bug. I'll just need to be patient then.

      17 votes
    13. Dog's hearing loss

      I have an 8 year old blind silky terrier that seems to have all but lost his hearing after last night. I took him out last night and a neighbor unexpectedly set off fireworks. The display lasted...

      I have an 8 year old blind silky terrier that seems to have all but lost his hearing after last night. I took him out last night and a neighbor unexpectedly set off fireworks. The display lasted for about five minutes and he didn't seem scared. I moved him away, but not completely away.

      Since this morning he's been unresponsive to calls and sounds. He hasn't been wagging his tail much, has been bumping into the things in the apartment, and wasn't interested in his leash.

      I've got a vet appointment for tomorrow morning. Is there anything I can do to help? Is this a common occurrence? He's my first dog and he just seems so lost

      Update (copied from a comment):

      His hearing has been improving tremendously. The carprofen the vet prescribed helped a lot, IMO. He's able to hear about 80% as well as he could before, though it takes him a little bit to understand. At least until he takes his medicine, then he can hear a bit better.

      However, yesterday morning on his walk his front left paw started twitching and spasming uncontrollably. Poor guy was hopping around, could barely stand or even sit. He didn't seem hurt and there weren't any signs of injury (bee sting, bug bite, cuts, etc.). Took him to the emergency room immediately and they prescribed him some gabapentin. Fortunately the spasms went away and he's running and jumping around again

      20 votes
    14. Tildes ReExtended has been updated and is also back on the Chrome Web Store again

      Howdy everyone! In talklittle's fundraiser I pledged I would fix all outstanding issues of Tildes ReExtended before 2023 is over should we reach 200 donors. Well the 200 donors mark was hit pretty...

      Howdy everyone! In talklittle's fundraiser I pledged I would fix all outstanding issues of Tildes ReExtended before 2023 is over should we reach 200 donors. Well the 200 donors mark was hit pretty quickly, so after over a year of inactivity I've gotten back to it and brought Tildes ReExtended up to speed again.

      Most of the work so far has been on getting the codebase up to par with my current preferences, but there is also a new feature and some bug fixes. Namely: the long-awaited Hide Topics feature with 4 different ways of selecting topics to automatically hide. The content scripts will run as soon as the HTML is available, meaning there should be less stuff popping in or out, the Hide Votes was also fixed so it now hides the correct votes again (yay edge cases Edit: I just noticed another edge case doesn't work :^) fuck). And also the extension is about 3.5 times smaller in size now (245KB -> 70KB). :D

      If you don't know what Tildes ReExtended is, it's basically the Tildes equivalent of the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension. Commonly requested features that can be implemented client-side (like the Hide Votes feature) and quality of life utilities like the Jump To New Comment and Back To Top buttons.

      Hope you like it!

      Giving the Chrome Web Store a second chance

      A number of years ago now as I was publishing a new version of Tildes ReExtended to the Chrome Web Store, their automated review process denied the new version without providing any reason that made sense, and weirdly threatening to take down the extension if the problems weren't addressed. After a wasted effort trying to talk to Google support, I decided to say fuck it and just remove it from CWS. Leaving the only way to install the extension for Chromium users being needlessly complicated and a pain in the ass.

      So with 2.0.0 I've decided to give CWS a second chance, initially I had more to say about it but I'm just gonna leave it out.


      If you're new to Tildes and like what you see, please consider donating! Tildes is a non-profit community site driven by its users' interests and any amount of support ensures it can keep going. Thank you! 💖

      95 votes
    15. Tildes CSS and Android accessibility

      Hi all. On my Pixel phone I have the accessibility option for font size and display size turned up a notch or two but noticed that not all of the text in Tildes adheres to this. Some front page...

      Hi all. On my Pixel phone I have the accessibility option for font size and display size turned up a notch or two but noticed that not all of the text in Tildes adheres to this. Some front page topic text is bigger, some of them remain small.

      Is this something that can be quickly tested and fixed if it's a bug? It might drive poor sighted people away from the site.

      I'm assuming it's not me, as my Pixel 7 is quite new .... but I am on the Android beta program.

      Can anyone else try and see if it's a localised issue or more global?

      I can post screen shots of needed but not sure what image sharing sites you prefer to use in here!

      Edit:

      Fixed with a chrome flag....

      the text-scaling is being replaced by the "Accessibility Page Zoom" feature (currently hidden behind the feature flag in chrome://flags)

      23 votes
    16. Introducing Surfboard for Tildes

      Hello, Tildes Allow me to introduce myself. I came over to Tildes fairly recently after Twitterriffic died and Apollo announced it would shut down. As a relative youngster, I tend to mostly browse...

      Hello, Tildes

      Allow me to introduce myself.

      I came over to Tildes fairly recently after Twitterriffic died and Apollo announced it would shut down.

      As a relative youngster, I tend to mostly browse on mobile.

      While I do appreciate Tildes' philosophy of having a simple website that works well on desktop and mobile, I've always preferred mobile apps. I'm a strong believer that a well-built native application will always provide a richer experience than a website.

      But enough talking.. showing is way more fun - here's a lil' something I've been messing around with:

      Introducing Surfboard for Tildes

      The goal is simple: to be the best way to interact with Tildes on mobile.


      Features

      Surfboard is still extremely early, and is missing many features.

      With that said, here is what it currently supports:

      • Login to Tildes (supports 2FA)
      • Browse topics
      • Filters & sorting
      • Browse comments
      • Advanced rendering is still in early stages..
      • Supports comment collapsing behavior from the web version
      • Reply/vote/bookmark/ignore on topics, comments, & notifications (requires login)
      • Search topics
      • Global search
      • Search within groups
      • Option for in-line images
      • Clean browsing interface
      • In-line markdown preview when composing replies
      • Share topics & comments
      • Notifications
      • View read & unread notifications
      • Reply, vote, bookmark, mark as read...
      • Customizable
      • Toggle settings, set custom gesture actions, etc.
      • Free, as in beer

      The design draws some inspiration from Apollo for Reddit, an app that I loved & am very sad will be discontinued.


      Try it yourself

      I would love to get some feedback from other Tildes users on the app. If you are interested in trying it for yourself, you can get it here via TestFlight

      Surfboard is built for iPhone, and requires iOS 16.0 or higher.

      Inside the app is a 'roadmap' of sorts which is basically a list of things I know are missing, but if there's something you want that isn't listed there, I'm all ears.

      Formatting is a little rough at the moment, although I made enormous improvements on the parsing & rendering there over the last day.

      It should support just about anything you throw at it other than a <details>

      (I'll get around to them, I swear..)

      If you run into issues viewing a post/comment, you can easily open them in an in-app safari window from the menu.


      As mentioned above, it's very early, but it's already becoming my favorite way to browse Tildes. I hope that others will enjoy it as well. Consider it my gift to the Tildes community.

      Cheers !


      Edit:

      The best way to submit feature requests & bug reports is to add it to the issue tracker and/or leave a comment on this thread and I’ll get around to adding it myself.

      Thanks !

      278 votes
    17. Thoughts on the Proton app suite on Apple products?

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps? I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from...

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps?

      I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from having all my stuff tied to apple/google/microsoft. While it has been pretty solid for the most part, especially with android. The same cannot be said for their iOS/iPadOS apps at all. This will be my personal observation from my experience with iOS/iPadOS apps.

      Mail - Pretty solid all around experience, timely notifications on incoming mail. I have 4 email addresses setup based on the type of account I used for them. I only get bothered by the emails that I would need to see and the rest get checked around once a day. Recently the whole app on both iPad and iPhone has just slowed down so much. Opening the app is frustratingly slow, while everything loads in. I will get a new email and click on the notification and the app will sometimes load the last email I viewed and not the one from the notification. I have cleared the cache and signed out and then back in and it still has this behavior.

      Drive - This one is the biggest pain point for me. On iPhone the app crashes when you try to watch a video in landscape mode. This is a pretty basic feature in 2023 if you ask me. I did report the bug, to which they said they are aware and have no timeline for when it will be fixed. The next biggest issue with drive on iOS/iPadOS is that you can only upload 1 file at a time. If you do multiple files if not all, almost all of them will fail to upload. You have to do it 1 file at a time. Reported this and was told the same thing I was about the landscape mode. Seems odd to not want to fix a core function of a cloud storage app as soon as possible.

      VPN - I really enjoy this vpn and have paid for just the vpn in past. Now it constantly disconnects or gets stuck in connecting. I can’t use quick connect unless I manually pick a country connect then disconnect. After that I can use quick connect with out any issues. This happens without having secure core toggle on. This is happening on both my iPad and iPhone. Waiting on them to actually help trouble shoot this after sending them a bug report.

      Calendar - Is the most useless app they have every put out. I was so excited to finally dial this calendar app in when I got my iPad. Only to find out that they don’t have an iPad version of their calendar. Which makes no sense because that is an app that can really shine on an iPad when do well. This whole app just feels like an after thought and they only have it just to say we have a calendar app too.

      I feel that compared to when I started using all of their apps back in December. The quality and stability of the apps has really taken a hit. I understand that they probably have a focus on building their brand with an app suite based on privacy. I feel like the quality is really taking a hit especially with iOS/iPadOS versions of the apps. The obvious answer is to just switch back to android and save myself the headache of apple. The reason for apple is a whole post in its own and I want to keep this one on topic.

      For clarification, I have been using the iOS versions since December. I was switching between pixel 7 pro and 14 pro max every few weeks. Having an eco system of apps not based on either platform was also why I chose proton everything.

      11 votes
    18. Best word processor for Ubuntu?

      Hey folks, looking for recommendations. What's your go to word processor on Ubuntu? (EDIT: For regular writing, not a text editor for coding.) I haven't been the biggest fan of Libre office tbh...

      Hey folks, looking for recommendations. What's your go to word processor on Ubuntu? (EDIT: For regular writing, not a text editor for coding.) I haven't been the biggest fan of Libre office tbh (please don't hate me...) There were just several bugs in Writer that made it unusable for me. I'm curious about alternatives. I read that WPS office is on ubuntu, but I've always found it to run kind of slow (however, my experience was on Windows.).

      I don't need a lot of fancy utilities, but would enjoy something a little more beautiful than notepad++ :) My biggest concern is just that it's a stable software. I'm OK with glitches or UI bugs, just nothing that's going to crash and burn and corrupt my work. (I mention this because there are several newer word processors made by single developers, and I'm a little weary to use them because I don't genuinely know how stable the software is.) I'm also not a fan of software that saves in some special format where you rely on that software to open it (or have to go through hoops to convert it.)

      Any recommends?

      EDIT: I'm new to Ubuntu, in case it makes a difference.

      31 votes
    19. Tildes Userscript: Tildezy

      Updated: June 29th 2023 Hello folks, Like many of the other people that have been around lately, I'm new to Tildes, I've been browsing it without an account since last Monday or so while waiting...

      Updated: June 29th 2023

      Hello folks,

      Like many of the other people that have been around lately, I'm new to Tildes, I've been browsing it without an account since last Monday or so while waiting for an email response (thanks @Deimos), and in that time I've been working on a little tool to add some QOL features I thought would make my experiences with the site feel better.

      I didn't plan on sharing it initially, because I didn't think I'd be able to get the javascript into a usable state, and I'm not fond of sharing my code in general, as I always get a big wave of impostor syndrome whenever I do, "What if they look at my messy code and see how silly I do some things", that sort of thing. But with Tildes I want to try to correct some of my internet behaviours, for years I've generally stayed as a lurker, never commenting or sharing content of my own, so, hello there, hopefully, I stick to my guns and you see more of me.

      Onto the script itself, currently, I've built five main features into it all of them being rather minor on their own, I did do bug testing on everything and couldn't find anything else, but if you notice anything please feel free to report it to me or post an issue on the repo. It's easy to miss bugs when you've only got one set of eyes.

      Tildezy Github

      The GitHub contains installation instructions if you've never used a userscript before, and contains some images showing off each feature described below.

      Comment Collapser The comment collapser was built because, with my shakey hands, I had a few times when I would click someone's name instead of the [-] beside it. With this feature *Triple* clicking anywhere on a comment, be it text or header, will collapse it as if you used the [-] button. It's set to 3 clicks as sometimes I double-click to begin copying a line and didn't want the conflict, but it can be changed to any amount of clicks on line 132

      https://github.com/TeJayH/Tildezy/blob/main/Tildezy.user.js#L132

      Group Stars/Favourites Allows you to click a ☆ beside each ~group on the Tildes homepage to *favourite* it, moving it to the top of the list. Supports as many or as few favourites as you'd wish.
      Scroll to Top Button Adds a button pinned in the top right of every Tildes thread that sends you back to the top of the page. No more scrolling or reaching for the home key
      Open Comments in New Tab Replaces the default function of a posts "x comments" to open the page in a new tab instead of the current tab
      User Colors This one is the thing that I made the entire script for, an entirely useless feature but one I love for silly reasons. Replaces the stock username color with a randomized one based on a hash made from the user's username. So everyone gets assigned their own color which will always be their color anywhere you see them. This one helps multi-person conversations flow better in my head
      New Comment Traveller Gives you navigation buttons either beside the Collapse Replies/Expand all buttons when scrolled up, or pinned in the top right when scrolled past those buttons. Navigation buttons jump quickly between each new comment in a thread.
      Markdown Buttons Adds a selection of various buttons under every comment box that automatically insert markdown for you. No more forgetting which bracket style goes first for a clickable URL.
      Settings Not really a *feature* on its own, but it exists. Adds a "Tildezy Settings" beside the Log In/Username button in the top right of the header, which opens a settings window to enable/disable any and all features of the script. Features can also be disabled by modifying lines 26-41 in the script, allowing you to hard toggle everything *including the settings itself* off should you wish.

      https://github.com/TeJayH/Tildezy/blob/main/Tildezy.user.js#L26-L41

      Hopefully, someone gets some use out of this with me, I look forward to chatting with you all.

      EDIT
      Refactored the code and added a new comment traveller feature based on some of the comments below.

      EDIT 2
      Up to 1.3.0, we've got markdown buttons now, see comment explaining the change or check out the github readme

      120 votes
    20. Reddit technical issues seem to be leading to comments still being visible on the site that users assumed were deleted

      Edit: This might be a caching issue - Tildes mods have edited this post's title accordingly. Anyway, this issue is concerning, as many people deleted their comments and accounts. Now the accounts...

      Edit:

      This might be a caching issue - Tildes mods have edited this post's title accordingly.

      Anyway, this issue is concerning, as many people deleted their comments and accounts. Now the accounts are gone but the comments are back. Intentional or not, Reddit should fix this asap and communicate. This isn't acceptable.

      Edit 2, 16 days after the original post:

      For the 4th or 5th time, comments are popping back. Most of them in their original form, very few (2 out of 25) still edited as "[deleted]"

      Original post:

      (I know, more reddit stuff, sorry)

      On June 16, four days after the beginning of the current Reddit protests, some users were reporting that their deleted comments were getting restored:

      There were doubts if this was intentional or a bug caused by the blackout, or some rollbacks. Hanlon's razor, etc.

      I then personally mass-edited my comments to "[removed]" two days ago, and lo & behold, they're getting edited back. And from what I've seen, there's definitely a pattern:

      • All restored comments are at least 8-12 months old, so several pages deep in the comments history
      • 90% of them are about programming, a few of them on my country's subreddit.
        • (More than half of my comments are on gaming subreddits, they're still edited as "[removed]")
      • The vast majority of them have responses
        • (Though most of my comments also have responses)
      • They're edited back in "small waves". 15-20 this morning, 4 this evening (so far).

      I'm now editing them back twice, hoping that Reddit only keeps the previous version of a comment.

      I find Reddit's behavior to be absolutely shameful. I've been on internet forums for nearly 25 years, and I've never seen a site unilaterally and silently decide to un-delete or (un-)edit comments. Never.

      It feels like a golden rule of internet has been broken, and I'm surprised to not see more talks about it.

      94 votes
    21. Two weeks with a Pixel 7 Pro - My experience

      To set the stage, I've always been a fan of non-nonsense reliable phones. My cellular usage started with a Nokia brick, moved on to a few Motorolo flip phones, then entered the Blackberry world as...

      To set the stage, I've always been a fan of non-nonsense reliable phones. My cellular usage started with a Nokia brick, moved on to a few Motorolo flip phones, then entered the Blackberry world as soon as data service become available in my area. With the demise of RIM, I went o a Moto X, made a misstep in to the Samsung world, then to a Pixel, a Pixel 3XL, and now a Pixel 7 Pro.

      I only made the jump to the 7 Pro due to the 3XL starting to show it's age. The charging part wouldn't always connect, the battery would barely make it through the day, and the case was starting to fall apart. Of within three days of removing the case I dropped the phone, cracking the glass back....

      The 7 Pro is awful to hold, without a case. I was waiting a week for the Spigen Liquid Air case to show up, and during the time I hated using the phone. The camera bulge felt awkward and sharp, the surfaces were slippery and the phone would slide around. The rounded edges of the screen would produce phantom taps, just all around a bad experience. Now that I've added the case though, it feels a whole lot better.

      The user experience has been fairly good, thought not without some annoying bugs. I did the migration from my old Pixel to my new one, and while it did a reasonably job, preserving the launcher layout etc, the app installation process was strange. Google Play tried to install all the apps, but was stalled. I had to tap on each app to manually install them, they were just sitting there "Pending...", whether I was on battery or charger, WiFi or mobile. Once everything installed, and I added my accounts, it was fine, and now apps auto-update.

      Notifications are acting a bit funny with Reddit is Fun, although that won't be an issue for much longer :-(. If I get notified of Mod Mail and a Message in RiF, tapping the notification message does nothing. This worked fine on the 3XL. I've also had one spontaneous reboot, and one night where the phone was plugged in, but decided not to charge. Lots of people complained about heat issues, which was a problem for me on the 3XL, but only in extreme cases. After sitting out in full sun with the 7 Pro, I'd say it is about the same, possibly a bit better regarding it's overheating. Many people also reported that the phone would feel warm/hot in their hands for the first few days as it "learned" your behavior. Never experienced that. Battery life and (lack of) heat levels have remained the same.

      32 votes
    22. This Week in Drum & Bass / Jungle | New Releases + Mixes - (June 18 / 23)

      Keeping it rolling with our weekly post series bringing ~music ten of the best new Drum & Bass + Jungle tunes from across the globe. You can find the songs shared on this Spotify playlist. Follow...

      Keeping it rolling with our weekly post series bringing ~music ten of the best new Drum & Bass + Jungle tunes from across the globe.

      You can find the songs shared on this Spotify playlist. Follow it for new stuff, now updated every Sunday. Have no clue what Drum & Bass is? Start here!


      _ - BEGIN TRANSMISSION - _


      NEW MUSIC

      .:...:..:::..::::..


      Bensley & Justin Hawkes - Don’t be Scared [UKF]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      High energy and melodic, this summer time scorcher from Bensley & Justin Hawkes has been burning up sets since the start of the season. Propellant and uplifting, the buzzy bassline and bouncing vocal play perfectly off each other for a feel good fusion of these two producer styles.

      Tantrum Desire - Rhythm [Technique]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      The boss is back! Tantrum Desire’s well known for his jump-up anthems, but ‘Rhythm” sees this veteran producer step it up with an anthemic prime-time roller on Technique. Featuring a classic vocal slice of big room cheese taken from Corona’s eponymous “Rhythm of the Night” plus some pounding drum work and squelching synths, this one will drive a dance floor mad.

      Rockwell - Comfy [Obsolete Medium]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Like bugs in the brain, this highly infectious cut from Rockwell will burrow into your playlists and never want to leave. The title track of his latest EP is a technical exercise in precise sonic engineering and percussion.

      Giant22 - We Go [Obsolete Medium]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Bright, bouncy and ready to rock for any summer party, Giant22’s “We Go” plays tight drum work and a little ‘chopped and screwed’ flavour vocal against echoey, off-kilter synths that create a swinging, swaggering cut that’s good to go in any fan or DJ’s playlist.

      Matec - Adrift [All172Things]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Hard. As. Hell. This cut from the mysterious Matec brings to mind Black Sun Empire and Prolix at their most pulse-pounding. Unrelenting synths and razor sharp drum programming drive this one through its 4 minute run time with unrelenting energy and a dystopian atmosphere throughout.

      A.Way - Closer [Neksus]

      [Spotify] | [More]

      With a finger on the sound of ‘now’, A.Way’s “Closer” makes its mark in the same arena next-gen producers like Imanu, Caracal Project and [Borders] play. Epic vocals, soaring synths and stuttering, digitally frenetic vocals ride clattering, swaggering drums that bounce between full on roller and half time swing.

      Disrupta ft. Eden - Do You Believe [DNB All Stars]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Like a beach front sunrise, Edens anthemic vocals soar over this certified summer anthem from the unstoppable DNB All Stars camp. With an unapologetic cheese factor you can’t deny, this one brings back memories of the best High Contrast and Hospital Records epics. After “Shine like the sun”, Disrupta has proven they’re on quite a roll in the past year. .

      SUUNE ft. Young Gho$t - Signal VIP [In The Lab Recordings]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Down low, deep and dirty, the vocals of Young Ghost keep white-hot producer SUUNE’s latest firmly in the depths of the darkest warehouse raves. Bouncing with energy and confidence, be sure to keep this one ready for the right moment.

      Hieroglyphics & Feux - Belief [Critical]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      From his newest full-length album on Critical “I’ll Wait, I guess”, Hieroglyphics brings the drama with a smooth, sombre cut that’s already wining over atmospheric and intelligent DNB fans far and wide. Pair those bubbling bass-lines with with a soulful vocal like this, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

      KOAN Sound - Ascension [Shoshin]

      [Spotify] | [Apple Music] | [More]

      Something from far orbit, former Dubstep stalwarts KOAN Sound are back with a cinematic, soaring epic that’s forward thinking beyond any dancefloor. Fusing world music flavours, soundtrack style orchestration and touches of classic jungle breaks, this one’s bound to stay a favourite for years to come. Simply beautiful.


      NEW MIXES TO CHECK OUT

      .:...:..:::..::::..


      Subtle Radio - 10/06/23 - Delta 9 Recordings w/ Flipz

      [SoundCloud]

      Italy’s Delta9 get things moving with a guest spot on Subtle Radio, and online community broadcaster. Deep cuts and some tougher stuff get rinsed out while host Flipz keeps things lively on the mic. A great intro to the labels sound and a fun listen for your weekend afternoons.

      VISION RADIO - S03E24 - Hosted by Dave Columbo Jenkins & Martijn

      [YouTube] | [SoundCloud]

      Noisia, although “retired” from the DNB scene, continue the essential VISION radio series, which has always proven to be a great place to find the latest from their own label and other fresh new music from the scene’s best… this week they premiere ‘Hide Sun’ by Machinedrum & Holly plus new music by SMG, Censored The Audio, Klippee, Thys, Molokai and more.

      HCKRS - Repack Radio June 2023

      [YouTube] | [SoundCloud] | [MixCloud]

      Warning: Shameless self promotion! Had to plug my own latest mix: a snapshot of some current, classic and unreleased stuff that embodies the “my sound” of DNB. An hour long blend of big room stuff like Dimension, ShockOne and The Prototypes with some deeper cuts from Amoss, Polyrom and other fresh tunes…and some new stuff from yours truly. I think it slaps pretty hard, so I’m adding it. Enjoy!


      _ - END TRANSMISSION - _


      ♥ DNB? Join In! Heard something you like? Share it below? Been to show? Let us know! We want ~music.dnb to be a place for fans and newcomers to share our love of the scene in a positive space.

      If you’ve read this far, thanks! Stay tuned, I’ll be back next week with another 10 #DNB / #Jungle tunes you can’t miss. Feel free to throw me a DM with love / hate / questions.

      14 votes
    23. I gave Lemmy, Kbin, and Beehaw a chance. I think I'll be sticking with Tildes.

      This month, I have been exploring reddit alternatives due to the ongoing events currently going on the site. It resulted in me requesting to be invited to this site, but I also played around with...

      This month, I have been exploring reddit alternatives due to the ongoing events currently going on the site. It resulted in me requesting to be invited to this site, but I also played around with Lemmy, Kbin, Beehaw, and other sites within the lemmy/mastodon network. The conclusion I have come to is that these federated sites shows a lot of potential into becoming something interesting if proper care is put into it by the community and the mods and admins. But as it is now, it is fundamentally broken, ill-equipped to handle the userbase it has inherited from the reddit fallout, and potentially dangerous if steps aren't taken to protect users and their communities.

      The signature feature, greatest strength and biggest weakness of these sites all lie within the "fediverse" (which I hate the term. gives me "metaverse" vibes.) From how I understand it, There are several different instances of lemmy that acts as its own site, hosts it's own content and users, and can have its own rules, features, and restrictions. All the content of these instances can be featured on other instances, basically allowing you to see all the communities, users, and content within the fediverse without having to leave the instance you are on. The admins are also able to restict the content of other instances from being shown on their site, though how this works I don't completely understand, and I'll go into detail later.

      Anyway, I figured all this out through a lot of trial and error. When I first tried to search for and join Lemmy, I ended up joining the Canadian instance by mistake, and my feed was mostly Canadian related news and communities. I eventually figured out there were several differences I could join. I ended up joining lemmy.world and kbin because they were the most popular, but I basically had to create sepperate accounts on each.

      I started out spending most of my time on Kbin. I was mostly following gaming communities, hobby communities, a few tech communities, and the lgbtq community. one thing I noticed in the comments in some of the lgbtq posts were a lot of transphobic comments. Granted they were heavily downvoted, and there was a lot of pushback from the community members, but they were featured near or at the top of the comments, as if I were sorting by controversial on reddit.

      I also noticed there were a lot of pro-Russian articles featured in the news, with the majority of the comments pushing Z-propaganda. Apparently a lot of these came from an instant called lemmygrad, which is a pro-China, pro-Russia instance of lemmy. To the fediverse's credit this particular instance is blocked by most other instances, but it didn't stop me from seeing many of these posts featured, or users from that instance commenting in other subs.

      At this point I was starting to get a little skived out. It gave me the same vibes Voat gave me during the reddit migration of 2014. I decided to try lemmy. world instead, since it seemed a little more down to earth. Had a few of the same problems there, though I began to sort some of them out as I began to learn the site better. It was around this time when the news that Beehaw, one of the instances that hosted many of the lgbtq and other communities I followed basically unfederated lemmy.world and a few other popular instances due to harrassment from the instances. At this point I was getting fed up, but thought, maybe I'll stick it out, and just follow Beehaw and Lemmy. world separately. After joining beehaw, I posted some of my grievances on the chat community there. In the end, I ended up getting an inbox flooded with notifications, which I couldn't turn off, many of which were replies from the post ranging from supportive to accusational, to some harrassing DMs. This happened on beehaw, which was supposed to be one of the "safer" instances, but many of the replies came from off the instance, and even from instances defederated by beehaw. What's worse is I even posted one of the means spirited replies as an example, and many people accused me of making it up because they couldn't find the reply itself, which I guess you can or cannot see depending on the instance your on and WHO THE FUCK KNOWS AT THIS POINT!

      I ended up deleting all my accounts on the fed instances I had accounts on, except for beehaw, because the interface would often keep infinitely loading. The gripes mentioned above aside, I would frequently have issues with the site breaking, up and downvotes not showing the proper numbers, replies disappearing into the ether, accidentally double posting, seeing infinite amounts of the same comment posted over and over again, infinite loading, and so one, no matter what instance I was on.

      At this point I have given up on the fediverse. Maybe if all the bugs are ironed out, and the site(s) are better managed, maybe I might return to it. But as it is now there are just way to many fundamental flaws that get in the way of me getting any enjoyment out of it. And none of the communities ever felt like a replacement for the subreddits I left behind.

      That all being said, I have enjoyed my time on Tildes so far, and I think it is due to the fact that it is a smaller and better managed site than anything on the fediverse. The discussions here feel a lot more down to earth, the communities safer. And hell even the disagreements actually worth engaging in. Granted, there are a lot of niche topics missing here because subs aren't community created, but it's nice being able to view a site, and not have to self filter half the site because anything and everything is overloading my feed.

      Anyway, forgive me if this was hard to follow. I wrote this at 4am with not a lot of clear direction. Just wanted to get my thoughts on lemmy and the fediverse out there, and why I decided not to stick with it.

      203 votes
    24. What is the best way to provide small bits of feedback about Tildes?

      I have a small suggestion for a change to Tilde's mobile design and I'm apprehensive about posting a whole new thread here since it's relatively insignificant. This makes me wonder in general what...

      I have a small suggestion for a change to Tilde's mobile design and I'm apprehensive about posting a whole new thread here since it's relatively insignificant. This makes me wonder in general what the best way is for me and others to submit ideas or issues without creating the clutter of a lot of threads.

      Would it be appropriate to create somewhat specific feedback threads? E.g. one for design issues and suggestions, one for feature suggestions, one for general bug reports, etc.? At the end of the day, I just want to let someone know about my suggestion without creating noise.

      17 votes
    25. [SOLVED] Wiki edit history no longer synced with GitLab. (Yes, Tildes has its own built-in wiki!)

      For those who are new to Tildes: This site has quite a number of wiki pages which are maintained by volunteers (except the ~tildes.official wiki pages, which are the official documentation). Many...

      For those who are new to Tildes:
      This site has quite a number of wiki pages which are maintained by volunteers (except the ~tildes.official wiki pages, which are the official documentation). Many of these community pages are now out of date, so it's a good time for people to poke around and make some changes.
      For more information, including how to gain wiki editing privileges, see the announcement post from 2019.

      A bit of advertising:
      For those who don't know, I have been maintaining the Customizing Tildes page since 2020. It is the official successor of the Awesome Tildes project and has numerous suggestions for improving the Tildes experience using userscripts, userstyles, and uBlock Origin's filtering capabilities. Feel free to drop a message if there's something that needs to be added to the wiki.


      The Actual Problem

      Changes to the wiki are no longer syncing with the GitLab repository. The last commit on GitLab is from 2021!

      19 votes
    26. How to get started on hydroponics (in a way my wife will approve)

      I have an Aerogarden Harvest. It's a pretty neat little device I picked up a few years ago on sale, and I use it as a starter for my outdoor garden. My outdoor garden inevitably fails due to...

      I have an Aerogarden Harvest. It's a pretty neat little device I picked up a few years ago on sale, and I use it as a starter for my outdoor garden. My outdoor garden inevitably fails due to forgetfulness, rabbits, or bugs. This year, after my lettuce was ravaged for the third time, I decided I'd like to scale up my indoor growing solution. My wife is on board, albeit hesitantly as she knows I'm a utilitarian and give little concern to form once function is established. We have a relatively small space, and no out-of-sight-storage-rooms to utilize for the project.

      In short: I'm looking for advice on small scale, low startup cost hydro/aqua/aeroponic DIY projects for leafy greens/herbs that can be made to be "cute" or at least finished-looking, rather than a heap of PVC and 5 gallon buckets.

      My best guess currently is one of the single-tower vertical PVC pipe systems with a nice hardwood box built around the 5 gallon bucket sump (lipstick on a pig) or a stacked/tiered NFT system with a nice wooden frame and channels made from some "nicer-looking" gutter.

      Has anyone here actually accomplished an indoor grow that they were allowed to keep in their kitchen?

      Edit: There's been a lot of great input here. I'm still researching, and if anyone else is going down this road, this channel has been very informative: https://www.youtube.com/@KeepOnGrowin

      24 votes
    27. Cozy games

      Ever since I caught the FromSoftware bug in 2020 it's been difficult for me to enjoy action games anymore, but on the plus side, it has led me to spend more time exploring and enjoying cozy games!...

      Ever since I caught the FromSoftware bug in 2020 it's been difficult for me to enjoy action games anymore, but on the plus side, it has led me to spend more time exploring and enjoying cozy games! In particular, I love cozy games that don't involve any kind of violence or death mechanics.

      It seems to me like these games are what people think of as being targeted towards kids, but kids these days aren't really interested in them because they are very calm, slow, relaxing and meditative, and everything kids actually consume in the "Screen Era" tends to be the exact opposite.

      For me, these cozy games are a great way for me to get in touch with my inner child as an adult and they help me a lot with emotional regulation, making sense of my own childhood, all sorts of stuff, really.

      Do you play cozy games? Are you interested in exploring cozy games? Do you stream cozy games? I'd love to hear from you and your experiences playing cozy games as an adult! Everything from recommendation requests, to reviews, to let's plays, and beyond.

      59 votes
    28. Looking for beta testers for my Tildes.net iOS app!

      Happy Friday everyone! I'm making a post to see if anyone wants to beta test my Tildes.net iOS app Backtick. Background I've been wanting to create a Reddit app for quite a while, and just when I...

      Happy Friday everyone! I'm making a post to see if anyone wants to beta test my Tildes.net iOS app Backtick.

      Background

      I've been wanting to create a Reddit app for quite a while, and just when I got started, the API change chaos happened. Thankfully, I remembered signing up for Tildes.net a few years ago and decided to pivot to make an app for this site instead! The app is still a work in progress, but I believe releasing early and getting as many eyes on it during development results in a better end product (and it's more fun for me 😊).

      Features

      Here are the current features of Backtick:

      • Light mode/dark mode
      • Login to Tildes.net (suports 2FA)
      • Front page feed with sorting support
      • View, vote, and comment on posts
      • Reply and vote on comments
      • Collapse comments
      • View notifications
      • Full markdown rendering
      • Text-to-speech for posts and comments

      Here is a video demo of the app in its current state (updated for v1.8.1): https://youtube.com/shorts/iukQJyJbtw8?feature=share

      I know there missing features, but as I mentioned before, I would love to get as many people in as early as possible to help shape Backtick's future.

      Testing

      If you're interested in testing the app as I continue to work on it during my free time you will need:

      • An iOS 16 device
      • TestFlight (Apple's testing app)

      You can access the beta here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/gNH18NE9. If you have any issues please DM me your Apple ID email and I will send you an invite manually.

      Thanks, everyone! Have a great weekend.
      - Ash

      Edit:
      Getting some great feedback! I'll be tracking bugs and potential features here if anyone is curious: https://chatter-brick-3d3.notion.site/Backtick-Tracker-888150b641ae4c0ab39dc0345783bc50?pvs=4

      Edit2:
      I created the Discord server to help facilitate better collaboration with those who wish to be more involved. It will be a place for discussion around potential features, bugs, and general chat. I will still be taking in feedback via TestFlight and Tildes.net, so it's perfectly fine if you don't want to join.
      Join here: https://discord.gg/aah7nkfpBY

      194 votes
    29. Making infinite scrollable lists for web without a constantly expanding DOM

      A common theme in web development, and the crux of the so-called "Web 2.0" is scrolling through dynamic lists of content. Tildes is such an example: you can scroll through about 50 topics on the...

      A common theme in web development, and the crux of the so-called "Web 2.0" is scrolling through dynamic lists of content. Tildes is such an example: you can scroll through about 50 topics on the front page before you reach a "next" button if you want to keep looking.

      There's a certain beauty in the simplicity of the next/previous page. When done right it's fast, it's easy, and fits neatly into a server-side rendered model. However, it does cause that small bit of friction where you need to hit the next button to go forward -- taking you out of the "flow", so-to-speak. It's slick, but it could be slicker. Perhaps more importantly, it's an interesting problem to solve.

      A step up from the next/previous button is to load the next page of content when you reach the end of the list, inserting it below. If the load is pretty fast, this will hardly interrupt your flow at all! The ever-so-popular reddit enhancement suite does precisely that for reddit: instead of a next button, when you reach the bottom, the next page of items simply plops into place. If the loading isn't fast enough, perhaps instead of loading when they reach the last item, you might choose to load when they hit the fifth from last item, etc.

      To try to keep this post more concrete, and more helpful, here's how this type of pagination would work in practice, in typescript and using the Intersection Observer API but otherwise framework agnostic:

      /**
       * Allows the user to scroll forever through the given list by calling the given loadMore()
       * function whenever the bottom element (by default) becomes visible. This assumes that
       * loadMore is the only thing that modifies the list, and that the list is done being modified
       * once the promise returned from loadMore resolves
       *
       * @param list The element which contains the individual items
       * @param loadMore A function which can be called to insert more items into the list. Can return
       *   a rejected promise to indicate that there are no more items to load
       * @param triggerLoadAt The index of the child in the list which triggers the load. Negative numbers
       *   are interpreted as offsets from the end of the list. 
       */
      function handlePagination(list: Element, loadMore: () => Promise<void>, triggerLoadAt: number = -1) {
          manageIntersection();
          return;
      
          function handleIntersection(ele: Element, handler: () => void): () => void {
              let active = true;
              const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => {
                  if (active && entries[0].isIntersecting) {
                      handler()
                  }
              }, { root: null, threshold: 0.5 });
              observer.observe(ele);
              return () => {
                  if (active) {
                      active = false;
                      observer.disconnect();
                  }
              }
          }
      
          function manageIntersection() {
              const index = triggerLoadAt < 0 ? list.children.length + triggerLoadAt : triggerLoadAt;
              if (index < 0 || index >= list.children.length) {
                  throw new Error(`index=${index} is not valid for a list of ${list.children.length} items`);
              }
      
              const child = list.children[index];
              const removeIntersectionHandler = handleIntersection(child, () => {
                  removeIntersectionHandler();
                  loadMore().then(() => {
                      manageIntersection();
                  }).catch((e) => {});
              });
          }
      }
      

      If you're sane, this probably suffices for you. However, there is still one problem: as you scroll,
      the number of elements on the DOM get longer and longer. This means they necessarily take up
      some amount of memory, and browsers probably have to do some amount of work to keep
      track of them. Thus, in theory, if you were to scroll long enough, the page would get slower and
      slower! How long "long enough" is would depend mostly on how complicated each item is: if each one
      is a unique 20k element svg, it'll get slow pretty quickly.

      The trick to avoid this, and to get a constant overhead, is that when adding new items below, remove the same number of items above! Of course, if the user scrolls back up they'll be expecting those items to be there, but no worries, the handlePagination from before works just as well for loading items before the first item.

      However, this simple change is where a key problem arises: inserting elements below doesn't cause any layout shift, but inserting an item above ought to--right?

      The answer is: it depends on the browser! Back in 2017 chrome realized that it's often convenient to be able to insert items into the dom above the viewport, and implemented scroll anchoring, which basically ensures that if you insert an item 50px tall above the viewport, then scroll 50px down so that there's no visual layout shift. Firefox followed suite in 2019, and edge got support in 2020. But alas, safari both on mac and ios does not support scroll anchoring (though they expressed interest in it since 2017)

      Now, there's two responses to this:

      • Surely Safari support is coming soon, they've posted on that bug as recently as April! Just use simpler pagination for now
      • Pshhhh, just implement scroll anchoring ourself!

      Of course, I've gone and done #2, and it almost perfectly works. Here's the idea:

      • Right before loadMore, find the first item in the list which is inside the viewport. This is the item whose position we don't want to move. Use getBoundingClientRect to find it's top position.
      • Perform the DOM manipulation as desired
      • Use getBoundingClientRect again to find the new top of that item.
      • Insert (or remove) the appropriate amount of blank space at the top of the list to offset the change in client rect (note that if there's scroll anchoring support in the browser this should always be zero, which means this effectively works as progressive enhancement)

      Now, the function to do this is a tad too long for this post. I implemented it in React, however, and combined it with some stronger preloading object (we don't need all the items we've fetched from the API on the DOM, so we can use before, onTheDom, after lists to avoid getting a bunch of api requests just from scrolling down and up within the same small number of items).

      What's interesting is that it still works perfectly on chrome even with scroll-anchoring disabled (via overflow-anchor: none), but on Safari there is still, sometimes, 1 frame where it renders the wrong scroll position before immediately adjusting. Because I implemented it in react, however, my current hypothesis is I have a mistake somewhere which causes the javascript to yield to the renderer before all the manipulations are done, and it only shows up on Safari because of the generally higher framerates there

      If it's interesting to people, I could extract the infinite list component outside of this project: I certainly like it, and in my case I do expect people to want to quickly scroll through hundreds to thousands of items, so the lighter DOM feels worth it (though perhaps it wouldn't if I had known, when starting, how painful getting it to work on Safari would be!).

      What do you think of this type of "true" infinite scrolling for web? Good thing, neutral thing, bad thing? Would you use it, if the component were available? Would you remove it, if you saw someone doing this? Are there other questions about how this was accomplished? Is this an appropriate post for Tildes?

      11 votes
    30. Any retrocomputing fans in the house?

      First and foremost: I'm not certain whether this belongs in ~hobbies or ~comp. As I consider this a hobby, this seemed like the more appropriate spot, but I'm more than happy to move/repost in...

      First and foremost: I'm not certain whether this belongs in ~hobbies or ~comp. As I consider this a hobby, this seemed like the more appropriate spot, but I'm more than happy to move/repost in ~comp.

      So for the past few years, I've really been hit by the computer nostalgia bug. It originally started as me just wanting to dive back into MUDs, and the whole retrocomputing fascination probably came from me wanting to recreate the "good ole' days" where I would pull up the Windows 98 terminal app and connect to my favorite MUD.

      Now I've got a room in my house dedicated to this old, esoteric hobby that happens to take up a lot of space. Admittedly, I don't know a TON about hardware but I've been having a blast tinkering around on old machines. It's even more fun to see how I can push the limits of the computers given a few modern tweaks here and there.

      Here's what I've currently got sitting up in the Upstairs Museum of Retrocomputing:

      • A Compaq Prolinea 5/75 Pentium - this was given to me by a friend who had it sitting in the basement. To my surprise, everything was still in working order and it fired right up (Windows NT 4.0!) on the first try. Of course, I ripped out the old barrel clock battery and put in something safer. I'd say I tinker with this one the most on the software side, while still trying to keep the hardware as close to original as possible.
      • A Compaq Prolinea 3/25s 386 - I just picked this bad boy up and am working on getting an OS installed. It had some damage from a leaky clock battery but I don't believe anything was irreversible. I'm not too confident in the whopping 4 MB of memory, but I'm planning on installing Windows 3.11 on this one.
      • A Tandy TRS-80 CoCo 2 - It works, but I haven't spent a ton of time with it because I don't have an old TV or monitor with a coax connection. I'd love to figure out how to create my own cartridge with a homebrew version of Zork or Adventure.
      • A Power Mac G5 - It's not ancient, but I think it's still worthy of being in the museum. I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet because I don't have the right video cable. I'll get around to it eventually.
      • A Generic Pentium 4 - I actually found this one at a Goodwill store. This one fired right up and had a copy of Windows 2000 installed, including all of the old work files that the person left intact. This one has been the easiest to mod because it's somewhat closer to modern and uses a common form factor. So I've plugged in a new OS, new ethernet, etc. At some point the technology starts to blur and you start questioning why you aren't just using a modern computer.

      What's next on my list? I'd like to start playing around with computers/OSes that I'm unfamiliar with. I grew up in a DOS/Mac OS 7-10/Windows world, so I'd love to get my hands on a NeXt, BeOS, etc. or even an Apple II.

      But first I need to get the damn 386 running again.

      14 votes
    31. Programming Challenge: Mini Calendar Display

      It has been a while since the last time we did something like a programming challenge, so here's one for ya. The life story of the author before you get to the recipe I've been working on a little...

      It has been a while since the last time we did something like a programming challenge, so here's one for ya.

      The life story of the author before you get to the recipe

      I've been working on a little "today" website, showing what day it is, if it's a significant date for holiday/independence/... reasons, and one of the things I wanted was a small calendar display that showed the full month and days in each week. Like how XFCE's Clock plugin does it.

      So I got to figuring it out and after finishing it up I thought this could be a nice little programming challenge. It has one input (the date) that can be in any of the rows and columns, and it's up to you to figure out all the rest.

      Here's how mine looks in about 250ish lines of TypeScript (TSX technically) and SCSS.


      The Recipe

      Make a mini calendar display that shows all the days of the current month and at least one day of each adjacent month. So for example for May 2023: the 31 days in May, the 30th of April and the 1st of June should at least be visible.

      It can be in any language with any method of rendering; simple text, TUI/GUI toolkit, web-based, raytraced in some game engine, nixie tubes, whatever.

      Bonus Points

      • Highlight the current day name in the first row, if you're including day names.
      • Highlight the current day number, wherever it is.
      • Highlight the current week row, wherever it is.
      • Differentiate the days of current month and the days of the other adjacent months, wherever they are.

      Some Tips

      The week number

      If your programming language of choice doesn't have a built-in way to get the week number, like JavaScript doesn't, this website may have you covered.

      Testing

      Make sure to test multiple different input dates, I thought I was finished with my display until I tried some other dates and noticed that there were still some bugs left to squash.

      Starting

      If you know what the first day in the calendar should be, counting up is as easy as "one two three"!

      Weeks

      If you use 6 weeks in the display, you will always have enough space to fit all the current month's days and the minimum 1 day of the adjacent month's too.


      Showcase

      If at all possible and with at least a few entries I will try to run all the submissions myself and create a little showcase website for it.

      16 votes
    32. Anyone here in or familiar with Denver and the surrounding area? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist...

      Ok, so the "Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist..." isn't entirely true like it was in my post about NYC last year, but everyone was extremely helpful and threw out...

      Ok, so the "Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist..." isn't entirely true like it was in my post about NYC last year, but everyone was extremely helpful and threw out suggestions I wouldn't have even thought about looking for. So here I am again to bug you wonderful people for Tildes Travel Guide 2: Electric Denver Boogaloo

      Same as before, staying for a week, I do have a rental car this time (trying to decide between the comfort of a Lexus or sportiness of an Alfa Romeo, damn car guy indecisiveness) so transport is less of an issue, anything that you'd suggest to see/do?

      13 votes
    33. [SOLVED] Unable to give Exemplary label

      I wanted to label a comment as Exemplary today and when I clicked "Label" the option wasn't present. I've given Exemplary labels before, but it's been a while. I do know there's a cooldown, but I...

      I wanted to label a comment as Exemplary today and when I clicked "Label" the option wasn't present. I've given Exemplary labels before, but it's been a while. I do know there's a cooldown, but I don't think I've given any out lately, so I wouldn't think that would apply.

      I'm on Firefox, but I checked on both Chrome and Edge and I don't have the option there either.

      6 votes
    34. What will "classically trained" look like for computer science and digital literacy?

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other...

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other areas. For example I do a lot of CAD work for my job, but I received what I would consider a "classical education" in design...I learned to draft by hand and physically model before I was ever allowed to work digitally. I got a lot of value out of this approach and it still informs the way I work today.

      A lot of people view computers and technology as modern and almost anti-classical, but as the tech industry matures and the internet moves from something shiny and new to something foundational to our society, what will the new classicism look like?

      Thanks for reading my question.

      14 votes