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    4. The voting on topics and comments now ends when they're 30 days old and all individual vote records are deleted, retaining only the count

      ~tildes.official Text 361 words
      This is a privacy-related update that I've always intended to implement on Tildes, and I finally spent some time on it this week. Keeping eternal records of everything that every user ever voted...

      This is a privacy-related update that I've always intended to implement on Tildes, and I finally spent some time on it this week.

      Keeping eternal records of everything that every user ever voted on is some of the most sensitive data that sites with a voting system have. Your voting history says a huge amount about you, your interests and opinions, and can even serve as a decent proxy for showing what times you were active on the site, what posts you were reading, and how long you spent reading the comments on each of them. In exchange for these major privacy implications, you get the tiny benefit of being able to tell which old posts you voted on (if you even go back to old posts).

      So now, to match up with Tildes's general approach of deleting as much sensitive data as possible after 30 days, the voting on posts closes when they're 30 days old. After a post's voting is closed, the records of which individual users voted on that post are deleted, but the count of how many votes there were is kept. So old posts will continue showing their same "scores" exactly the same as before, but there will be no record of which individual users cast those votes.

      However, this isn't a purely positive update: the main downside is that the voting does need to be closed (otherwise there would be no way to prevent people from voting again after their first vote is deleted), which prevents the occasionally useful ability to vote on old topics or comments. Overall though, voting on older posts is extremely rare, with less than 1% of the votes on Tildes ever made on something that was over 30 days old at the time of voting.

      When the "delete old sensitive data" job runs for the first time after this update later today, 97% of the voting data in the database will be deleted. That's a massive decrease in the amount of sensitive data the site is retaining, and something that most sites would never consider doing, because of the value of that data for behavior analysis and ad-targeting.

      121 votes

    13. What are you reading these days?

      ~books Ask (survey)

      What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.

      14 votes

    15. Fitness Weekly Discussion

      ~health Ask (survey)
      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started...

      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

      10 votes

    17. Free-wheeling hypothetical: President Pelosi ... how would that work?

      ~talk Ask
      Admittedly highly unlikely ... but also becoming less inconceivable by the day. She is 2nd in line after Pence. So, let's just say, 3-5 months from now, They swear in Pelosi as the next POTUS....

      Admittedly highly unlikely ... but also becoming less inconceivable by the day. She is 2nd in line after Pence.

      So, let's just say, 3-5 months from now, They swear in Pelosi as the next POTUS. What does that do to both Repub and Dem Primaries? What does it mean for the next election? Does the US keep itself together long enough to have an election?

      Heck, while I'm asking, what about a President Pence in 3-5 months. That's at least an order of magnitude less unlikely. How would that play out?

      PS: Somebody recently started a 'what do you daydream about' thread ... so, you-know ... this.

      8 votes

    19. How can I deal with corrosion from saltpeter (salt from the ocean) on my desktop computer?

      ~tech Ask (advice)
      Also called niter. I live near the ocean. Around here we call this "salitre": salt from seawater that becomes airborne, shortening the life span of every electronic. Desktop computers are...

      Also called niter.

      I live near the ocean. Around here we call this "salitre": salt from seawater that becomes airborne, shortening the life span of every electronic. Desktop computers are especially susceptible.

      The only thing I hear in that regard is to just never turn off the computer, since doing so would allow the corrosion to take place at a lower temperature, without circulation, etc.

      But electricity is not cheap, and I put this machine together myself so I don't have to worry about voiding the warranty.

      And keeping the AC on 24/7 is both expensive and unhealthy.

      12 votes

    22. Bon Appétit - Making Perfect Season 2: Thanksgiving

      ~food Text 179 words
      Rather than post this new season's episodes individually as they came out, I decided to wait until it was complete before I submitted anything. The final episode came out yesterday, so here is the...

      Rather than post this new season's episodes individually as they came out, I decided to wait until it was complete before I submitted anything. The final episode came out yesterday, so here is the season in its entirety. Enjoy!

      Here are all the episodes in order:

      What Makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal? | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving - Prologue
      Brad and Andy Try to Make the Perfect Turkey & Cranberry Sauce | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 1
      Molly and Carla Try to Make the Perfect Mashed Potatoes & Gravy | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 2
      Chris and Rick Try to Make the Perfect Stuffing | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 3
      Claire & Christina Try to Make the Perfect Thanksgiving Sides | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 4
      Claire & Brad Make the Perfect Thanksgiving Pie | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Ep 5
      The BA Test Kitchen Makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Finale

      p.s. The reason this is a text topic is because it turns out the BA playlist of this season, which I originally submitted, is out of order and so I decided to delete that and resubmit this.

      10 votes

    35. Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day dedicated to remembering trans* people who we have lost to transphobic violence

      ~lgbt Text 36 words
      HuffPo: At Least 22 Transgender People Were Killed In 2019. Here Are Their Stories. GLAAD is holding on online vigil Daily Beast: The Transgender Day of Remembrance: So Much Loss, So Much to Keep...
      24 votes

    44. Feature Idea: Tildes Playlist - Would it be useful to have some sort of automated, easy to use, media categorization?

      ~tildes Ask
      My use case: I watch videos (YouTube) and listen to audio (Podcasts) as a major part of my weekly media intake. I would love some sort of generated Tildes Playlist . IANADev, but it sure would be...

      My use case:
      I watch videos (YouTube) and listen to audio (Podcasts) as a major part of my weekly media intake. I would love some sort of generated Tildes Playlist . IANADev, but it sure would be nice if Tildes was able to parse, scrape, and categorize media posted as topics and in comments. Then present them to me with a date filter, and allow separating audio only and video media. Maybe something like tildes.net/?tag= but at tildes.net/playlist. I guess it would be nice to be able to sort media by tag as well.

      Possible other use case:
      Accessibility?

      I see that some videos are already being tagged "videos." So there already is some organic interest in this special category, right?

      What do you all think, is this useful?

      From a dev perspective, is getting that correct enough difficult? Does Embedly categorize audio only and video?

      edit: in the playlist view, there should of course be a link back to the topic or comment where the media was found. Also, @Deimos, I certainly don't want to take Tildes away from the text-first/only direction of the site, but sometimes I am doing stuff conducive to audio/video media intake like cooking, driving, etc. It would be cool to be able to easily consume it then, and come back to comment later.

      13 votes

    46. What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

      ~anime Ask (survey)
      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

      If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

      5 votes