Tildes Userscript: Tildezy

TeJay
2023-06-29T16:36:48Z

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

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~tildes/16q5/tildes_userscript_tildezy

Votes: 120

Comments: 34