Deimos's recent activity
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Comment on Tilde is kill? in ~tildes
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Comment on Tilde is kill? in ~tildes
Deimos Link ParentAccidentally set it in September instead of August.Accidentally set it in September instead of August.
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Comment on Tilde is kill? in ~tildes
Deimos LinkI didn't forget, but I did manage to set my own reminder for the wrong date.I didn't forget, but I did manage to set my own reminder for the wrong date.
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Comment on Victories and challenges: An A[u]DHD community and support fortnightly thread #5 in ~health.mental
Deimos Link ParentI'll add it as a standard automatically-scheduled topic along with the various other ones. Do you want me to do that with the other ones that you're still typically posting manually too?I'll add it as a standard automatically-scheduled topic along with the various other ones. Do you want me to do that with the other ones that you're still typically posting manually too?
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Comment on When a notable face disappears in ~tildes
Deimos LinkI'm going to post a brief statement and then lock this thread. I understand that situations like this are confusing and that there are repercussions related to it, but turning it into a public...- Exemplary
I'm going to post a brief statement and then lock this thread. I understand that situations like this are confusing and that there are repercussions related to it, but turning it into a public spectacle usually just ends up with more negative effects than positive.
daychilde is definitely a prominent user, but that can't be a reason for someone to be immune to consequences for their behavior. There's no question in my mind that a ban was appropriate in this situation. One of the main reasons that I'm locking this thread is because I think it's unfair to the other user(s) involved. Imagine if someone was abusive to you, and then when they're punished for that behavior you need to see a thread where people are saying, "oh, but they're always so nice", "they couldn't have done something that bad, right?", and so on.
If daychilde wants to contact me to discuss and appeal the ban, I'm sure they know how to. But honestly, it was egregious enough that I'll be hesitant to give them another chance.
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Comment on Who do you think is the most cited author on Tildes according to the tags? in ~talk
Deimos Link ParentThe top 10 author. tags: tag count author.anthony_dalessandro 91 author.miranda_bryant 71 author.kyle_orland 59 author.jeff_foust 55 author.steven_vaughan_nichols 53 author.derek_muller 47...- Exemplary
The top 10
author.tags:And I'm not sure exactly what @Fal was hoping to see with a group breakdown, but here's the top author tag for each group where the count is at least 5:
group tag count ~arts author.matt_sephton 5 ~books author.alison_flood 15 ~comics author.rich_johnston 9 ~comp author.matt_sayar 6 ~design author.feargus_osullivan 12 ~engineering author.grady_hillhouse 29 ~enviro author.damian_carrington 17 ~finance author.patrick_mckenzie 27 ~food author.max_miller 43 ~games author.kyle_orland 56 ~games.tabletop author.colin_mcgourty 15 ~health author.beth_mole 16 ~hobbies author.john_plant 12 ~humanities author.abigail_thorne 8 ~humanities.history author.bret_devereaux 16 ~humanities.languages author.rob_watts 10 ~lgbt author.erin_reed 14 ~life author.maddy_savage 8 ~movies author.anthony_dalessandro 90 ~music author.mark_savage 14 ~news author.hannah_ellis_petersen 7 ~science author.derek_muller 21 ~society author.maggie_haberman 15 ~space author.jeff_foust 55 ~sports.combat author.john_gunning 10 ~sports.football author.nick_ames 10 ~sports.hockey author.andrew_podnieks 8 ~sports.motorsports author.andrew_benson 8 ~tech author.steven_vaughan_nichols 43 ~transport author.andrew_j_hawkins 20 ~tv author.joe_otterson 25 -
Comment on We've re-poped in ~humanities
Deimos LinkMerged comments into the other topic.Merged comments into the other topic.
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Comment on 'politics.usa' tag proposal in ~tildes
Deimos Link ParentI've done this now: all topics that had both politics and usa tags have now had the politics tag replaced with politics.usa (but still retaining the usa tag). (@mycketforvirrad)- Exemplary
I've done this now: all topics that had both
politicsandusatags have now had thepoliticstag replaced withpolitics.usa(but still retaining theusatag). -
Comment on 'politics.usa' tag proposal in ~tildes
Deimos LinkI think having a dedicated tag probably makes the most sense at this point. I just had a quick look to see if adding "and" support for tag filtering would be relatively easy, but I don't think...I think having a dedicated tag probably makes the most sense at this point. I just had a quick look to see if adding "and" support for tag filtering would be relatively easy, but I don't think it's trivial.
Can I help with a mass re-tagging of existing topics somehow? Would it be reasonable to do something like add the
politics.usatag to everything that currently has bothpoliticsandusa, or would that be too broad? -
Comment on Are there certain conditions where an "Exemplary" label does not show? in ~tildes
Deimos LinkI've fixed that specific label now. I'll try to have a look later to see if I can figure out why, I don't know offhand.I've fixed that specific label now. I'll try to have a look later to see if I can figure out why, I don't know offhand.
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Comment on Texas arrests midwife and associates on charges of providing abortion in ~society
Deimos Link ParentI think @cfabbro and @mycketforvirrad both covered it well with their comments below—in the end, we don't want half the groups on the site having "Republicans do another awful thing" topics, which...- Exemplary
I think @cfabbro and @mycketforvirrad both covered it well with their comments below—in the end, we don't want half the groups on the site having "Republicans do another awful thing" topics, which is the direction it was starting to go before I added ~society. Like I said in the topic about adding it:
political topics are also spread over a lot of other groups (politics-but-with-a-financial-angle ends up in ~finance, politics-but-with-a-healthcare-angle in ~health, politics-but-based-on-a-study in ~science or ~humanities, and so on).
A story like this is primarily about the US's (politically-motivated) policies and laws on abortion, which fits squarely in ~society.
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Comment on Tildes homepage is down? (2025-02-25 4pm UTC) in ~tildes
Deimos LinkSome technical details for those interested: Topic tags use the PostgreSQL data type ltree to support having a hierarchy with sub-tags and such (groups also use this). Tags are stored in the...Some technical details for those interested:
Topic tags use the PostgreSQL data type
ltreeto support having a hierarchy with sub-tags and such (groups also use this). Tags are stored in the database in an array column withltreevalues. So the actual data for a topic's tags might look something like this:{programming,bugs,some_tag,parent_tag.sub_tag}.The site's code uses the SQLAlchemy library to interact with the database, but it doesn't support arrays of
ltree(or at least this version doesn't), so I had to write some custom handling for them to convert between Python types and the PostgreSQL representation. The error was happening when reading the value out of the database, because null is escaped when stored (to store the string"null"and not a literal null value), and the data looks more like this:{some_tag,"null",another}.I hadn't accounted for the possibility that a string could be escaped in the value like that. The PostgreSQL docs mention it, but almost all of these possibilities aren't valid in tags (or ltree values) anyway:
The array output routine will put double quotes around element values if they are empty strings, contain curly braces, delimiter characters, double quotes, backslashes, or white space, or match the word NULL.
So it wasn't really anything "dangerous"—it was being stored properly, but caused an error when reading it back out. Funny, ironic (and kinda embarrassing) in the context this came up though.
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Comment on Tildes homepage is down? (2025-02-25 4pm UTC) in ~tildes
Deimos Link ParentWell, that sure is ironic. I'm honestly surprised that it took this long for us to run into it.- Exemplary
Well, that sure is ironic. I'm honestly surprised that it took this long for us to run into it.
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Comment on I hate the new internet. I hate the new tech world. I hate it all. I want out, and I can't be the only one. in ~tech
Deimos Link ParentTag filters are still a good idea to try to cover everything, but unsubscribing from ~society will probably be the most effective. One of the main reasons for creating it was so that it would be...Tag filters are still a good idea to try to cover everything, but unsubscribing from ~society will probably be the most effective. One of the main reasons for creating it was so that it would be simpler for people to be able to avoid the constant flood of US politics.
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Comment on The Alt-Right Playbook: The south bank of the rubicon in ~society
Deimos Link ParentYeah, let me take care of it, it should be straightforward. (@mycketforvirrad @hungariantoast)Yeah, let me take care of it, it should be straightforward.
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Comment on While signing Laken Riley Act, Trump says he’ll send ‘worst’ criminal migrants to Guantanamo in ~society
Deimos (edited )LinkThis thread is being treated as some kind of weird battleground where almost all of the comments are more concerned about pedantry instead of the actual news, and people are misusing many...This thread is being treated as some kind of weird battleground where almost all of the comments are more concerned about pedantry instead of the actual news, and people are misusing many different site mechanics in order to support their side of that argument. So now it's going to be locked and removed until I have time to review what's been going on, and decide if anyone needs to lose access to some of these tools.
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Comment on Day 1: Historian Hysteria in ~comp.advent_of_code
Deimos Link ParentI've set up the scheduled topic again now, so it will automatically post every day right when the new problem releases (starting tomorrow, today's was about an hour late).I've set up the scheduled topic again now, so it will automatically post every day right when the new problem releases (starting tomorrow, today's was about an hour late).
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~books
Deimos LinkSorry, I thought that I had replied back to your message—I can post all of the comments for you tomorrow. Message me the info and a general timeframe (if it matters) and I'll set it up. (I also...Sorry, I thought that I had replied back to your message—I can post all of the comments for you tomorrow. Message me the info and a general timeframe (if it matters) and I'll set it up.
(I also removed the comment with all of the username pings so all those people don't get notified)
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I've added ~society for topics related to politics, law, policies, and similar societal-level subjects
The quick summary and important info first: I've just added a new group to the site named ~society, which will encompass politics as well as some other similar subjects. Over the next few hours,...
The quick summary and important info first:
I've just added a new group to the site named ~society, which will encompass politics as well as some other similar subjects. Over the next few hours, I'll be moving many existing topics into it, and then based on those topics I'll be automatically subscribing users who have a history of regularly participating in them (based on commenting, voting, labeling, etc.). Feel free to subscribe manually now if you already know you'll be interested, and if you'd like to ensure that you're not automatically subscribed to it by me, go to your topic tag filters page, add
politicson a line by itself, and click the save button (I'll be excluding anyone that has politics ignored). I'll edit a note into the bottom of this post later today when I've finished doing the automatic subscriptions.
Adding a group like this is something that I've been thinking about doing for a long time, but I didn't want to make any major changes as it got closer to the US election, and then I've considered the last week to be a bit of a "blowing off steam" period, where I've been more lenient on the number and quality of political topics than I normally would have. However, I think now will be a good time to add it, since we're probably going to have a lull in significant political news for a short while until it kicks up again, and this will allow the group to get established.
I've never wanted to have a group devoted to politics on Tildes, and I'm sure that a lot of the older users will be able to remember my explanations about why and find our old discussions about it. I don't think a lot of those reasons have actually borne out over the years. ~misc has effectively ended up as ~politics-in-all-but-name, and political topics are also spread over a lot of other groups (politics-but-with-a-financial-angle ends up in ~finance, politics-but-with-a-healthcare-angle in ~health, politics-but-based-on-a-study in ~science or ~humanities, and so on).
The default topic sorting on Tildes being activity-based has also ended up making these types of topics feel too prominent. In terms of number, they're a small portion of the total topics posted to the site, but there's a set of highly-active users (who are also a very small portion of the active commenters on the site overall) that comment heavily and quickly in them, which keeps them being constantly bumped back up in the activity listings.
And on the opposite side, many users clearly want to avoid these topics. "politics" is by far the most common tag that people filter out, with about four times as many users putting it in their filter list as the second most common one (to nobody's surprise, "elon musk"). In theory, tag filtering is a good solution for this, but it's not a visible enough feature and the large majority of users don't use it (or even seem to know it exists). The group system is far more intuitive for this purpose.
I could continue with other reasons for a while, but the upshot is that I believe it's time to accept that the existing approach hasn't worked out and it's worth trying something different. There are also a few other similar subjects/tags that are generally spread across other groups for lack of an obvious relevant place, so I think going with ~society as a little broader of an umbrella will be able to give those ones more of a home as well. I'd appreciate input about which other subjects you think might fit (but to be clear, I don't intend for this to subsume or replace any of the other existing groups, and especially not ones like ~lgbt, ~life.men, and ~life.women).
I expect to be busy for quite a while today figuring out which topics to move into the group and experimenting with some different possibilities for choosing which users to auto-subscribe to it, so I probably won't be replying much, but I'll definitely read through the discussion here later. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank @mycketforvirrad again for their tireless devotion to keeping topics well-tagged across the site—it's a mostly-invisible and mostly-thankless task, but it makes doing a major reorganization like this so much more feasible than it otherwise would have been.
Edit: Auto-subscriptions should be mostly done now, hopefully I managed to select a decent set of users (and didn't subscribe many people that don't actually want to be—please unsubscribe if you'd like)
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Deimos Link ParentThat's really interesting, thanks for working on that! I'll be looking forward to seeing if it's able to fully work out.That's really interesting, thanks for working on that! I'll be looking forward to seeing if it's able to fully work out.
Is there a way to do that without needing to store DNS credentials on the server? I'm probably being overly paranoid, but doing that worries me and I'd really prefer to keep them separated.