gaufde's recent activity
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Comment on I'm getting a new Macbook Pro. What's your favorite apps and tips? in ~tech
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Comment on I'm getting a new Macbook Pro. What's your favorite apps and tips? in ~tech
gaufde (edited )LinkHere are some of my favorite apps! Utilities Keyboard Maestro - excellent for creating custom keyboard shortcuts and automating tasks. It can do all sorts of things, my favorite use right now is...Here are some of my favorite apps!
Utilities
- Keyboard Maestro - excellent for creating custom keyboard shortcuts and automating tasks. It can do all sorts of things, my favorite use right now is tiling windows on my screen with some easy keyboard shortcuts: https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/macros-winmover-rearrange-windows-in-halves-and-quadrants-or-move-to-another-screen/33617. Also, I've customized this to work with more than two monitors if anyone is interested.
- Karabiner Elements - Useful for changing key mappings on keyboards. For example, turn caps lock into a "hyper key" (command + Control + Option + Shift) or remap a windows keyboard into a mac layout.
-Alfred - A really nice application launcher and productivity app. There is some overlap with Keyboard maestro, but I think they complement each other really well. Alfred also has my favorite clipboard history manager, and a great ecosystem of community-made workflows: https://alfred.app/ - Hazel - Another automation app. This one is great for managing file system stuff like moving screenshots to a particular folder, deleting stuff automatically in a temp folder you create, emptying the trash periodically, automatically finding files to delete after removing an app, etc.
- Easy Find - Way more powerful than spotlight. If Easy Find doesn't find anything, then you can pretty safely assume it doesn't exist anywhere.
- Super Duper - Create bootable backups. It doesn't do a running history like Time Machine does, but you could create a bootable disk image on an external hard drive and boot directly from that which can be very nice sometimes.
- Araxis Merge - Diff and merge all sorts of file types! I found this very useful while trying to cull through duplicates and variations from repeated backups that I didn't manage well in the beginning.
Dev
- Lima- Linux VM that you can use to run Docker. It is an alternative to Orbstack, Docker Desktop, Rancher, etc. and the performance is good with
--vm-type=vz - Podman- An alternative to Docker that can be run rootless, ships with its own VM, and is broadly compatible with existing Docker commands / Dockerfiles.
- Mise - A really nice development environment setup tool that makes it easy to manage versions of Python, Go, Node, etc.
- Jetbrains IDEs - I've found I prefer a fully-fledged IDE since it works out of the box and has really powerful tools for refactoring.
- Transmit - A really clean file transfer app. Panic also makes Nova which is a mac-native alternative to VS Code.
Creative
- Capture One - I know you already have this, but for others looking this really is the industry standard software for studio work (especially tethering). Also, their raw conversion is often higher-quality than Adobe Lightroom, especially for Fuji X-trans sensors.
- Affinity Suite - Really high quality alternatives for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Indesign.
- Rhino - Rhino is a little like illustrator for 3D work. The license is expensive if you aren't a student or professional, but it is really excellent software for modeling organic shapes.
- Fast Raw Viewer - The name basically explains what it does. It is very fast for culling lots of images, it doesn't do any pre-processing so the images will look even more "raw" than you might see in Capture One, Lightroom, Finder, etc.
- Helicon Focus - This is excellent software for focus stacking. It has more algorithms to choose from than what is built into Affinity Photo, and when you need it, you need it.
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Comment on Looking for interesting or unconventional wedding ring jewelers/designers in ~design
gaufde LinkHere is a jeweler I really like! Very organic and unique designs: https://ninosstudio.com/collections/ringsHere is a jeweler I really like! Very organic and unique designs: https://ninosstudio.com/collections/rings
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Comment on Woocommerce: Apache or Nginx? in ~tech
gaufde Link ParentI'm currently in the process of teaching myself how to self-host a website on a VPS with Podman for containerization. I'm planning to use Caddy since it is so highly recommended! @g33kphr33k, Here...I'm currently in the process of teaching myself how to self-host a website on a VPS with Podman for containerization. I'm planning to use Caddy since it is so highly recommended!
@g33kphr33k, Here is a good podcast episode with the creator of Caddy if you want to hear a bit more about it: https://syntax.fm/show/340/servers-with-matt-from-caddy/transcript
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Comment on Are there any actual science shows still out there? in ~science
gaufde Link ParentHaha, for whatever reason I haven’t followed those channels quite as much. I’ve watched them before, but they never became something I really followed. I think in putting my list together I...Haha, for whatever reason I haven’t followed those channels quite as much. I’ve watched them before, but they never became something I really followed.
I think in putting my list together I realized that I tend a little more towards engineering-adjacent stuff.
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Comment on Are there any actual science shows still out there? in ~science
gaufde (edited )LinkI mostly know YouTube options. I actually think that YouTube can be a pretty healthy place for this content, since lots of people have an appetite for it. Some of these creators are also on...- Exemplary
I mostly know YouTube options. I actually think that YouTube can be a pretty healthy place for this content, since lots of people have an appetite for it. Some of these creators are also on Nebula/Patreon/Curiosity Stream if you want to watch without ads or algorithms.
Smarter Every Day
In my mind this is one of the original science YouTube channels. He uses slow motion cameras to learn how things work or to capture cool experiments. You’ve probably seen some of his footage already as they often get recirculated online.
Veritasium
He is one of the other original channels in my mind. He started out by doing physics misconceptions videos for his PHD which I think is in physics/science education. Now his videos are more like small TV shows that do an excellent job introducing and explaining entire topics.
Breaking Taps
A newer channel that focuses on nano fabrication and machining. Right now, he is working on some DIY semiconductor projects.
SciShow
Well produced and researched videos covering a range of topics. They mostly focus on presenting and explaining findings in peer-review studies rather than doing their own experiments or investigations. However, for this type of video they are excellent.
NileRed
Chemistry videos. I don’t watch him very much, but he is quite popular. A lot of his videos seem to be complicated experiments to morph one material into something completely different. Like make cotton candy from paper or something like that (made up example).
Up and Atom
I don’t know her as well either, but she does make some really high quality math and physics videos. Her style is a bit more focused on theory than experiments.
Medlife Crisis
This guy is a practicing cardiologist who is a bit snarky and satirical (in a great way)! His videos are very well researched, and he seems like a credible source, if you want to learn more about medicine and have some myths debunked.
Steve Mould
Very good science demonstration videos. His style is usually to show some sort of science demo and then talk about how it works.
Practical Engineering
This guy is a civil engineer who does a great job explaining how infrastructure work and the engineering considerations that went into designing them.
Stuff Made Here
This is more of a project build channel. He makes some ambitious robots that are and things that are over engineered. I’m including him here since he does a good job of brining viewers into his process and explaining how the projects work.
Tom Scott
He has stopped producing videos for now, and he was never strictly science focused. However, he seemed to have real journalistic integrity and some of his videos do cover some math/science topics.
That’s what I’ve got off the top of my head for now. I’m sure there are a ton I’ve missed or don’t know about yet. Hopefully others can fill in the gaps!
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
gaufde Link ParentOne fun exercise you can do with your zoom lens is to pick a single focal length and then use a bit of Gaff tape to tape the lens at that focal length. Shoot with it for a whole day like that....One fun exercise you can do with your zoom lens is to pick a single focal length and then use a bit of Gaff tape to tape the lens at that focal length. Shoot with it for a whole day like that. Then maybe choose a different focal length another day.
Yes, there will be certain shots that you can’t get to work, but the limitation should help you push your creativity and find new possibilities. That frustration is part of the point of this exercise.
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
gaufde (edited )LinkThe conceptual aspects of photography will always be more important than the technical for the final image. An image that is technically perfect but has no concept/narrative/meaning generally...The conceptual aspects of photography will always be more important than the technical for the final image.
An image that is technically perfect but has no concept/narrative/meaning generally won’t be as interesting as one with a strong concept but less technically perfect.
That said, there are some basic things to know about the technical aspects of using a camera that will help you get some more creative freedom.
There is a ton of noise in the online photography communities. It can be really hard to cut through. But, in reality there really isn’t that much to know about camera settings. The three basic concepts to understand are shutter speed, aperture, and iso. Each of these change how bright the image will come out. Adjust any of these three until the meter in your camera shows a ‘good’ exposure.
How do you know which settings to adjust? Well, each one has a different effect on the image. This is where you can make technical choices to reinforce your creative goals.
Aperture controls the depth of field. When you focus a lens, then technically there will be a single 2D plane that is in focus. So, if I focus on a wall in front of me, the whole 2D plane of the wall should be in focus (assuming the film/sensor and the wall are parallel). Shallow depth of field means only the plane of focus will appear sharp. This is what happens at wide apertures (like f/2.8). At smaller apertures, things in front and behind the wall will also appear to be sharp even though they aren’t in the plane of focus. So you can use small apertures like f/16 when you want more depth of field (more stuff in front and in back of the plane of focus to appear sharp). Besides diffraction, that is basically all you need to know about aperture. Wide apertures have shallow depth of field and let in more light.
Shutter speed is how long the sensor/film is exposed for. This controls how motion is captured. Long shutter speeds will show motion in the scene or motion of the camera. Very short shutter speeds will freeze motion. If you are hand-holding a camera and want the image to be sharp, I’d start to get worried at shutter speeds less than 1/60 th. These days stabilization can do a lot, but that is where I would start to think about it. If you want to freeze the feathers of a flying bird, then I’d probably want a shutter speed of at least 1/500 th. If you want to take a photo of water flowing, and have it look silky smooth, then get a tripod and aim for shutter speeds of a few seconds. None of these are rules, I’m just trying to give you a bit of intuition. But that is basically it for shutter speed—it controls how motion is rendered.
ISO is the sensitivity/gain of the film/sensor. It doesn’t affect the image as much, but as you go to higher ISOs, then you will get more grain/noise in the image which eventually looks bad. Usually, photographers keep this as low as they can while achieving shutter speeds and apertures appropriate for their goals.
Now, I mentioned that you would adjust all of these parameters until the light meter in your camera says that the exposure is ‘good’. However, how does the camera know what is ‘good’?
Traditionally, a camera’s light meter will measure the amount of light coming in through the lens and try to make it come out 18% gray. So, if your camera is pointed at a white object, it is likely to underexpose the image because it will tell you to choose settings that will make white look like 18% gray. Similarly, if you are shooting a black object, the camera is likely to try and overexpose it. So, in these situations, you can either manually adjust your settings to what you think a more appropriate exposure is, or you can use “exposure compensation” if you are shooting in an automatic mode.
Here is a more advanced exposure technique, but it can be quite useful. Digital sensors tend to have noise in the dark areas. But, they are very unforgiving in the highlights. As soon as the sensor saturates to full brightness, the highlights are “clipped” and you can’t recover that data in post. So, if you want the most flexible file to edit on the computer, I would shoot RAW and “expose to the right” on my histogram. This means I would make the image as bright as possible without clipping any important highlights (your camera should have a highlight warning feature).
Lastly, I would recommend you look at photographers and artists you like for inspiration. Again, the creative aspect is much more important than the technical. It can be difficult to find photographers online who focus more on the creative aspect rather than the gear or technique examples. Personally, I gravitate towards people who are working on more substantial projects like books, shows, or commercial goals. This helps me weed out people who are photography influencers first and photographers second.
Here are some people I like:
Kyle McDougall. Landscape photographer who is currently working in the UK on a project related to WWII infrastructure. He has also published a great book with Subjectivity Objective.
https://youtube.com/@kylemcdougall?si=WM7b3Y3yXHU4aa-V
William Verbeeck
I don’t know him as well. He seems to work with film a lot, and from what I have watched, he is interested in the conceptual side of photography quite a bit.
https://youtube.com/@willemverb?si=bYvxyyvElpCYl2LC
Lewis Baltz
I would really like to own a copy of New Topographics at some point. Baltz is relevant to my own work, but I think this is a nice lecture to see how some people approach photography in the art world.
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Comment on I would really appreciate some help. Looking for moving, thoughtful or observant or interesting songs that aren't metal or rap/hiphop in ~music
gaufde LinkYou might find Ripe’s latest album interesting! Ripe is a funk band with some brass instruments, so they tend to have a pretty unique sound. Their latest album, Bright Blues, is a collection of...You might find Ripe’s latest album interesting!
Ripe is a funk band with some brass instruments, so they tend to have a pretty unique sound. Their latest album, Bright Blues, is a collection of fun and lively songs that have some heavier lyrics. Some specific songs I like are:
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentI respect that! I totally understand and stand behind all the reasons and principles behind these beliefs. I just didn’t see the final conclusions as so easily cut and dry, and opening up...I would honestly prefer not to dredge up a bunch of old drama
I respect that!
However, seeing so many suggestions about altering ~lgbt genuinely made me fearful…. And so I don't want to see it altered merely because people are more concerned with perfect taxonomy, or don't understand why having it as a top-level group is so goddamn important.
I totally understand and stand behind all the reasons and principles behind these beliefs. I just didn’t see the final conclusions as so easily cut and dry, and opening up discussions is the best way I know how to better understand other viewpoints.
sorry for reacting so strongly, and being so harsh towards you.
I really appreciate the apology and the explanation. I now understand where that fear and fight was coming from much better.
Seeing the ~society.liberation suggestion unfortunately just brought to the surface one of my absolute worst fears.
This might be partly my bad. I never meant this idea to be an either-or situation with ~lgbt. I thought of it more of a yes-and type deal, but maybe that wasn’t clear given some of the other discussion points I had opened.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentHey cfabbro, I’m really sorry you are hurting so much. I’ve been engaging in this conversation in the ways I best know how. I’ll admit I took a very academic approach that ultimately didn’t...Hey cfabbro,
I’m really sorry you are hurting so much.
I’ve been engaging in this conversation in the ways I best know how. I’ll admit I took a very academic approach that ultimately didn’t consider how you or others currently use the space here on Tildes.
We clearly don’t agree about all the specifics that have been discussed, but I think we probably share more in ideals than we disagree in these differences.
I am hopeful about Tildes being an online space where people can more effectively and safely have these types of tough discussions. I want to do the best I can to contribute to that in all ways possible.
With that in mind, I have two responses. One, is if you have space and energy I’d love to hear more about what you have seen change here on Tildes and how that relates to ~lgbt. I know there are lots of scary changes coming from places like the US Supreme Court, but I don’t have the Tildes-specific context if that makes sense.
Second, is I’d love to offer my support. I don’t really know what that means, but feel free to PM me, even if it is just to say hi, or leave me alone, or whatever.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentYeah, this is definitely a big concern. I think historically this hasn’t gone too well which is why the separate groups started to begin with. Maybe that is still where we are at in society, but I...This can only work if those people in the affected populations would feel comfortable here posting in wider groups, and I can absolutely understand if they aren’t - I imagine a lot of people have faced online and real life harassment for who they are
Yeah, this is definitely a big concern. I think historically this hasn’t gone too well which is why the separate groups started to begin with. Maybe that is still where we are at in society, but I really hope we can move away from tribalism. It would be great to get more input from more people.
Maybe there are some new moderation mechanisms that we could create to help.
For example, even if a malicious comment eventually gets removed the OP will probably see it in their notifications. Maybe there is a way for other users to label comments as as “hide-immediately” in the hope of preventing the OP from having to see that until an admin can respond and decide what to do.
The other big issue is that sometimes one person helping themselves to something can discourage others from doing the same. For example, in this comment @kfwyre shared how some men commenting on a post aimed at women affected people:
The thread about being a woman was less successful though. Several guys chipped in their thoughts. Some jokes were posted (and removed). I've seen comments since from women on the site who felt pushed away because of that and chose not to respond.
Maybe we could figure out a community moderation tool that effectively says wait your turn or something like that. It could be similar to the Offtopic label but be more aimed at creating space in the conversation for people that are more reticent to speak up.
Maybe these are all naïve hopes, but it would be really exciting if we could create a more generally inclusive system.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentI really like this perspective! Part of me wonders if having identity-based groups inherently highlights differences in a way that isn’t great. I shared some of my own experiences and observations...One of the most important lanes for queer advocacy has been the broader understanding that all people everywhere are far more similar than they are different and that it's more powerful for us to be united in our perspectives rather than divided.
I really like this perspective!
Part of me wonders if having identity-based groups inherently highlights differences in a way that isn’t great. I shared some of my own experiences and observations about what happens when a society focuses too much on identity affinity in this comment.
I think a men’s group could have potential, but I think I’d prefer a more general group for everyone, which might help mitigate some of the moderation concerns @cfabbro has expressed. What would you think of something like ~society.liberation? There is probably a better name than that, but hopefully you get the idea.
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Comment on Thoughts on making Tildes groups more independent in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentI’ve thought about this one a bit already. You are right that my proposed system would force people to constantly create more and more hierarchy if the tag promotion system is automated. I think...What happens if subtags have matured to the point where further subtags become hard to justify?
I’ve thought about this one a bit already. You are right that my proposed system would force people to constantly create more and more hierarchy if the tag promotion system is automated. I think keeping it manual to start would make sense.
Longer-term there are other ways to keep the hierarchy manageable. You could make it so that direct posts are allowed to any tag that is 4-levels deep. For example, if ~comp.programming.python.help is mature maybe you no longer force people to create ~comp.programming.python.help.environment. People would be free to self-rally around adding more hierarchy if they really want to create new mature sub-tags. Then, over time if 4-levels turns out to not be enough Tildes could start enforcing 5-levels and so on.
However, part of me also thinks that limiting hierarchy to be no more than 4-5 levels might make sense site wide. Things will need to expand horizontally a lot too! Too much nesting also gets difficult, and after 4 levels I think tags are so specific that multi-posting might make more sense.
Another way to help the hierarchy feel manageable is to change how tags get displayed. For example, as you navigate the tag hierarchy, the tags displayed would be truncated. So, from ~all you might see a post tagged ~food.sandwiches.tomatoes and ~hobbies.gardening.transplanting. But, if you are browsing ~food.sandwiches, then that same post would have the tags displayed as ~….tomatoes and ~hobbies.gardening.transplanting.
Are users allowed to create subtags of immature subtags? … If so, that could be treated as an implicit vote for its promotion.
I like the idea of a mechanism like this to help determine when a tag should be promoted!
I do think that people should be allowed to create immature tags with as much specificity as they want. I see creating two immature tags at once as a sort of advanced thing to attempt that is unlikely to succeed. If a community actually gels around a double-immature tag then I think that means there was a real need for it.
I like the idea of comments being associated with the tags they originated from. I suspect though the origin of a comment will need to be explicit though. Something like allowing users to pick which tag to use when posting a top-level comment. The comments would be separated by those tags, so users can choose which "context" to look at.
I agree!
Thanks for bringing up all these good points! It really helps make all these ideas more concrete.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde (edited )LinkMore thoughts on handling groups and inclusivity One very active discussion that has been happening in this thread is how to best handle groups for marginalized people. This also gets tied up with...- Exemplary
More thoughts on handling groups and inclusivity
One very active discussion that has been happening in this thread is how to best handle groups for marginalized people. This also gets tied up with discussions about hierarchical structures and promoting inclusivity. I have been puzzling though this a bunch, and I think I finally have a new idea I am ready to share.
Principles
These are the core principles that I think most everyone will agree are important to this discussion.
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Tildes should be promoting diversity of people
People bring up the fact that the population of Tildes is largely white, male, and somewhat techie. I think there are some statistics on this, but I don’t know how current they are. Lots of people would like to see more types of people join as the site grows -
Tildes should be promoting diversity of conversation topics
Similar to the above point, many discussions here have a similar tone and set of topic focuses. This is probably related in part to the population. However, I think that it is important to separate the idea that more diversity in post topics is different than diversity in people. We are all human and there are some human-centric topics that could be better emphasized regardless of the population -
People belonging to minority groups should feel welcomed, included, and like they have appropriate spaces for sensitive discussions.
In some ways this is a mechanism towards achieving the first two goals. However, it can also be a topic that fosters some tense reactions so we need to keep it in mind as a primary goal. -
Tildes should not default to US-centric or North American ways of thinking
This comes up a lot in relation to sport names, news cycles, etc. Again, I think this is a mechanism for helping to achieve the first two goals, but since it is a trap that a largely US-centric population can fall into I think that it needs to be highlighted.
What is the core principle we want to promote?
I initially joined the conversation focused on discussing whether or not identity groups like ~lgbt, ~women, ~poc, etc. should be top-level groups or arranged together using something like ~people.lgbt. There are lots of opinions in this space, and some people are very absolutist on both sides of the debate. However, after more reflection I am increasingly convinced that we might have been barking up the wrong tree so to speak.
While well-meaning, I think that the push to create more identity groups might backfire. Principles 1 and 2 are to encourage diversity in both population and topics. Creating more identity groups like ~lgbt seems like an easy way to signal that these people exist which might help with principle 1. However, I don’t think that adding groups for specific identities will really help with principle 2. Let me explain.
Identity groups can be toxic too
@TreeFiddyFiddy pointed out that groups like ~lgbt can become toxic in their own ways. From this comment:
I am personally much more interested in creating non-exclusive communities and am an advocate for society to evolve to become more inclusive for everyone. In-groups have successfully advocated for themselves and their inclusion in the real world but I think that the internet has up-ended this. Negative aspects of both the conservative and progressive movements are being amplified and it's literally destroying the state of American society, I feel like this site has a good chance to do things differently and find radical ways to be inclusive rather than divisive.
I have seen this type of behavior myself. The college I attended, like many, tried to promote diversity and inclusion by having lots of affinity groups on campus. However, I think this really backfired since it lead to a lot of tribalism. People quickly self-segregated into small communities that they felt comfortable in. What was supposed to help make marginalized people feel more comfortable on campus ended up just making it so that on campus politics and debates were dominated by various bands of like-minded people fighting with the same rhetoric over and over again.
Identity groups are exclusionary
Another side effect was that these identity groups started to feel more and more exclusionary. I have a mixed heritage. Because of that I never really felt comfortable engaging in the identity groups related to my heritage. It felt like I wasn’t _______ enough to fit in culturally. Therefore, it seemed like identity groups promoted some level of extremism.
Additionally, sometimes attending events put on by these affinity groups lead to some strange signaling. I once went to the queer resource center with some friends for an event that we all wanted to attend together. While there, an acquaintance welcomed me but also assumed that my presence meant that I identified as queer too. I didn’t mind this mistake, but it also made me feel like that wasn’t a place that I should go to alone since I just had to identify myself as an outsider.
Now, let’s look at how this pertains to Tildes. As an example, let’s look at issues a trans person might face. If they are in the middle of transitioning and have some medical problems where does that discussion belong?
If it goes into a group like ~lgbt, ~trans_experience, or something else like that, then it is likely that post will only be seen by other people who have self-identified as a part of those groups. This further separates a marginalized community and makes it so that these important discussions don’t appear in the same places as everyone else’s discussions do.
Now, imagine that the trans person felt comfortable sharing in a more general group like ~health.surgery. Now, that person is operating in the same spaces as every one else. The are not other anymore. Instead, they are another unique human sharing lived experiences with everyone else.
I know multi-posting mechanics could help this particular example, but we are not there yet.
Flipping the approach
I think we need to flip this conversation on its head and take a more human approach. Over in the ‘Is there anything you don't like about Tildes?’ topic @JackKerouacsLiver made some excellent points. I want to focus on this one though:
If you want to break that stereotype, then you need to break the homogeneity of the community. How are you going to do that? By giving a place for 'different' people to go.
If we want to promote diversity maybe we should focus on diversity of thoughts and topics first which will in turn invite more diverse populations. In short, I think principle 2 is actually more important than principle 1.
Take this example from JackKerouacsLiver:
I'll preface this by saying that no sexism is intended, but I can assure you that there are a number of women who come to this website, look at the list of groups, say "there is nothing here for me" and then leave. Maybe they try again in a couple years, but most probably won't.
Would creating a ~women group really solve this problem? Maybe. It certainly looks good in the list of groups. However, the tone of the group will have a large impact on whether or not people stick around and we have already seen how that can disintegrate. Let me repeat, this could backfire on users in marginalized groups and the larger population might not see it if self-segregation gets bad.
Now, what if we instead focused on creating groups that emphasize other modes of communication besides logic? What if we create groups that radically focus on common human experiences?
My group suggestions
Alright, this isn’t going to be perfect, but let’s give this a shot.
To start with, let’s create a fully inclusive group for discussing big and personal issues. I think @TreeFiddyFiddy nailed it with the suggestion for ~society which would discuss:
Well, things pertaining to society. Women's rights movements, LGBT concerns, representation for minorities, crime and justice reform, gender studies, cultural interaction and visibility, community development, religion, etc. I don't think that ~society at all lends itself to being "a place to cram a bunch of subtopics into without any purpose," it clearly has a well defined purpose that is inclusive to a legitimate area of fields of study as well as lives lived.
@Macha points out that terms/groups like ~bipoc or ~aapi are US-centric. I haven’t touched on principle 4 at all, but I put it there because I think lots of people want to take a more globally inclusive view on Tildes and it is relevant for sorting identity groups. I’m not sure what the appropriate higher level would be ~people.bipoc? ~identities.bipoc? ~affinities.bipoc? We can discuss more, but I think this points is towards creating a higher-level group.
Another reason to prefer a higher-level group like ~people is that it helps de-emphasize the path towards tribalism that has been repeated so many times.
So, now we get to the new stuff. How do we create radically inclusive groups based on shared human experiences? I’ll start by providing my own suggestion, but I hope others will chime in here.
~emotional_support or ~empathy
Everyone needs a bit of this at times. This could be a fully inclusive group for all people to seek out different perspectives on things they are going through. The nice thing about this group is it would support the types of discussions people might expect to have in ~people.women, ~people.men, ~life.relationships, etc. However, instead of segregating people based on what they are, in includes everyone based on what we all experience. It might also mean we need less sub-groups in ~people.That is it. That is my suggestion.
- Create ~society
- Move ~lgbt into a larger group (name to be determined) but that many people have been calling ~people
- Create ~emotional_support or ~empathy or some other variation where we can begin to support discussions that aren’t purely logic based.
Down the road we can add other groups or sub groups as needed. For example, people may want a place to talk about menstruation. That should not go under ~people.women since some men bleed. Therefore, there may come a time when something like ~health.hygiene is necessary.
For now though, I think I’m most interested in figuring out how we can foster more discussion diversity in ways that also effectively promotes population diversity and discourages tribalism
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentI largely agree, and in the short term I think just making a bunch of requested groups is probably the way to go. However, long-term I am unconvinced. I think this is great, and I also think this...I largely agree, and in the short term I think just making a bunch of requested groups is probably the way to go. However, long-term I am unconvinced.
I like the idea of "post it, and if there's enough posts, a space will be created" and I'd prefer us to use that as the primary guidance for creating new groups.
I think this is great, and I also think this is explicitly the current philosophy on Tildes. However, it does seem like enough people have concerns about where to put stuff that it needs to be addressed.
Providing info when people register is a great first step, but I don’t think we can trust people to really absorb the info given how terms of service agreements are usually brushed past. Therefore, I think the structure of Tildes should also help signal to people that they need to start posting in order for a community to form.
I’m leaning towards the sentiment that groups as they exist here are not a great system [one example]. I think that a tags-only system would help promote the idea that anyone can use any tag they want. It also lets anyone create a new tag for whatever they want. This structural change helps signal that people should make new tags as they see fit. Then, if a tag becomes popular it can be displayed more prominently in much the same way as groups currently are.
The promotion mechanism to make a tag mature would take some thought. However, this approach seems like the only way to prevent user-created groups without making the group creation process feel tense or exclusionary.
I’m starting to think that there are good reasons other platforms have basically let group creation be a free-for-all. People like having agency, so we probably need to lean into that a bit more.
As is, making new groups is clearly a contentious topic. I don’t see this getting much easier as time goes on unless Tildes basically creates every group people ask for in a somewhat timely manner. However, that then contradicts the original philosophy that groups should grow organically.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentThis is definitely the right name for such a group! Thanks. I was having trouble with this name in one of my postsThis is definitely the right name for such a group!
Thanks. I was having trouble with this name in one of my posts
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentI’m pretty sure these would never exist for exactly those reasons. Groups like that seem to only be centered around hate, intolerance, etc. ~polish on the other hand would be a great addition...… let alone post about if something like ~identities.white or ~people.white existed. Even the names of such groups kind of makes my skin crawl…
I’m pretty sure these would never exist for exactly those reasons. Groups like that seem to only be centered around hate, intolerance, etc. ~polish on the other hand would be a great addition since it is actually about a culture!
Actually, I think this example also demonstrates how hierarchies can be a mixed bag. Imagine a world where ~people.polish, ~identities.polish, and ~local.polish all existed with slightly different flavors of content.
If these different groups were effectively just tags, and you could multi-post then this system might work well! If these are separate groups with distinct sub-cultures then this could get super confusing.
The more I wrestle with the idea of hierarchical structures the more confused I get. I think maybe the relevance of hierarchy on Tildes won’t be easily understood until some of the more fundamental mechanics of the site are fully fleshed out.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentSome creative naming would certainly be fun! Despite being somewhat new here that doesn’t seem to fit in very well with current conventions that Tildes seems to follow :(.Some creative naming would certainly be fun! Despite being somewhat new here that doesn’t seem to fit in very well with current conventions that Tildes seems to follow :(.
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Comment on Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans in ~tildes.official
gaufde Link ParentThe bubbling up system is one of the things I am most excited for to! I think it is also probably necessary for a higher-level group like ~people to make any sense. However, I do like what @lou...The bubbling up system is one of the things I am most excited for to! I think it is also probably necessary for a higher-level group like ~people to make any sense.
However, I do like what @lou mentioned in another comment
On another note, ~people makes no sense. Groups are meant to group content. Not people.
~lgbt is for LGBT content, not just LGBT people.
Maybe any higher-level group ultimately pigeon holes things in a way that isn’t great. I also played with the idea of a top-level ~identities group but that might just introduce a different set of connotations that are still not great.
No, I’m afraid Fast Raw Viewer is the only one I’ve tried. I also don’t use it as much these days since most of my shooting is done tethered now