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What are some of your favorite names for the users of Tildes?
I spontaneously came up with Tildesians, but I have seen others, including Tilders and Tildren.
Edit, I was hoping to surface a variety of nicknames, so thanks for your input, I like to play with language. It's fun.
How about users?
Yep, it's classic and direct. Not every website needs to coin a cutesy name for members.
Heck, I'd go so far as to say that kind of thing can be weird and in certain cases unhealthy because it can encourage people to make their use of certain forums/apps part of their identity. And I just don't think we should view participation in digital communities that way.
Edit: My apologies for being overly serious in a lighthearted discussion. The original question and the above reply just got me thinking about some issues I have with social media that I wanted to get out there.
Reminds me of the Behind the Bastards episodes on Elon Musk's handling of twitter. The fact the defendants called themselves Tweps made them very difficult to defend themselves.
I never liked users. Too passive, and has a negative connotation. Like we're only here to take, not give. We're participants, contributors, members. Those are not 'cutesy': they are better descriptors.
'People' is good too.
I like participants and contributors!
Being called a user is an insult to many people working in IT though :P
Just pretend it's similar to the context of Tron. It's an honorific... of a sort.
'roots'
We have YouTubers and Redditors and Instagrammers - we even had Facebookers, back in the day. I think we're allowed to come up with a specific word for people who uses Tildes.
Interesting. I can't say I've never heard the term "facebookers" before because it's possible I have, but when I read your comment, I though "facebookers, that's a word don't think I've never heard."
So, I did a quick search and I don't know if that's because Facebook isn't in the news lately, or isn't talked about as much as Reddit, YouTube, or Instagram, but there is very little if anything written about the term "facebooker," meanwhile there are news articles about "redditors" and "youtubers" and even a few about "instagrammers" as recent as yesterday and as old as years based on a quick non scientific search.
It was a very informal word, and not widely used.
But, despite that, it seems to have made it into a few dictionaries:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/facebooker
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/facebook
And, even got used in a few mainstream media stories:
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/01/ex-facebooker-reveals-how-the-cult-of-silicon-valley-really-works.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/technology/07hughes.html
I don't like users :( abusers and drug addicts are users
I prefer members.
cult members are members, so I don't like that.
I'm being facetious, I think your reasoning is kinda ridiculous.
well....that's kinda hurtful.
I could explain myself a bit better I guess. Like @ourari said, users has a negative connotation, of "using", unilaterally, without necessarily contributing or collaborating, or at least in compsci, users are at the end of a product, as consumers or as "enemy" of the system. I also brought up "user" in the senses of someone being addicted, physiologically/psychologically, to something unhealthy, or user in the sense of someone utilizing another in an objectifying and utilitarian, zero sum way.
Other words like "membership" are more neutral, implying some back and forth, some sense of community and some sense of collaboration.
"User" is extremely common terminology in information technology circles, and it has no negative connotations in that industry. It's merely the person who uses a piece of software or a website ("makes use of"?).
I mean, yes, it is very common, but also more alike with a term such as 'customer', paying or not.
Now we might enter a discussion on what exactly tildes is or aims to be, but I think we are and want to be (considered) a contributing part of this project, rather than merely visiting customers here for a product or service and then leaving.
So I can understand being reticent about just 'users'.
It's not meant to be hurtful, I'm not making fun of anyone, I'm saying I think their reasoning doesn't make sense since pretty much every word can be misconstrued to have a negative connotation, and those connotations aren't inherent to the word.
I'm a software developer, actually thinking the users are the enemy is just toxic, although funny in jest.
I'm a non-contributing user of like a thousand different applications, I'm not gonna act like I'm any better.
We are literally users of the site, that has nothing to do with drugs, nothing to do with the level of contribution, and anything you find from that is your personal interpretation of the word, not the word's actual meaning.
User means someone who uses something, in general. Do you get offended when Linux calls your account a user? Do you get offended when amazon or any other marketplace calls you a user?
I just find it ridiculous, plain and simple, that's why I said as much.
Yes, users has a negative connotation. Like we're here to take, not give. Like we are dependent on the service, that it's not mutually beneficial, a symbiosis. Members, contributors, participants, people are all better.
Yeah... If there is a demonym, I don't want a massive influx of redditors (like myself) to pick it. I feel like this is something we should defer to people with older accounts.
Does there need to be any one demonym? I don't see why it matters if some people elect to consider themselves 'users' and/or 'Tildesians' ... ad nauseam. Use of a hypothesised demonym is a personal choice, though a common demonym could evolve from group consensus - even as people are free to not use it.
To your second point, I think that acculturing to a web board's values doesn't necessitate being deferential to those people with older accounts. Understanding that community members who have been on the website for longer may have a more informed viewpoint on particular issues, yes. If a consensus were to evolve about a website demonym then - as a label which pertains to all members of the community - everyone involved in the community has a stake, no matter how long they have been sticking around. Even still, this seems of low salience, as anyone can choose to not use any given demonym...
Just last week my coworkers and I were talking about how the CIO had received complaints because IT staff referred to users as users
Just fucking mind boggling
Users with a silent L?
Ah, the jokes of old IT still haunt me.
For the first couple weeks on tildes I was a little disappointed there wasn’t a demonym. However, I’m super glad there isn’t an agreed one now that I’ve thought about it. I hated being called a “Redditor”, to me personally it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to be pooled into a website by a name. Then you have memes and labels that are given the the group, even though I was a lurker, and still somewhat am, I’m grouped into the neck beard narrative by some.
I know this is meant to be in good fun. But I feel like for me the answer is:
people
At the end of the day, It’s another person on the other side of the screen. The more we try to remember that the better.
This seems to miss the spirit of the question; it's ok to have a little fun.
This really isn't just a fun question though.
People are having fun with this, but we could actually be getting hit with a stupid group name that becomes a derogatory term like "redditor" because of it.
I don't want any kind of name applied to me for using this site other than user or person.
Yeah, whatever tildidiot.
Pretty sure we all agreed that Tildos was the best demonym. Most everyone else remembers differently, but it was definitely Tildos, for sure.
Did "we"? hmm...
My memory of those events is somewhat different to yours, I believe...
I mean, I'm not saying you are predictable at all.... ;)
Hey, I was a chatbot before it was cool!
Tildos or Tiddys
Ok, I like this one, its hilarious, and definitely not serious, which is good.
Nope. Nuh uh. No way bud.
It was Tiddies.
Here is a direct quote from the Year 0.5 survey...
The tiddies have spoken.
Tiddies sounds too dirty, imo. Tildos has no such connotations.
rhymes with something though ; )
I see we have someone here from the Ministry of Truth!
This was the one I saw on my first day in Tildes, so it will always be the true answer to me.
this is what I suggested a couple days ago for a fantasy football team of site users. it's really quite an obvious answer
I saw Tilderinos a few times.
Personally, I think it works better with a tilde: Tilderiños
I like this, but add in an ñ to work an actual tilde into the name, i.e. Tilderiños
Woah, are you me from 8 seconds in the future?
Haha I thought maybe I was till I saw your username
I like it. It’s very Ned Flanders. Hi-dilly-ho, Tilderino!
Personally, I settled on “Tilder” fairly early on, as a simple descriptive name.
Recently, I’ve become fond of “Tildren” as the collective name for multiple Tilders, when @terr suggested this name in June 2023. “Tilder” works well as the singular version of “Tildren”, in line with “brother/brethren” and “sister/sistren”.
By the way, “Tildren” was also invented independently by @talklittle back in June 2018 (which is the earliest instance I can find for this name) – but I seem to have not noticed that.
Special shout-out to @daychilde, because I know how much he loves me using this name!
The only thing that makes me hesitant to like “Tilden” is that it first made me think it was a play on “children” rather than “brethren”
"Tildren" is linked to both "children" and "brethren"... and also "oxen"... because "-en" was an occasional ending used for plurals in Old English, and all these words are using that same plural ending.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plurals#Plurals_in_-(e)n
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-noun/irregular-plural-nouns-base-plurals-and-irregular-endings/v/irregular-plural-nouns-part-ii-the-parts-of-speech-grammar-khan-academy
But, today, this ending only survives in two common words: "children" and "oxen". And one uncommon word: "brethren". And, of course, "sistren" was the female equivalent of "brethren".
I assume that the people who came up with "Tildren" were aware of the similarity with "children", but I doubt they were labelling us as childish - merely borrowing the plural form from a similar-looking word.
As for me, I like the old-worldy look of "Tildren".
I'm going to use
~rsand no one can stop me. Muhaha.On a side note, "tilderinos" is sufficiently goofy, I'll stan for it as well. But I guess use will be the ultimate deciding factor.
You're absolutely right. Noone can stop you.
Just one question, if I may...?
How do you pronounce "~rs"? ;)
tilders?
Yes! Exactly! That's the joke! :)
Recommending the site to friends who haven't tried it yet, I usually talk about how amazing "Tildies" are. It's got proximity to "guildies" and I play MMOs so that might be why I went that direction :D
Might be a bit close to "tendies" but I do still love it.
Tiddys / Tildies
I'm sorry low effort posts are against the spirit of the site.
Tilly peppers.
It's short for Red hot Tilly peppers.
It’s Tildes Wintons or nothing.
It's based in Canada, so I think the appropriate phrase is Tiladians.
Tilderidoos ist what I like to use most.
I was thinking the same!
When we gather, we can also call ourselves "a flock of tilderdoos".
I kind of like Tildees.
I am almost certain that I coined Tilderen, and remain the only person to use it (up until I saw it in the OP!). For any that are interested, the etymology pulls from two sources. The first (and obvious) one is that I like child becoming children in the plural form. It's a nice suffix, and I wish we used it for other things! The second is that in Mandarin Chinese, in order to describe people of a given nationality, you append the word 人 (rén) to the name of their country. For example 英国人 (Yīng guó rén) = England + Person = English People. So Tildes users become Tilde人.
It's not particularly brilliant, and it's never caught on (granted I don't say it very often). And to be fair, I'm inclined to agree with not needing a cute name for the community on this forum. Community, user, people, and folks all work for me just as well, as does the ___ of Tildes mode of address.
Tilderen, or Tildren?
I've never seen "Tilderen" before. That's new!
However, "Tildren" has been invented twice in the past: here and here.
This one. Although I would pronounce both of them the same way.
Tildes友 would be the Cantonese equivalent then. Pronounced tildes-yau2. Literally -friends, or more colloquially, Tildes+dudes/dudettes.
If we're really good friends you can call me Tildes-[bleep]
I just wanted to chime in here with a story of being English and going to a meal at a French colleagues house.
In England, we "ess" to the end of words to create the female counterpart. Example, count and countess. I found it doesn't work the same in French.
At the end of the meal I said "My compliments to the chef, and chef-ess!" which was received with a big round of laughter, at me. Apparently I had said "My compliments to the Chef and the Chef's ass." when translated to French.
By the way, a lot of Tildes demonyms get reinvented independently by different people at different times. For example, "Tildesians" has been suggested before: here and here, back in June 2018.
I always say "Tildes users".
Look at Mr Practical-and-Obvious, over here! :P
Tilders for short
Tildists. Those who tilde.
I know it's the very best option because I've never, ever seen anyone suggest it so far.
Tildites
Titians (pronounced titians)
Titians (pronounced tishins)
Tildermonts
I think that may be the first time I've seen a word used to describe its own pronunciation.
How about Tildians, Tildoers, Tildesfolk or Tildesaurs?
Nerds
Tildenizens
~people
Like someone else said, nerds 😂
Are we here to eradicate everyone else, as that is what it sounds like!
Tildepodes
This is like trying to picking your own nickname. We are all users as suggested, but what term gets used to refer to them needs to happen naturally. There is a natural selection process that will happen.
I just feel like the collective doesn't need a "buzz word" name.
I also don't know that whether it's something to be forced.
However to answer the question: Personally, Tildes strikes me as a much more thoughtful place for discussion and that should reflect in how we reference it's users.
As to specific recommendations, I am stuck on Tilders as the most natural rolls from the tongue name.
Yeah I'm never going to say "I'm a tidlesian or tildren or tilerderillerydoo" I use tildes, I use reddit, I use xyz. I'm a user baby
To clarify, I was asking for people's personal head canon. Whatever we call ourselves we are a group of individuals and I wouldn't begin to want to change that. I was hoping to surface a variety of names that people might play with, not begin the process of selecting one.
I thought we were all Tildos??
More seriously, I'd rather just be a user of Tildes. It's just a site I use, not my whole identity.