53
votes
I'm back
I just remembered this site from a few years back, maybe during Covid times? Clearly at some point the decision to delete my account history was made...
The state of the internet now makes me so deeply anxious. Scrolling Instagram makes my head feel like sludge. I stopped using reddit about 7 years ago. Never really found my crowd on IRC. So back here I am, hoping to find some signal in the noise and to calm my mind.
Has anything changed much here? What should I check out?
It's still less of a Reddit competitor with better mechanics (where smaller communities bubble up more interesting topics with voting) and more of a small/medium sized message board with voting mechanics. But that doesn't bother me.
Welcome home!
We're still the slow lane of the internet. We never "took off" as a "reddit replacement" but we've managed to retain a core group of quality posters with high effort content and conversations.
Frankly I'm glad it didn't take off. It never needed to.
I’m always so upset when a new flood of users arrive and they start asking how we can turn the site into reddit 2.0 and pump up those numbers.
There's a reason I spent a year reading and lurking before requesting an account, and I'm glad I did. Most of the time I have nothing meaningful to add to conversations (even this could just be noise), and I feel like too many redditors just feel the need to be heard no matter what.
100%. Luckily, I haven't seen that in awhile. Though Idk if we've gotten a big influx of users in awhile, either. Which is cool. I think organic growth that's more like a trickle or steady stream, is better than a whole explosion of users at once. Especially for a smaller community like this.
I came when the 2024 US election results slammed home something I'd known for years: reddit was telling me what I wanted to hear, and was avoiding showing me things I didn't want to hear.
I always wondered if others had a similar reaction to me or not. I'm not sure how rational mine was, but I certainly don't miss reddit at any rate.
There's no algorithm here, but you still need to be careful, since this is still a largely left-leaning space. It doesn't feel like an echo chamber in the same way Reddit's algorithm is pushing people towards specific communities, but I also don't know if there's a good way of knowing you're stuck in an echo chamber without exploring other spaces (and wow, it's a minefield out there).
I think online spaces inherently polarize as political disagreements require careful, spaced out and thoughtful discussion among a fixed set of people. In practice people asynchronously dog pile (intentionally or not) and either scare people off or cause filter bubbles.
It would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen if people engaged in a social media platform that limits conversations to fixed groups of <= X people. Obviously it wouldn't work at all for the influencer industry, but I wonder how it would work for a news or content discussion platform. Would people behave in smaller groups where their immediate reputation is more important?
That's basically every small Discord server, no?
Would be better if it wasn’t 100% self selected, like the old fashioned days when you had to talk to the people around you.
Probably. I don't use discord. But I also didn't describe it very well...
I was imagining something that grouped strangers together in contexts like comments on a news article or some other content.
On one hand I enjoy the idea of Tildes growing a lot and there being more users who share their niche interests and perspectives, on the other hand I'm glad the growth is slow and people take time to get used to things here and the quality of posts remains high while the quantity is not overwhelming.
I also remember commenting this on another post that Tildes' lower quantity of posts also has made me want to start topics/conversations with people here and post things more often than I did on other platforms.
Personally I'd prefer another ten tildes equivalents then have tilde grow ten times larger.
I don't think good communities like this scale up that easily.
Everyone wanted something like kbin/mbin or lemme to take off, but the problem with the federation model is that culture tends to become assimilated by the popular average, and you just end up with a different reddit. I miss when forums all had their own style, features, and culture. We have a limited differentiating culture here, but I feel it's a strong one. At the very least we tend to be nicer than Hacker News.
Right, I think a more developed, more customizable Tildes base that allows others to spin up their own site just like old forums used to be would be excellent. Tildes.net as it is currently has a great community for a generalist board, while there's probably more of certain types of people than others (like I think there's more techy people here than if you compared to the whole userbase of reddit for example), it's not really geared towards anything specific. Probably in part because the only moderator is Deimos and not actively moderating for a specific subject matter.
I don't think Tildes as it currently exists is adequately developed to handle larger userbases anyhow. Respect and major props to Deimos for getting Tildes where it is already as it's still substantially better than reddit at its base level (comments not bumping posts in reddit is the worst design ever), and then major props to Bauke and talklittle for carrying on the torch in whatever capacity they are, as all of these people are doing so without any significant remuneration.
Same - when there's already 30-40 comments I feel like I have nothing new to add to the conversation.
We now have a sick Minecraft server! Check it out.
This is one of the biggest selling points for me TBH. Thanks tea for making it happen!
"Tildes: Come for the conversation, stay for the Minecraft!"
(tagline probably needs some work)
Greetings!
I think it's an alright place to be. There's a few cases where I find myself in the minority opinion, but I think that can be a positive when it comes to avoiding echo chambers.
I have generally become less enthused with the internet as a social space, though. I do my best to get my interpersonal needs met in the real world, occasionally stopping in here or on a private forum when I feel like it. The signal-to-noise ratio is generally one of the better aspects of this site, so I think you're in the right place.
I joined this site in the aftermath of the Reddit APIgate and after that initial rush of people, I think things have settled down into a simple rhythm. There's a ton of scheduled threads that you can read and post in, a fun Minecraft server to join, and lots of link aggregation. It's much harder to doomscroll on here, which is a huge plus. The rate at which people make threads and post is fairly slow so constantly refreshing the page doesn't do much here.
Theres a mobile app now if you missed it!
Three cheers on Iphone, I forget if its the same on Android
It is the same on android!
Links for both platforms:
Hello~
A bunch of us newer people moved in as well, as a result some threads are more casual in tone
seven years is most certainly new (-;
sheesh, has it really been seven years since we joined?
Wait what?!?! What?!!
The Reddit API fiasco was Seven years ago?! But my account there was a good 15 years or so before that? Oh my heavens how bad is my memory that I thought it was only just the other year that we found this place?! Or I'm just getting this old -..-
The Reddit API stuff was in 2023, so I'm guessing you had made a Tildes account way back in 2019 and then only rejoined a few years ago when that stuff went down.
Wikipedia: Reddit API controversy
!! Solved !!
Yes this account had stayed dormant until 2023. That makes way more sense, thank you Fal :)
Hey, at least that ‘account created in 2019’ line on your account gives you more street cred with us newcomers :p
Lol, I read that comment and was like "Fal is a newcomer?!?" Thanks for rocking my sense of time for a second there ;)
I seek only to shock and confuse :p (oh god it’s been SIX years since I’ve found this place)
Hahaha Happy almost account anniversary by the way :D how'd you find Tildes? (Both meanings)
I started using Reddit at a fairly young age and had been on it for a while, and was somewhat disillusioned with the shift in culture on there over time, so I wanted to see if there were any alternatives. I found Tildes through r/redditalternatives, and it was one of the few options that was both active enough and not some weird right-wing site. I lurked for a month or so and was really impressed with the effort I saw people put in their comments and posts (I believed I specifically mentioned @kfwyre when emailing to get my account). I've been active on here ever since, its helped me cut down on my usage of Reddit and social media generally, and I'm really happy to be part of the Tilderese community.
That’s very sweet, Fal. 🥰 It’s heartwarming that anyone would want to join the site because of me.
And now you're part of the reason new people stick around :D
I think the great mod revolt may have been that long ago?
@Fal solved it. I had heard about Tildes from the 2019 wave but didn't make the move until 2023.
Edit: I don't remember what the 2019 wave was about
Which makes me realize I've been here going on 3 years this June. Tildes still feels relatively new to me.
Same time I started regularly posting on another forum I check daily. Time certainly flies.
It's crazy that I still think of 2023 as "last year". Probably because 2024 to now had been such a single-episode-horror-show that my brain hasn't had a break to delineate the entire chunk
It's just generally been a horror show. Thinking back on 2020 now, I can't believe that was 6 years ago already.
At this point I’ve been on Tildes longer than I was ever on reddit, but Tildes still feels fresh to me. It’s a big part of why I keep coming back, day after day, year after year.
In my final months with reddit in 2016, I was fatigued and worn down. I hated using the site but felt the pull to keep going back. I had a negative Pavlovian response to seeing the orange-red notification for replies waiting because I knew they were going to be friction-filled at best or malicious at worst.
I remember when I joined Tildes I went through a detox period where I still had that instinctive reflex that somebody was going to pounce on any comment I made. I still flinched when I saw I had replies.
Thankfully, that has long gone, and I feel very at ease here. I think that helps make it feel like I haven’t been here that long (when in fact I have) because my time here is more easygoing and enriching than reddit’s constant conflict.
Definitely. I've probably mentioned it before on Tildes, but there was always someone ready to jump down your throat with a bad faith argument on reddit.
I don't comment on Tildes every day, because I don't necessarily feel like I have anything interesting to add, but it never feels like screaming into the void here.
Though I still do visit Reddit from time to time, but just specific subreddits. Though several of them and just turned into technical support forums, which I guess makes sense since the hype has died down.
It’s hell getting old.
Welcome back. Definitely more lively around here than before. A lot of people came in the aftermath of the reddit's "APIgate" in mid 2023. But otherwise, Tildes still Tilde-ing.
Anything in particular you're looking for?
I only got here mid 2023.
I feel like since early 2025, the ambient hyperpolarization hasn't completely spared tildes, we regularly (about 1/week, but with dips and lows) get some topics that are pretty much outrage bait, and sometime enough of us forget ourselves and engage with it emotionally and Deimos has to step in and delete the topic (and ban a few users (me included) for the week to cool off). So far it's mostly under control.
The world's gotten very strange. I feel like we need to grade on a curve now
One of my personal best decisions I made was start adding in filters to remove political topics. I like it here and while political stuff will still show up in random threads (since we're human and bring political opinions/thoughts with us) people have the good grace not to completely derail a conversation on a niche topic into yet another discussion on the current political going ons.
For me having a space with cool people and interesting topics/discussion that isn't constantly revolving around current political thing has been refreshing. I'll turn off the filters occasionally to take a look, but they go back up pretty quickly.
I usually just pop in to the political stuff when I need a little fix and feel like I need some context or just to be up to date. Otherwise, I filtered it out about six months ago because I was severely affecting my day to day mental health.
Resident lurker here. Tildes seems like a great place to meet new people and make quality relationships if that’s what you’re looking for. But it also works for people like me who are just looking for an online outlet without the noise and nonsense. I don’t know anyone on tildes and have no real intention to but I still like it here and appreciate the community.
I feel like I have quality para-social relationships here. Many usernames here have become so familiar that i have built a sense of trust and joy with them, despite never interacting directly much with most of them.
This is my favorite social media site on the Internet, and I’ve pretty much stopped browsing anything else as an online “feed”.
I respect the people who post the high-quality news articles, blogs, and fun internet things regularly. Plus the regular discussions are great things to mindlessly browse without having any algorithm trying to harvest my engagement. I browse through the 20 or so comments and call it a day. Overall, not much could make this place a better place to be on the Internet (imo), especially if you don’t like what the Internet has come to nowadays.
First thing's first: there are regular ongoing debates on what exactly members of this site should be called and every answer is
wrongcorrect. Tildoes is clearly the funniest. Tilderinos. Tilderites. Tilderistans. Tildes Users if you're formal. Tildidlierinos if you're Ned Flanders.Also, I'd highly recommend the Tildes ReExtended addon/extension for your browser. Adds a few useful features and was made by members of the community!
I must, as always, insist that it's obviously "tildebeasts".
I don't know, the ones we have in the server rack are well fed and barely have any problems, unlike their cousins, the tumbeasts.
hmpf Please, add Tildonians to your list
Tildonians sounds like we're from Planet Tildo.
Tildese sounds like we were colonized by Portugal.
Tildians sounds like we are a proud ancient civilization of elves.
There are no
rightwrong answers...What if you're pretentious? Might I suggest Les Enfants Tildes?
Tilderen for the English speaking
You will always be Tildekas for me.
Or was it Tilderanians 🤔
I forget.
No matter, I will always cherish that we settled on Tilderators.
Tilderanians for some reason made me think about Tildemaniacs.
Thanks for the addon mention, I wasn't aware.
Best regards,
Fellow Tildeite (obviously everyone else here is wrong)
Tildists is still being unfairly suppressed, I see...
I'll stick with Tilders, nice and simple!
I’m a fairly recent Tildes joiner myself. Maybe a year or so? I grew tired of places like Instagram and Reddit. Never liked Twitter. I like this place a lot. Feels like I’m communicating with real people and not being exposed to what some algorithm decides I should be seeing. I always receive insightful comments and can learn from others.