It's a funny idea, but not very European friendly unfortunately. Opening hours from 1:39 a.m. till 4:39 a.m. CEST are a bit harsh — even for nightowls such as myself. :D
It's a funny idea, but not very European friendly unfortunately. Opening hours from 1:39 a.m. till 4:39 a.m. CEST are a bit harsh — even for nightowls such as myself. :D
Heck, it’s not even very USA friendly. It doesn’t give people living on the western side of the country much time to use it because many people are going to be at work in most of those hours.
Heck, it’s not even very USA friendly. It doesn’t give people living on the western side of the country much time to use it because many people are going to be at work in most of those hours.
I would usually not direct anyone towards social media, but I found something that is, at the very least, a funny idea (I doubt that it’ll take off). I won’t be creating an account on it though. I...
I would usually not direct anyone towards social media, but I found something that is, at the very least, a funny idea (I doubt that it’ll take off). I won’t be creating an account on it though. I got rid of social media as a New Year’s resolution in late 2023 (for 2024) and have been much happier ever since.
Fair question. Maybe “social media” is the wrong word for it, but I decided in late 2023 that I was done with “mobile social media apps” specifically, in particularly the most popular ones (in my...
Fair question. Maybe “social media” is the wrong word for it, but I decided in late 2023 that I was done with “mobile social media apps” specifically, in particularly the most popular ones (in my case, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and 9gag). Here’s what I dislike about them:
Became 100% political. You just can’t get into a niche community and avoid mentions of politics. That’s sadly true everywhere now, but it’s become unbearable for me on those particular platforms.
They’re all designed to keep you hooked. You can scroll infinitely. The algorithms will feed you a ton of garbage. I’m not making it up when I say that, over the years, spending so much time on those platforms has caused me to feel a persistent headache that went away almost as soon as I quit them.
Being mobile apps, I can’t help but check them all the time, everywhere, even at work. I tried all kinds of tricks over the years to keep myself under control, but abstinence just beats them all.
Probably other reasons that I’m forgetting.
I have since turned my phone into a “dumb phone”. There are certain tools that I use on it, and that’s it. This includes apps for ride sharing, public transportation, navigation, grocery shopping, online banking, authentication (2FA), timer and alarms, sunset and sunrise, weather, calendar, contacts, notes, reminders, and photos. That’s basically it.
One of those tools is WhatsApp. That’s how everyone I know communicates with me. Thankfully, it’s not too distracting. There are only a few people (friends and family) who I text with on a daily or weekly basis. I rarely call anyone or get called by anyone. I also don’t check e-mail on my phone (though I have the apps installed, for emergency situations). I guess that could be counted as social media? But it works very differently. I hate that WhatsApp now has something like “stories”. Every time one of my contacts posts one (happens very rarely) I instantly mute them. lol
For “social entertainment” (I don’t know what other word to use), I have relegated all of that to my computer:
Discord. I’m on four guilds. They’re all small. I only check in once or twice a day. Reply to some messages. Write something if I have something to write. Might have the one or other text conversation on there.
A small Flarum forum that I got invited to. Same deal. I occasionally start a thread, but mostly reply in them. It’s very small. Like 20 people or so.
Tilde I found recently and it scratches that Reddit itch. I really like it here. But again, there are only so many threads I have an opinion to share on, or comments to reply to.
The big difference between the social media I used to be on, and this “social media”, is that I can only use it while on the computer. It won’t ever distract me in the middle of the day. There is also only ever a tiny amount of interaction—real interaction—that can happen. There isn’t any “content” being served that I can infinitely scroll. I get my digital social fix every day and then move on, having had meaningful interactions with actual people in small groups, rather than just mindlessly consuming content.
I consider this a forum. Social media is where you're primarily concerned with interpersonal connections rather than discussion. e.g. you friend or follow people instead of subscribing to topics....
I consider this a forum. Social media is where you're primarily concerned with interpersonal connections rather than discussion. e.g. you friend or follow people instead of subscribing to topics.
MySpace and Facebook were trying to bring cliques online when we already had democratized discussion without so much fixation on who said something.
I love little communities that play around with adding weird limits or difficulties to engagement. Reminds me of an experimental mailing list that had a limit of how many addresses could be added....
I love little communities that play around with adding weird limits or difficulties to engagement.
Reminds me of an experimental mailing list that had a limit of how many addresses could be added. Any time someone signed up, the oldest user was removed and would have to wait a while to rejoin.
This lead to a weird, oddly close-knit community with massive amounts of in-jokes that were so far removed from their original source since that user and anyone else that could remember were kicked out ages ago.
This is a very cool idea that I actually think we could steal for Tildes. Rather than having Tildes at large only be open for certain hours (which doesn’t work with our global userbase), it would...
This is a very cool idea that I actually think we could steal for Tildes.
Rather than having Tildes at large only be open for certain hours (which doesn’t work with our global userbase), it would be cool if each user could choose to set a specific time window during which they can access Tildes. For example, I could set my account to let me in only from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM local time.
If I try getting on at 4:30 PM, instead of the homepage, I get a nice message saying that the site will open at 6:00.
Of course, I could always just read the site logged out as a workaround, but it would still stop me from posting/commenting/voting during the lockout time.
I think this could be a healthy way of letting people set their own limits. As someone who probably spends too much time here (because I love y’all! ❤️), something like this could be a way of setting up some positive boundaries for myself.
You can effectively do this with browser extensions on any site you want. I use LeechBlock NG on Firefox (both desktop and Android) to control my access to sites I tend to spend a bit too much...
You can effectively do this with browser extensions on any site you want. I use LeechBlock NG on Firefox (both desktop and Android) to control my access to sites I tend to spend a bit too much time on. I've set a lot of them to only be accessible between 3 PM and 6 PM, and only on my computer - outside of that, I just get a message that the website will be unblocked at 3 PM (or if I'm on my phone, a message saying the site is fully blocked).
I chose those times because I work nights and wake up at the latest at 3 PM, and my partner also works nights but he's slightly offset to my schedule, usually waking up closer to 5:30-6 PM. That means if I want to look at those sites I'm not neglecting him or anything else equally important in favour of the internet. Most days I don't even turn my computer on, so it works out. Each site also has a time limit set - as an example, Facebook might be unblocked for those three hours, but in those three hours I can only spend twenty minutes on it; after twenty minutes, the website is blocked again.
Mind you, a lot of this also relies on self-control since LeechBlock has an easily accessible override function, but I find the initial block, and the message that follows, is enough for me to realise I'm just trying to open that site out of habit and snap out of it, so to speak. Nowadays the blocks feel a bit redundant as I don't look at the blocked sites nearly as much as I used to, but I keep them on anyway.
The problem with any user-prescribed measure on the user-owned device is that it loses the fight against boredom through a few clicks. Setting it up server side (on a server that you don't...
The problem with any user-prescribed measure on the user-owned device is that it loses the fight against boredom through a few clicks.
Setting it up server side (on a server that you don't control) to only log you in during a set time can win that fight. Alts or logged-out browsing are a different question, but you couldn't post as your known user. Throw a week long cooldown between allowed hour changes on the server and you have something useful!
It's a funny idea, but not very European friendly unfortunately. Opening hours from 1:39 a.m. till 4:39 a.m. CEST are a bit harsh — even for nightowls such as myself. :D
Heck, it’s not even very USA friendly. It doesn’t give people living on the western side of the country much time to use it because many people are going to be at work in most of those hours.
I’ve missed the window every day for three days :/
I would usually not direct anyone towards social media, but I found something that is, at the very least, a funny idea (I doubt that it’ll take off). I won’t be creating an account on it though. I got rid of social media as a New Year’s resolution in late 2023 (for 2024) and have been much happier ever since.
Honest question, since you're on tildes... What counts as social media? Because I count this place as social media.
Fair question. Maybe “social media” is the wrong word for it, but I decided in late 2023 that I was done with “mobile social media apps” specifically, in particularly the most popular ones (in my case, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and 9gag). Here’s what I dislike about them:
I have since turned my phone into a “dumb phone”. There are certain tools that I use on it, and that’s it. This includes apps for ride sharing, public transportation, navigation, grocery shopping, online banking, authentication (2FA), timer and alarms, sunset and sunrise, weather, calendar, contacts, notes, reminders, and photos. That’s basically it.
One of those tools is WhatsApp. That’s how everyone I know communicates with me. Thankfully, it’s not too distracting. There are only a few people (friends and family) who I text with on a daily or weekly basis. I rarely call anyone or get called by anyone. I also don’t check e-mail on my phone (though I have the apps installed, for emergency situations). I guess that could be counted as social media? But it works very differently. I hate that WhatsApp now has something like “stories”. Every time one of my contacts posts one (happens very rarely) I instantly mute them. lol
For “social entertainment” (I don’t know what other word to use), I have relegated all of that to my computer:
The big difference between the social media I used to be on, and this “social media”, is that I can only use it while on the computer. It won’t ever distract me in the middle of the day. There is also only ever a tiny amount of interaction—real interaction—that can happen. There isn’t any “content” being served that I can infinitely scroll. I get my digital social fix every day and then move on, having had meaningful interactions with actual people in small groups, rather than just mindlessly consuming content.
Makes sense! Just don’t try using Tildes on your phone or you’ll be hooked there too, no mobile app required.
I consider this a forum. Social media is where you're primarily concerned with interpersonal connections rather than discussion. e.g. you friend or follow people instead of subscribing to topics.
MySpace and Facebook were trying to bring cliques online when we already had democratized discussion without so much fixation on who said something.
I love little communities that play around with adding weird limits or difficulties to engagement.
Reminds me of an experimental mailing list that had a limit of how many addresses could be added. Any time someone signed up, the oldest user was removed and would have to wait a while to rejoin.
This lead to a weird, oddly close-knit community with massive amounts of in-jokes that were so far removed from their original source since that user and anyone else that could remember were kicked out ages ago.
Thanks for sharing that anecdote, that sounds like a quirky kind of list!
I'll see y'all at 7:40ish.
This is a very cool idea that I actually think we could steal for Tildes.
Rather than having Tildes at large only be open for certain hours (which doesn’t work with our global userbase), it would be cool if each user could choose to set a specific time window during which they can access Tildes. For example, I could set my account to let me in only from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM local time.
If I try getting on at 4:30 PM, instead of the homepage, I get a nice message saying that the site will open at 6:00.
Of course, I could always just read the site logged out as a workaround, but it would still stop me from posting/commenting/voting during the lockout time.
I think this could be a healthy way of letting people set their own limits. As someone who probably spends too much time here (because I love y’all! ❤️), something like this could be a way of setting up some positive boundaries for myself.
You can effectively do this with browser extensions on any site you want. I use LeechBlock NG on Firefox (both desktop and Android) to control my access to sites I tend to spend a bit too much time on. I've set a lot of them to only be accessible between 3 PM and 6 PM, and only on my computer - outside of that, I just get a message that the website will be unblocked at 3 PM (or if I'm on my phone, a message saying the site is fully blocked).
I chose those times because I work nights and wake up at the latest at 3 PM, and my partner also works nights but he's slightly offset to my schedule, usually waking up closer to 5:30-6 PM. That means if I want to look at those sites I'm not neglecting him or anything else equally important in favour of the internet. Most days I don't even turn my computer on, so it works out. Each site also has a time limit set - as an example, Facebook might be unblocked for those three hours, but in those three hours I can only spend twenty minutes on it; after twenty minutes, the website is blocked again.
Mind you, a lot of this also relies on self-control since LeechBlock has an easily accessible override function, but I find the initial block, and the message that follows, is enough for me to realise I'm just trying to open that site out of habit and snap out of it, so to speak. Nowadays the blocks feel a bit redundant as I don't look at the blocked sites nearly as much as I used to, but I keep them on anyway.
The problem with any user-prescribed measure on the user-owned device is that it loses the fight against boredom through a few clicks.
Setting it up server side (on a server that you don't control) to only log you in during a set time can win that fight. Alts or logged-out browsing are a different question, but you couldn't post as your known user. Throw a week long cooldown between allowed hour changes on the server and you have something useful!