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Do you spend more time creating a Tildes reply than on other platforms?
So like many others, I'm a refugee from the Rexxit, and the collaborative, positive enthusiasm here is infectious.
I've had an odd observation about my brief time here - when I think I can contribute to a thread, I find myself trying to step up my posting game - doing a bit of extra research, making sure I add links, and double checking my grammar (as best as I can!). I want my thoughts to have value or be meaningful here, moreso than anywhere I've contributed to in the past.
Do others feel the same way?
I used to do this on Reddit too, when I (rarely) wrote out a comment, it's because I thought it would add to the discussion so I wanted it to be high quality. The difference between here and there, though, is usually I would type out this long comment... and just delete it before posting, because there was so much low effort junk that I thought why bother. I love that in depth discussion is valued here!
I think a lot of this is in part to the smaller, tighter community. Less content means the things you write reach more people on average. People have less pressure to make a quick quip and that seems to result in more natural discussion.
Idk I kind of disagree. I think a lot of the words in these longer comments are just fluff to fill it out. Even in this thread alone, most of the top comments are exactly the same idea just with different fluff, “on Reddit I didn’t but here I do. Oo and I like the comment box being on the bottom because I actually read comments so I don’t repeat stuff”.
Someone over here thinks similarly to you.
I'm trying to comment more on here than I did on Reddit. I probably maybe had 100-150 comments across 2 account in my ~10 years over there, but with the 'Post a comment' textbox being below on Tildes, you are 'forced' to read the comments that have already been posted (which I think is a good design choice btw), I see other commenters echo my thoughts and I don't want to just copy/paste the same comment which was probably explained much more elegantly from other users of the site than I would have been able to.
I think right now with Tildes still being in its infancy, even semi non-productive comments garner value for the site, it shows it is being used
Wow, you make my Reddit account seem prolific. I feel like Tildes is in a really sweet spot right now, there's finally good daily activity but it's still cozy.
Initially when I joined I thought it's very difficult to scroll all the way down to comment. But as I used more, on the way scrolling down I read the other comments as well & Instead of doing a separate comment, What I wanted to say was already said by many and just replied on there comment.
Absolutely the comment box at bottom is very good, and I hope it’s implemented in every app. Surfboard is the only one I know of and it does it.
same. I much prefer lurking online, but I'm trying to do my part to take part in conversations to help the Tildes community maintain momentum.
I'd also become a complete lurker on Reddit as well (almost never posted, had a tiny handful of trivial comments and none in years). I did read the comments but the volume of participants on many Reddit posts meant that what I wanted to say had usually been said and adding my own would be better replaced with an upvote. Plus it often seemed like people would get angry with other commenters for no reason and I didn't particularly want to get yelled at.
With Tildes, I feel that because it is currently invite-only, I should make the effort and try to be part of it and it and not waste that invite. And, as you mention, any addition to the conversation is more likely than not to help the community.
This makes me think of nature vs. nurture, and how I've heard that we're the average of our five closest friends/loved ones. While "crucible" is too harsh of a word, it's as if being present in this place, with higher standard, inspires others to conduct themselves accordingly. It's fantastic.
Generally speaking, I'm wordier on Tildes, yeah. More careful too. Which is only natural given the explicit purpose of the website. But some people write a lot more than me. There is a length bias on Tildes because people associate length with effort, even though that is often not the case. A contribution that is insightful, concise, and to the point can be way more valuable than a rambling, longer one. In many ways, it is easier to be prolix than to be concise. A comment can get an "Exemplary" just for being long. That bothers me sometimes.
Just write what you want in the length that you feel is adequate to better communicate.
Yes. Reddit somehow devolved into, "say something (clever|funny|instigating|etc.) and get your internet points". You knew there were trolls just waiting for an opportunity to be (angry|upset|self-righteous|etc) (note how I use past tense already... RIP Apollo = Reddit), and so it wasn't worth the time posting anything interesting or insightful.
Here, I feel I've been invited to someone's house so I need to be on my best behavior.
I've only written a handful of replies here on Tildes so far, but even when I would communicate on Reddit I tried making each post as substantial as I could (within reason). However, I would occasionally let slip a jestful one-liner or thoughtless Reddit meme ("I too choose this man's wife," "Ah, the old Reddit switcheroo," etc.). I hope to completely eliminate that habit though; why put more useless crap into the world than there already is?
I feel what was once fun and new on Reddit was also part of its downfall. What once was an inside joke then turned into a constant cycle of repeating it til it's funny again. Main problem is that those types of humour are subjective, so it's not funny to individual at the same time based on how often they've been exposed to the joke.
While I found "I too choose this man's wife" funny, I hated "shoes on, still alive" and "I did Nazi that coming". Some are rooted in actual humour and some are more of a groupthink style of humour.
End of the day it slowly wears down the reader and loses its worth over time, removing the one main part of its attraction: feeling of a sense of community.
I think a fresh start is a great thing, and that these types of thing happen naturally and organically, bringing them over from a previous site just doesn't work in the same way.
I do definitely feel like my comments are longer and (at least sometimes) better researched here. At the same time, I feel like I type up a comment, realize it wouldn't contribute anything, and then leave without posting it way more than I would've on reddit. I think the generally slower pace here helps with that.
For every post I've made, I've thrown away dozens because I realized I wasn't really contributing in any real fashion.
I did try to make decent comments even on Reddit - I was that strange guy who'd write 4-5 paragraphs if there was a topic that seemed to deserve it, although I also tended to hang out in more niche subreddits. I do look forward to deeper conversations here though.
Unless the topic is explicitly casual, absolutely yes. Tildes is ideologically designed to reward quality and thoughtfulness in discussion, and I do my best to organize my thoughts and engage in good faith when a conversation attracts my interest. Mainstream social media sites inherently discourage genuine engagement and effort, so it's been a breath of fresh air to find a space where long-form commentary is still rewarded.
On the flipside, if I can't contribute beyond re-stating what's already been said, then I don't feel the impulse to comment just for the sake of commenting. I'm happy to read through threads, vote for good posts, and chime in here and there only if I genuinely have something to say. There's plenty of noise on the internet and, to me, the key to a good Tildes experience is simply being thoughtful when you reach that comment box at the bottom of a thread.
Well-said and I agree entirely because I am the same! I also tend to read all comments here and if there are so many that I can't feasibly do that or lose interest then I just don't comment. Whatever I had to say I'm pretty sure that by that point someone has said it. Your comment is actually an example of this happening. :P
What, exactly, is the reward?
On Reddit, we saw "karma points" as a quantitative badge of someone's contribution to the site, either with submissions or comments. That doesn't seem to be the case here: User profiles don't list a Tildes equivalent of "points", only the comments a user made (perhaps to encourage reading), and the "Vote (#)" is purposefully smaller than the comment text.
So, is the reward an environment where thoughtful discussion is reciprocated with thoughtful responses, rather than threads where the top-rated response to a serious inquiry or prompt is a one-line pun?
Well... yes! The reward, ironically, is the non-reward—a turn away from post-Skinner digital behavioralism wherein social media engagement becomes a pigeon experiment. The social internet seems to have become a place where a loud majority of internet commentators have been environmentally trained like Skinner's pigeons, developing rituals (quips and memes) in an effort to activate food dispensation (upvotes, likes).
Tildes' sleek, minimal design and cultural focus on quality strikes me as a radical de-emphasis of these types of behavioral mechanisms, and turns instead towards a hopeful appeal to a more natural discursive style. To extend the Skinner metaphor, perhaps we are better with tools that embrace our natural "pigeonness", so our exchanges may more closely resemble old discussion forums or historical letter-writing.
In this way, Tildes may avoid the flood of nonsense and bloat that seems to overtake most websites in 2023, by eliminating many of the factors that allow low-effort dialogue to spin out of control. I view it similar to an economic intervention aimed at preventing a financial bubble—remove the incentives for a boom/bust cycle, and set infrastructure in place for organic, sustainable growth.
Yes, though not because of some social expectation. I do it because the kinds of conversations here are deserving of nuance.
I would be more inclined to say that it is not the case that our conversations deserve any more nuance than those taking place elsewhere, but rather that on Tildes nuance is more likely to be appreciated by others.
The entirety of the internet could use a huge dose of nuance.
Thats the social expectation at work. Be the change you want to be in the world and all that.
Kinda? Most of the time, my comments on reddit were short and kind of pointless, just spouting out whatever was on my mind when I read something, but when I did put effort into a comment, I put effort into that comment.
Long-winded rant about my favorite example of a high effort comment I made on reddit
My favorite example being the 2 hours I spent detailing why an F-35 would beat an Ancient Red Dragon in 5e D&D. I converted as much of the F-35's real life statistics into 5e as I could, and detailed exactly how the fight would go–that is to say, the fighter would dump all 180 bullets it carries in one attack action, with 81 of them meeting their target, dealing over 1500 damage.
I spent a good 30 minutes just trying to convert its missiles into 5e bundles of dynamite, before realizing that no matter how big they are, bundles of dynamite max out at 10d6 damage, which doesn't even approach the damage output of the main gun. Unfortunately, there aren't statistics for a GAU-22/A in the DMG, so I went with the highest damage firearm (2d10) and considered it a +3 nonmagic weapon, on account of the targeting technology that I won't pretend to understand.
And then of course, people argued that dragons can just cast spells, which a) I, the DM, am not applying that optional rule, and b) the fighter's pilot could simply be a 20th level wizard with 4 simulacra of himself strapped to the jet's hardpoints. Introducing spellcasting kinda messes up the whole comparison.
I try to avoid making the dumb pointless comments on here, but I worry that sometimes my reddit personality is gonna slip through.
I would actually give D&D a go, if I knew of a local DM that would put in that sort of effort.
Most people want to be players; few want to be the DM. Be the change: Take up the DM mantle; it's a lot of fun, and if you advertise yourself as a DM starting a group, the players will flock to you.
I mean, it's not even a contest.. Dragons can't even see the bird that shot "bundles of dynamite" from a couple of Ks distance.
Ever since I got an auto-mail saying people were marking mine as noise, yes.
On Reddit, I found that the comments I made that got the most "engagement" were short, witty-ish quips, while my more thought-out comments were lost in the shuffle. I still feel the urge to jump in and drop a dumb joke into the comment threads here, and have to fight that reflex. So yes, my comments here are longer, on average, but far less frequent.
You can still do the quip. Just do that up front and add some contextual reply to the latter part of the comment.
Nah.
Sittin' at the Big Table with the adults now, better believe I'm keeping my napkin on my lap, using the right fork and chewing with mouth closed!
So far, I have been far more deliberate on commenting on Tildes. I spent a couple of weeks looking at Tildes before asking a fellow moderator for an invite, and I spend a lot less time in the comments here than I did on Reddit, but I have been enjoying the more in depth articles around instead.
No, I don't spend more time creating a Tildes reply than on other platforms.
I've always been wordy, and put effort & thought into my comments, when I participated on Reddit. That fits in perfectly on Tildes (which is why I'm here!).
I had an unreasonable amount of karma for my account only being 2 years old on reddit, so yes I invested a lot of time writing replies there too. I just have a lot of interests and want to talk about them lol
I have an odd position where the Reddit jokes over the last few years reduced the fun of commenting or engaging but I am somewhat intimidated by the Tildes crowd. I do not wish to upset the apple cart, and I'm still acclimating to the new climate. I think as I get more exposure to the community I will be happy to comment more, but this user experience is designed to dip your toes in first to get a good grip on it.
It's the focus on having something to say and that being an open interaction that is both amazing and somewhat demoralising. Despite the fantastic community I have seen I just worry I will be providing useless fluff rather than real conversation on a topic. I'd be happy to hear counterpoints if I am understanding the community interaction wrong.
I did the same thing as you did, lurking for a while before asking for an invite link. I only did so when I actually felt confident enough to participate. Tildes feels a lot like an old-school form in culture, where you're encouraged to "lurk moar", read the entire thing, get a grip on what has been said before you jump into the discussion. I like it a lot.
I love the setup as well, it just takes some getting used to. Ironically I have already made more comments this week than I had on Reddit but I think that's due to the smaller scope and community engagement.
I'm actually actively trying not to, if that makes sense.
I love that Tildes is more slowed down and sensible, but it needs to grow. At the moment it's hard to make this my 'main' site because there just isn't enough on it.
Some people will be drawn to in depth stuff, but others just want somewhere to casually chat and be informed on the latest happenings. Both are valid and there's space for both.
I don't have anything interesting or compelling to offer on any platform. It's all been said before. Maybe there are a few specific topics or experiences that I may be able to add insight to, but generally not.
Spent 20 minutes writing that one out...
I don’t spend any more or less time than I previously did. I think I post a little more frequently, but if there is anything I’m learning on here is that many times you don’t need to reply or a reply just isn’t warranted. Unless I feel like I have a question about someone’s comment or want to add some form of context I often don’t comment.
There have been a few emotionally charged threads recently; I typed out many responses and never hit post comment. On reddit, I didn’t post much, but that was because I couldn’t deal with the endless inbox of people that came after. On Tildes, I don’t post because not everything warrants my opinion being shared. The ideological difference has helped me make the posts I do make more meaningful.
I was very tempted to reply "Of course" and leave it at that.
My replies on Tildes has on average been longer than my Reddit replies. I do have very long Reddit replies, but a lot of them are on the shorter end. I'm not beyond just making a dumb joke.
I do tend to get wordier than I originally intend to on Tildes. Mainly because I want to try to drive more discussion. I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to be able to give facts and researched opinions. I just lurk and read them instead.
So I mainly stick to discussing less intellectual topics that I know about, and hope to drive discussion with longer replies instead.
I put in about the same account of effort as I did before Reddit split into subreddits and in the communities where a thoughtful reply was valued.
I don't have the terror I did when I first started posting online (in a lisp mailing list) or the irritation I had when Reddit first added comments and folks were insisting that everyone there was either male or a dog.
I'm very new here, so still getting a feel for the community. I'm past spending hours on my wording now unless my posts get too long or require research, I figure I'll either fit in our I won't.
I spend about the same time writing comments here as I did writing comments for more niche topic subreddits, such as ones about a specific show or game. I of course make a lot less jokes here, which take less time to write.
Good jokes often take time. A standup act from a half-decent comedian requires weeks, months, years of refinement.
Snark otoh comes cheap and easy. :)
Yeah, but that's because of social anxiety and the feeling of being in a new place. It'll get better over time and I'll be bringing down the average intelligence of the comments sections soon!
(This is my 1st comment!)
You have to start somewhere! The first post / comment is always the most difficult. I can relate to the social anxiety of things and trying to avoid the urge to simply lurk through the posts / comments of the site. I find it challenging to come up with such great original posts / topics compared to other users who can crank out critically thought out, quality posts on a daily basis.
Gotta bring back the '3 line maximum' scroll wheel instead of the infinite-speed swipe.
I was under the impression in my head that I needed to respond with a high quality response due to the nature of the site being tech oriented reddit. After a while I was like fuck that. So nah I'm good on that shit
So far, no. But this is my second comment on the platform.
N
Yes.