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Could we get a ~jokes, ~humor or ~funny group on Tildes?
I read some funny stuff on here and there are plenty of witty responses around, but a community for humorous content may lighten things up a bit and it can start discussions too… after all:
“Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.” -Mark Twain
Personally, I would rather that kind of group didn't exist on Tildes. Many people prefer Tildes specially because it doesn't contain jokes or humor as top level content, though I absolutely admit/agree that other people might wish Tildes had more of that kind of thing. For me, the existing historical content and general philosophy of Tildes doesn't seem to align with quick-hit entertainment content, in my opinion. I like the existing state of Tildes and would prefer that it continues along similar trajectories.
However, I would willingly filter a ~funny group (or similar groups) from my feed, if the general consensus of the site was that we should add such a group. It's easy to filter groups on Tildes, and I expect to use the feature moving forward.
I strongly agree. I’ve been lurking for a bit now, this is my first post, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but the quality of comments in some recent threads seem to me to be very much degraded for the sake of being “humorous”.
The immediate example I can think of is at least a couple of simple thumbs up emojis from commenters in the thread regarding emojis being applicable in a recent Canadian court judgement.
As a Reddit migrant, one thing that really bugged me on that platform was the proliferation of “joke comments” in threads that amounted to a single sarcastic sentence or multiple iterations of often referenced jokes already established in the zeitgeist. Often times, entire threads on serious topics could consist of responses aimed at sarcasm or “wittiness” for the sake of being funny. Ultimately, these threads provide nothing to the community.
I’ve seen complaints on the Reddit alternative sub that summarize Tildes as “taking itself too seriously” but I would much prefer that over it not taking itself seriously enough.
In my brief time here, I have been very impressed with the breadth of knowledge and insights shared. It’s refreshing to browse Tildes and aspire to reach the level of creativity, decorum, or eloquent expression that some users post with here. I am often excited when I stumble upon a new post or comment from a user that I’ve previously clicked with or learnt from.
All that to say and reiterate, I agree and hope we stay serious.
I'm new here but I've also noticed that kind of trend recently.
I've been reading through Tildes docs again recently and since then I've been motivated to help "sculpt" the threads. Deimos set up a really great system for rewarding good content and penalize lazy contributions, which is done through the use of labels. This system is a bit of a departure from the Reddit's approach and I believe it can be a bit overwhelming for users that came here from there recently. Adding to this, the great majority of users are lurkers and may not feel compelled to contribute to the "sculpting" processes other than voting.
I'm convinced that if people make regular use of the labelling system, the post threads will be adequately organized, with the noise/joke comments being pushed down.
This is just a bit of rambling, but I wanted to show my appreciation for the labelling system. I hope new users take the time to read the docs and feel encouraged to make use of the system, even if they're usually lurkers.
They do provide one thing to the community. They provide a sense of inclusion, validation and participation. If you post comments you belong. If your comments are upvoted then your belonging has been validated. The jokes/puns/memes are effortless participation. Little thought is required. Votes are nearly guaranteed and now you are "one of us." Everyone wants to be part of the group.
However because it is so easy and effortless it's a cancer. Once these joke comments are allowed anywhere they will spread. People will learn the behavior in one area of the site and they will repeat it everywhere else. Attempting to understand a complex topic and comment upon it is work. A one line sarcastic quip is not. Once that behavior is rewarded it will not stop.
There is nothing wrong with that sort of effortless participation ... but I am not interested in it. Is the rest of the group? People want this because they want to belong and they do not want to put in the work of commenting/posting worthwhile content ... but the group decides what is appropriate and what belongs.
If we "stay serious" that will exclude some people. Good. There are plenty of other places for the content they desire. They'll find them. No harm done.
I mean, great! If there's also content contributing to the conversation in addition to the thumbs up.
I read through it and it's just shitposting a thumbs up. Someone pointed out to them that's not necessarily the content Tildes is looking for and the comments all seemed to be tagged as noise appropriately.
It's a consequence of people taking that culture from somewhere to here. It'll reduce with time.
While I'm happy with the local culture here, I don't think humor is an evil. A board like that, which as you point out is easily filtered out, and otherwise puts a place for people to have a bit of fun. Also, humor doesn't have to mean low effort.
Humor is the opposite of evil! Among other things, It tries to crack our psychological armor in order to get us comfortable with unfamiliar topics. People seem to expect low-effort humor on the internet, but you’re right, it can be so much more than a cheap meme jpeg.
I think the crowd here is so sick of meme culture (and I don't blame them) that they might get carried away into a Mister Scrooge mentality and feel compelled to say essentially "Bah humbug!" to anything silly. Not saying OP is guilty of this, but it's a vibe I've seen elsewhere on this platform.
I think an outlet for humorous content could be a good idea, but it should be opt-in.
I don’t think one can control what doesn’t appear on Tildes this way. Not having the group won’t stop crude content from coming to Tildes as more users join. All the groups will change, I think it’s a separate issue that is sadly kind of inevitable. It may be smarter to first test what humor the community here appreciates while we’re in alpha and establish the culture around the submissions and expectations of the responses rather than deny the whole category. It will come someday and it’s best to work with it while it’s still small.
But it may be this “internet culture” as it’s called that kind of ruined some very good and “sophisticated” humor for you! Setting up a good joke isn’t “quick-hit” at all. And even some of the shorter ones may make you think.
I think the Tildes group would develop more like the text-based r/jokes, which does (along with continuations and variations on the joke) include discussions. I don’t think it would become liker/funny at first (but like I said, that’s a separate issue that is kind of inevitable with growth).
No, but Deimos sure can. That's one thing being invite only allows for that would have most other sites be taken over the way you describe. Very careful, granular moderation to shape a culture. I guess some may call it tyrannical, but it ultimately is still a private server at the end of the day (and not some part of a Fediverse either. Though the site is open source and users are free to whip up their own Tildes clone, technically).
I mentioned to @deimos in an email, but didn’t really explain myself - maybe the kind of moderation culture that the editors have at Wikipedia would work well here. I wanted to write up a description and how it could be fitted for Tildes. I’ll get on that when I have more time.
But I don’t think he’ll be able to provide the kind of “tyrannical” moderation you describe without a network of moderators/curators.
I helped shape some communities on reddit, they never develop like what you were aiming for though. It’s the beauty and horror of moderation. Your garden grows. The “veterans” know how much work it was to set up the community because it was their work and show appreciation, new users have demands and expectations, act like the community is a given.
So it’s only a matter of time until it’s too much for our great leader. XD
I feel like people have assumed that I don't like goofy or lighthearted things, which is totally fair since my comment doesn't indicate otherwise. But some of my favorite spaces on reddit were gossip subs, satirical circlejerk subs, /r/thepack (a full meme sub where everyone screams in all caps in every comment and tells anyone who uses lowercase that they can't hear them whispering,) etc. I watch standup and countless podcasts from comedians. Trust me, I like funny things, on the whole spectrum from absurdism to sophisticated humor.
I just don't think Tildes would benefit from that type of content and it would make the site less enjoyable for me. Tildes is also not large enough to allow for the types of niche, community-based humor that I enjoyed on reddit, I don't want it to get large enough for that, and it probably won't be that large regardless. So we'd be seeing more generic humor like /r/dadjokes or /r/jokes, which personally, aren't funny to me. However, I agree that we wouldn't just start seeing awful /r/funny type material here, and I'm sure some good posts could come out of having a humor category.
Squabbles.io is right over there, for anyone who is interested in a more lighthearted vibe. And really any of the existing alternatives are more appropriate for humor content than Tildes. Lately I have been pushing back on the idea that all of our content needs to be accessible in one major hub. I think we should let these sites develop their own personalities, yes, but I think part of that is letting change happen gradually and not trying to get the same categories of content on all platforms.
Unlike other sites that typically have generic goals like getting large numbers of people to join and engage in whatever way is most popular, Tildes has a specific purpose and plan for what it's trying to be. I like that specific purpose, and that's why I've been hanging out here.
SPEAK UP BROTHER I CANT HEAR YOU
/joke
SORRY ABOUT THAT, I THINK WE'RE SUPPOSED TO USE OUR INSIDE VOICES ON TILDES, BROTHER! I WAS SAYING THAT EVEN THOUGH I LOVE GOOFY SHIT, I ALSO ENJOY THE MORE SERIOUS VIBE TILDES HAS GOING ON ALREADY! DIFFERENT HOGS TO STROKE FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS, AM I RIGHT?
/uj
You're gonna bring a tear to my eye. I loved that sub so much. :')
Agree. Besides, I already find a lot of good humor in existing posts which I think how it should be - you should be able to find fun in all aspects of life. A dedicated fun group or subforum will soon start appearing cringe worthy like most stand-up shows?
I dunno, I think a group that can be easily unsubscribed from is ok. Might help contain some of the joke comments. Many discord servers have a "memes go here" channel.
Also, in all honesty, it feels like Tildes takes itself a bit too seriously at times. Perhaps moreso now as a reaction to the influx of reddit users. So why not have a place for people to chill out a bit more, especially if users can just unsubscribe?
I think that place is one of the many other reddit replacements that have popped up. I look at my feed on Lemmy or squabbles and it's full of low effort stuff. I'd hate to see that on my Tildes feed.
And, yes, you can unsubscribe, but I worry if we make the place too hospitable for low effort content, even in a single tag, it will drag down the rest.
There are places out there for that already. Let's not do it here. This isn't reddit and doesn't need to try to be.
I feel pretty chill just reading long text posts. :) From what I can see, there is also a lot of casual, chill conversation here already.
Just my take on it. And yes, I would unsubscribe, I won't be throwing a fit when groups are added. But I also just wanted to add that having those groups would still change the culture of the site, even if I filter them out. Either way, it's not the end of the world.
Eh, it really wouldn't. I immediately unsubscribed from ~anime, and never see anything related to that topic. You either trust the users people invite (and the banhammer) or you don't.
What's the benefit of having the place where people can chill out attached to Tildes? I agree that people need that, but I'm interested in why you think it's important for it to be part of Tildes.
Oh I don't think it's important, I don't even care and would probably unsubscribe. I just don't think it's that big a deal. Seems pretty simple to say "Humorous text posts, podcasts, and videos only. No memes, no comics."
It absolutely would be simple. But it doesn't sound like either of us see what the value of making that change would be? Something being easy has little to do with whether it's worth doing.
OP seems to think it would be worth it. My point was just that it probably wouldn't be a terrible Tildes ending decision even if one doesn't like the idea.
My wife, suffering creature that she is, is currently reviewing a decade of customer feedback in an attempt to derive useful guidance to update her organization's educational program. 50% of the user feedback fundamentally fails to display reading comprehension on the part of the user with regards to the survey questions, and most of the rest of it shows a lack of comprehension regarding the goals of the classes or the items that must legally be covered in the process.
Which is to say that the OP can be asking for something, but is not necessarily coming from a place of comprehension of Tildes as a site, what Tildes is about philosophically, or why things are the way they are. I'm not saying that they're wrong to want it, but it's impossible to implement even 25% of user feedback in a given system, and so I'm comfortable saying that I don't see how to implement their suggestion in a way that jibes with what already exists.
There was a recent ~tildes.official topic for suggesting new groups:
Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans
However, I suspect a ~jokes, ~humor, ~comedy or ~funny group might not be particularly fitting here though, since "In-depth content (primarily text-based) is the most important". So any group dedicated to humorous content would likely require some strict submission rules in place, in order to prevent it getting overrun with low-effort "fluff" like memes, etc. I personally wouldn't be entirely opposed to the idea though, since I am a huge fan of stand-up comedy and would love a place to post about, and discuss that sort of slightly more substantial humor focused content.
So... ~arts.comedy?
Yeah, that could definitely work. Having it inside ~arts would make it a bit more formal, which could help it stay a bit more high-quality.
That was my thinking. Putting it into ~arts makes it about the performance of stand-up comedy and other forms of performative humour, rather than just making silly online jokes.
I'm still really new to Tildes, but I didn't realize what was so different until this post. Low-effort joke responses and memes are so much less prevalent here.
I love it.
Too much of a good thing (humor) becomes endless noise and static. It can often drown out meaningful discussion and can become more of a collective wink and nod.
Toward the end of my time on RIF, I became so numb towards popular subreddits, because the same 10 jokes were on every topic, multiple times. A bot could have made them all, for all I know. There was no personality, just in-group language.
As for the future of Tildes, I'm torn. On the one hand, I think it'd be nice to have a one-stop site to stay connected to the things I care about, including cat gifs, jokes, news, my hobbies, and more.
And yet, I want Tildes to be the place people go when they want to get something deep, both informationally and socially.
Are those two options mutually exclusive? I genuinely don't know.
If that category was intended for in depth discussion of humor, and it was moderated as such, sure! There's certainly space within humor that's worthy of discussion. You might have better luck adding to the recent thread specifically asking for group input, though.
It's basically a cliche that dissecting humor ruins it. I don't think a "serious" humor-based discussion board would work. However, a fun place to share jokes (someone mentioned standup routines) and comedy would be fine I think for tildes. There's a lot of wiggle room between being sticks in the mud and having low-tier meme comments spammed everywhere, a happy middle should exist.
I think it depends some on whether you're thinking about comedy as a producer or consumer, right? When you're trying to laugh at a joke, dissecting it kills it. But if you're trying to hone a joke you're working on? Some people are effortlessly funny, but a lot of people work at it. But that's really the question, isn't it? What counts as "in depth" when it comes to humor or jokes? What would that look like?
I think the population of humorists trying to craft joke and thus would need such discussion are vastly outnumbered by people who want to share something funny they found. If somebody wants to discuss the artform of joke making, I think an appropriately tagged thread in ~arts would be sufficient unless for some reason we reach a critical mass of standup comedians that we'd need a dedicated board!
Right, but that's the point I'm getting at:
When someone wants to share something funny they found, what does in-depth content look like in that context? I'm really asking, because I don't know.
This really depends on what's being shared. Obviously, a simple joke image/meme is bad form, but a funny essay or satirical article? Might actually work well for discussion -- though I suspect such a post would be more likely posted in its topical group as the humor might be of only secondary importance. Lots of posts here don't generate high quality discourse. To use one example: Movie trailers only rarely seem successful to this site's intended goal. After thinking about it, I'm not convinced a dedicated ~jokes or ~humor would be worth it, but I would like to see more amusing (not low-effort) content just posted in general.
Absolutely. I'd love more stuff to laugh about on Tildes, but it's a hard line to walk.
The problem I see with this type of content is that it mostly creates reaction rather than interaction. The kinds of submissions whose primary purpose is "look at this funny/cool thing" are naturally suited to passive, feed-based consumption: you see the post, laugh or go "neat", maybe upvote it and move on. They rarely serve as good discussion starters, with comment sections on platforms that allow such content usually devolving into endless chains of low-hanging jokes.
Of course, I also like to veg out and just look at funny/cool things sometimes, but there are other places that are far more suited for that. I think Tildes culture of involved discussions is special and something to be cherished and protected; it doesn't need to become a one-stop shop for everything.
There is no karma here, so an active discussion is about the only reward you can gain by posting anyway. It's best to leave sharing the funnies for friend group chats.
But don’t you think that since there is no karma, the comments won’t be so cheap? It seems to me the problem of low-hanging jokes you’re describing is already solved and the humor community here will feel different by default.
I bet since the platform is not tailored to low-effort feed-consumption and the community values discussion, the jokes will be unlike what you describe.
For example, as a topic I post “Titles of classic books that did not make it past the editor’s desk” and the community tries to be funny… “ The Big Gatsby, A Farewell to Weapons, For Whom the Bell Rings, Good Expectations, Mr Zhivago, Two Days in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch…” The examples are from a game Salman Rushdie used to play with Christopher Hitchens.
I think Tildes is perfect for this.
Tildes is already doing this. Not often. But it's there.
Based on your topic here, the responses, and this comment of yours... I think people don't quite understand what you're proposing. Everyone seems to be assuming you want somewhere for people to post memes and funny photos. But, this comment of yours seems to give a different impression.
Maybe you could edit your main topic, to explain exactly what sort of content this jokes/humour/funny group would host, and how people would interact with it. That might prevent more misunderstandings.
Maybe, but it is a little disheartening what the community assumes as humor though. I worded my post a little bit more generally to also gauge the response. It seems people here got so used to low-effort humor… that low-effort became a priori. And instead of seeing what the Tildes could do to humor, they dismiss the premise.
I moderate r/funny so I see the miserable state of humor communities online, but my fellow Tilderinos seem to feel that humor on the internet is a flood of dead horses and we’d just be adding to the beating.
Well, of course. Many of us have spent quite a bit of time on the internet, including sites like Reddit and Facebook and TikTok. We've seen what passes for humour on the internet. So, if you've got a different idea of what humour might be suitable for Tildes, it might be helpful for you to explain what, exactly, you have in mind.
However, if you don't want to explain what you have in mind, that is absolutely your prerogative.
I get what you are saying but explaining it is not the issue here. Who am I to decide what is most fitting? Personally, I think all forms are suitable because I see incredible value in all forms of humor. Even memes. It’s not a satisfactory answer for you and maybe there’s just a minority that wants alternate book titles, limericks and long form jokes… I would also like to be surprised by other forms of humor. Exploration is fun, the format does need to be flexible to some extent. But I worry about another issue.
So many here are burned out when it comes to humor, they try to disconnect Tildes from the internet instead of letting the format (no karma for example) do its thing and adjusting the dials while it’s in alpha. I want to see what happens while it’s still small. I think humor here will feel different since low-effort isn’t rewarded.
And going back to my selfish preferences, I have a suspicion that this format would promote what I kind of prefer rather than the low-effort repost karma-farming culture that is available everywhere else.
There seems to be a slight mischaracterization here. I can't speak for others, of course, but personally I absolutely love humorous stuff. I laugh at the dumbest things and make jokes all the time — just not on Tildes.
Tildes has an express vision: to foster in-depth content, and that is what I come here for and what I expect to see. I can tell some people (not saying you necessarily) come to Tildes from Reddit with the expectations of another Place for Everything, but I don't think it is (or should be) that. It is far from the only platform on the internet, and I think it's important to preserve what makes it stand out from the rest rather than try to put it in line with others.
Does your idea have to involve Tildes? Can your needs be fulfilled by another platform? How will your proposal fit in with Tildes' goals? These are all questions that are absolutely worth considering first, in my opinion.
And it's not like humor is taboo here, there's just an expectation of it not being the main subject. It's best used like spice: a little bit elevates a dish, but you wouldn't want to eat a whole bowl.
That’s a good point. Maybe it does not involve Tildes. Maybe most people here want a sprinkle of humor instead of a shot glass of standup. I do feel the hesitancy in the air.
But I hope Tildes as a platform does not perceive humor as being shallow - laughs are not always just chuckles (I don’t think it does).
I also don’t see a conflict - curating a place for humor with the express vision in mind you linked to seems fine to me.
Okay. Put your money where your mouth is. Start making the sort of posts you think Tildes should have. To borrow a dictum from writing: show, don't tell. Show people what you want here. I've already demonstrated at least one post which is flat-out asking for jokes, and there are more, so there's precedent.
One message that we're saying and repeating to many new Tilders is: you don't have to wait for a group to be created in order to post the content you want to see here. There's no jokes/humour/funny group here, but there have been posts asking for jokes. There's no ~humanities.history sub-group, but there are posts about history. There's no ~politics group, but there are posts about politics. So... post. Make the posts you want to see here. Encourage other people to make more posts.
You're more likely to get a jokes/humour/funny group if you can demonstrate a demand for that group, and you demonstrate that demand by making posts, and you show that it won't bring down the tone of the place. It's a cliche, but... be the change you want to see in the world.
The absolute worst thing that can happen is that Deimos will remove your posts, and send you a very polite considerate message explaining why he doesn't want this content on his website. He won't ban you. He won't publicly berate you. He's not that kind of person.
So post your humorous topics!
I’ll run out quite fast, but that is my intention!
Ultimately this is purely speculation, and we can't really know for sure without seeing it play out in practice. A community's culture is a fragile thing and can easily be overrun by people who are not familiar or not interested in the core philosophy if given a platform. We've seen this happen time and again on Reddit, for example, and I've had personal experience with this in communities I myself used to run. Even on Tildes, I feel like there has been a (slightly worrying) uptick in sarcastic, snarky, or confrontational sentiments in comments by people who registered in the past few weeks.
Personally, I do not come to Tildes to be entertained in a traditional sense, and expanding in that direction does not add value for me. While the example you give is not necessarily "low effort", I don't think content like that really amounts to much.
edit: That being said, if communities move to become more independent than they are currently, I wouldn't really care if there was a ~funny if I could simply filter it out.
I disagree that a community or group for humor is necessary. As you said, there's plenty of witty and tasteful comments around and those do as much as they can to lighten things up. They do fine without a group. Comedy is subjective, and at some point someone is going to say something that you won't find funny at all.
A better way to lighten things up would be posting
or reading positive news and stories, imo. Those are usually always positive and are intended to lighten things up, and I think the forum needs more of that to counter the negative news that lands here.
My first experience with forums was the BBS totse. I was very young and not very smart so I didn't have a lot to contribute to the more serious sections. Half-Baked was the one section devoted to being silly, and I spent a LOT of time here. It was mostly all text based humor and crude in-jokes created by the people who liked to hangout there. You would get to know these people, their sense of humor and you could play with them in a way I haven't been able to experience since, and I miss it. I miss being silly with strangers for the love of the game. It was text based improv and the medium allowed you to take your time to think of something clever, or how to add to the story.
Granted, there was plenty of low effort jokes too, none of which has a place here. But the good stuff was incredibly impressive. I'm brand new here so I don't want to be the guy who comes into the party and immediately takes control of the music. If something like what I remember was allowed to happen here at Tildes, I would be beyond thrilled. I also completely understand that this might not be the place for it as well.
Ahh... memories.
Back in Ye Olde Days (nearly 15 years ago), I liked a page on Facebook. This was back when pages weren't companies advertising their goods, but just people creating spaces for things they liked. This particular page was about... punctuation. Yes. I am so geeky I liked a page promoting good punctuation. It was just a social media statement.
However... any time the page owner made a post about bad punctuation in the wild, lots of people would comment on it. It didn't take long for an "in group" to form. We knew each other. We would bounce off each other, making witticisms and witty responses to witticisms. The comment threads on each post would stretch into hundreds of comments. We developed a history, and in-jokes, and a common language. We were like mice running around in the basement of that group, having our fun while the page owner posted their bad punctuation examples. It was some of the best times I've spent on the internet.
Eventually, a couple of bright sparks decided to create our own private group, to stop the pretence that we were discussing punctuation, and just embrace the fact that we enjoyed playing with each other. So, we moved off that punctuation page and into our own private group.
More than a decade later, that private group still exists, and is still active. There've been some additions and some absences, but the group continues, with most of the original members still there. These days, it's a combination of silliness, sincerity, and sympathy. I don't visit the group very often these days - not because I don't like the group, but because I've been using Facebook less and less. But, if I pop into that group, I'll be welcomed as an old friend, and I'll see a lot of familiar faces I'm very fond of, and I'll be able to take up right where I left off. (I really should visit it more often...)
https://tildes.net/~tildes/15ql/what_types_of_content_do_you_want_to_see_on_tildes#comment-7z8x
In addition to what others have said about the philosophy of tildes and intentional bias towards depth, I think it's worth noting that, unlike Reddit, tildes does not want to be everything to everybody. There's a whole wide web--if you want humor content, find a site that provides that and visit that too. If you find something on one of those sites that you would like to discuss - more than just, "hey, isn't this a funny picture?" -- then it could be posted here.
The upshots of this are (1) it keeps lowest common denominator "humor" posts from clogging tildes, (2) it potentially exposes people to new humor sources, and (3) it promotes the web as something to explore (anti-aggregation).
I had a few discussions here and basically the conclusion I came to is this: with the Tildes philosophy of focusing on in-depth content and the lack of karma, the type of humor that will thrive here would have to be deeper and of the 'greatest' common denominator.
I think there is a hesitancy in the community - a lot of people automatically think of low-effort content when they see the word funny or humor on the internet, blocking out the possibility of giving it a chance to be something that won't just make you chuckle, but laugh and think.
I don't think 'humor' will clog Tildes, I think the community here can maintain a regular and uninterrupted stream of actual humor. But yeah... a lot of skepticism around here when it comes to humor. There seems to be an invisible 'no funny business' sign hanging in the Tildes lobby.
I don't know if that's fair. There's plenty of room to be funny in context. Why isn't that enough?
If there is a "funny" forum, then every post is, by its nature, someone asserting "this is funny." And 1) 999 times out of a 1000 that is wrong, 2) it's always much funnier to encounter something witty and laugh than be instructed that it's laughing time.
Reddit's "funny" subreddit is a cesspool of bumper sticker grade humor, and I would hate to see this site go down that path.
Humor is the spice of life, but it's not the entire goddamn meal. A lot of people don't get that. These dudes will eat spoonfuls of chipotle and then pat themselves in the back because "spice is a part of life and we need an outlet, therefore pass me that goddamn tub of cayenne and a bigger spoon". I think there's plenty of ways we can incorporate more humor here without necessarily devolving into 9gag, reddit etc.
If we want to continue with the spice analogy, then we can leave things as they are and not build spaces around humor. Just let humor be a spice. It will find its way into our comments and submissions (as it currently does) but never actually try to outdo the meat and potatoes.
If we see humor more as an unstoppable reflex, like a sneeze or taking a shit, something inevitable that needs an "outlet", then maybe we need to treat this site like a road trip where the strongest bladder decides when to pull over for a rest stop so everyone can get it out of their system. Maybe we can have a weekly scheduled topic "just shit it out and make it snappy" type threads where voting is disabled and you can post whatever you want. You want your damn pun threads? You want your ooole switcheroos (I dropped my coffee cup and it sucked > can confirm, I'm the coffee cup durrhurr)? You itching to drop that one "guy walks into a bar" joke? All good here, drop that load. Post that link to the goddamn meme you've been desperately wanting to share. Post that single word reply. Shit it out. @ mention that dude who left a comment that left you sour and have your fisticuffs / slap fight. Hell, even Peruvians have an annual festival where you can get as drunk as you want, find the guy that pissed you off that one day and then just pummel the everloving shit out of each other to settle your differences, and then be happy that it's out of your system. We can be this way about humor, maybe?
Or if we were to build a community section around humor, though, I would like to see heavy moderation to shape a much different kind of submission (as well as maybe hiding the votes). Give me humorous essays. Give me "stand up style" observations on a subject. Ask us how to get you out of a stupid predicament. Get creative. Get ORIGINAL. Get us involved in stupid, hilarious mental experiments, or treat it like a campfire roundup where everyone is encouraged to contribute and participate. I don't mind the "ask Tildes" style storytime prompts centered around humorous experiences either (in fact, I love those).
The internet has plenty of outlets for youtube videos and single image submissions, one liners and punchline bits. Let's not cultivate that here.
I doubt it. There’s a lot of tightwads on here that would protest it intensely. Ironically I think you’ll have to wait for the community moderation system those same types are driving for, that’s when the whole thing will likely get away from them.
That’s a good point. It’ll come anyway.
I think by preventing the alpha community from exploring some bigger topics that could change the way Tildes feels, we will be surprised by the flood of new groups forming that don’t conform to the feel once the gate is opened. By making a group for humor now behind our walls, we establish what kind of humor is appreciated and it’s more likely new users will respect the existing forum.
So yeah, the opposition has not thought through the sustainability of their position!
My two cents from what I have seen inhabiting this space for a few weeks if that talk.casual.jokes is where it fits in the taxonomy right now. If Deimos wants to forbid it, he has the right, but people are already doing it and voting it up. I read the dad joke thread and enjoyed it.
But I also really like the culture here as it exists now. I respect what the oldtimers have to say about it.