Suggestion: distinguishing users
One of the things I dislike about Reddit is how the username is something very easy to gloss over. Unless a user is super prolific, you don't ever remember a person on Reddit. I feel this is a big part of what makes Reddit so unpleasant - you are just one voice among many, a cog in the machine, so every time you post it's not that different to just posting from a throwaway. Generally, I think this really contributes to the feeling that on Reddit, you are just an opinion, not an actual person with thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Additionally, it protects people who post toxic comments, because it's easy to forget their username and so when you encounter them again, you can't easily tell they are the person from before, unless you check their post history.
On smaller subreddits, this problem is partially solved with flairs. The problem with those is that they do not stay the same across Reddit (which I guess is a matter of personal preference, participating in Reddit as a whole vs a bunch of separate communities), and they often serve as a way to add relevant info about the user, so they are just generic groups that a lot of people share.
I think ~ could really benefit from having some kind of way to tell one user from one another better. Either by making the usernames more prominent somehow, by adding flairs, or possibly even avatars (I know, that's so incredibly retro, but it does help see you the other person as a person and not just as an opinion on the internet).
I think that's what's great about Reddit. It doesn't matter who you are, it matters what you say. And you still have a profile, so you can be a personality, and you can have a conversation, but every new conversation is uninfluenced by that, which is great because there is no bias against or for you.
~ is great with it too, though I'd like to have users inside the conversation more visible. You can distinguish the OP by that thing, but if I answered someone later down the line, and I'm not the OP, I might easily get lost. It'd be great if we could have some kind of functionality like that.
That's a really good point I've not considered. I don't think it's 100% true, as anyone can check your post history, so there can still be bias, and on the other hand, no one really does, so you don't really have a personality on Reddit unless you're one of the power users. But I understand why people would want for every conversation to be a new start. I would personally prefer to have it the other way though :)
I'm on the same page with really liking how identities kind of fade out unless you really want to track down someone's profile or RES tag them or something. The substance of each comment takes priority over the individual making the comment.
You make a great point about tracking voices within a single thread though, it definitely would be nice to find a way to make that easier without overemphasizing individual identities. Maybe just assigning a random color to each user on each page? Dota 2 does something similar where players are assigned a color for the duration of a match and it seems to work pretty well there.
I like the random color idea. It would help readers keep track of a user throughout a particular thread but not the whole site.
Another option - Just do avatars at favicon size as the current thumbnail for links is (which is broken and just a blue outline right now I think)
The issue with identicons is that they're random and occasionally it'll spit out something that is VERY memorable and that will become something of value in the same way random textures applied to guns in csgo spit out rare accidents that are ridiculously valuable.
You'll get unintended consequences such as farming username creation to try and get a good random image. Or you'll get the sale of accounts for the random identifier when it is this (It gave me that for the name "Awooppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp")
Someone with a smiley or sad face would become a celebrity in no time at all.
To eliminate the chance of farming based on the appearance of identicons: use their own username in combination as a 'random salt' when generating for everyone else.
So, for me you would see the identicon generated by the text "jtxt.Awoo" others would see me as something else. "jtxt.yourusername"
Everyone sees it for what it is: a clientside unique visual idenitifier of everyone else.
(Perhaps also: let each user tune it, turn off idenicons / or to increase the effect, use it as a subtle color/texture in the background of each post... allow them to change the 'random salt' to something else, so they see everyone as something else.)
I have to agree with this - it's a good point I've not thought of.
I've seen some working link favicons - YouTube and The Atlantic, for sure
Wow I never thought about the fact that you could game your username to generate a memorable identicon. Really good point against using them.
Honestly, even just a bit of flair text would be helpful. Identicons sound like a great idea too!
Woah, this identicon thing is pretty cool.
I typed in my name, Ten Schippnick, and that's what it spit out. So cool.
Exactly. What is being said is more important than who is saying it. The discussion should be an exchange of opinions, not a clash of personalities.
I agree, but I'd argue that the potential of personality clash is much lesser than the impact it has for the poster to feel like more than just a number. Honestly for a lot of Reddit threads, you could replace everyone's username with numbers and it would not make a shred of difference. Like I said in another comment, I'd prefer knowing I talk to people. It also makes it easier to remember that opinions are not formed out of context of a personality, and that sometimes, someone might have a certain opinion because of their circumstances/experiences etc.
Plus, I don't feel like there is much of an exchange on Reddit - but that's a different problem.
One of the things that attracted me to reddit years ago was the clean interface in comparison with forums, which were much more popular at the time. While reddit may not have been the first site to use them, threaded comments were a minor revolution. Avatars can be fun, but take up a lot of space, and often become an issue for moderators. They would also go against the principles of keeping this website light on data use.
Compare a threaded conversation here to one on a forum. A simple one sentence reply will quote the entire parent post as well as having an avatar, some information about how long the user has been on the site and how many posts they've made, and possibly a user signature, which could be very long and annoying.
I really like this why don't we avoid avatars and heavy page elements in favor of simply changing the color of our names? It will certainly make things more readable, I think
Avatars on old school forums were useful for that exact purpose. I agree there needs to be an unobtrusive way of customizing your appearance when posting.
To be completely honest, I don't give two shits who most people are, or what their username is. And I don't want to. There are a small handful of people whose names I remember, because I have had multiple interactions with them and was paying close attention because the content was good.
I do not want any flashy username or avatars popping up all over the place competing for valuable attention over the things people are writing, like we used to have with MySpace. If you want people to know your name, say something worth paying attention to.
I can only agree wholeheartedly. I already said it several time.
The focus on tildes should the good quality content, not drama queens or cult of egos.
You can go back to facebook or twitter for that.
I think there are quite a lot of options between a cult of egos and having plaintext usernames that don't really stand out from the rest of the text though!
What if we could simply choose our font? Id love my name in Comic Sans.
You monster. :P
I agree wtih this, though I think ~'s encouragement of engaging content and discussions will make it at least marginally better than Reddit in this regard. It matters who you're talking to and you're expected to be more involved than you ever are on Reddit, barring a few subs. (Which is why I'd also like a full comment history, but alas...)
I imagine the different levels of Trust / rep users earn may be expressed in a way that encourages this.
I agree with the problem you identify, though. Part of what makes good communities is community celebrities and knowing the power users, almost across the board. It's cool to know the regulars as long as you avoid it becoming too much of an old boys club, and visual aids to this would help a lot. I would love to somehow work in avatars, but I think we may be in the minority on that, plus I'm not sure how it would work with Reddit style nesting. Still, I'd love to eventually see things that make users stand out more. I wanna know yall and that makes it a lot easier.
I agree on making users more identifiable in some way.
Reddit's lack of this led to users finding a way to do it themselves - with names like I_RAPE_CATS and to a lesser extent an earlier predecessor Trapped_In_Reddit, and so on.
Users will find other ways to make themselves identifiable that you don't necessarily want if you don't give it to them.
My suspicion is that the primary cause of that feeling with Reddit is the overwhelming population size.
Some people like that you're only as good as your current comment, others crave something more personal. Are there ways to satisfy both? One way could be user tags that are only visible to the tagger. That would also stay within the text aesthetic.
Reddit Enhancement Script (RES) is commonly used to do that on Reddit. Whenever I have a meaningful exchange with someone, or I want to remember them for some other reason, they get a custom flair. RES automatically adds the URL of the comment on which you selected the username, so you can always return to see why you chose to make this user more memorable.
Most of my RES tags on Reddit are to remind me which people I do not want to engage with again. It stops me wasting time on those people.
Yes, it's very useful for that too :)
The population size is definitely a part of it, but I suspect you don't need a super large population before all the usernames begin to look the same if there is nothing else to tell them apart.
User tags sound like a good option, but unless you want to pre-emptively tag everyone you come across, they would probably not help you realise that you are talking to a person you already talked to previously - not any more than a username already does.
I expect that forums very quickly run into Dunbar's number-type limits, regardless of individual branding options.
Yeah, in this model, the responsibility for maintaining the system rests entirely on those who want the system, though with duplicated work. Not sure if that's better than implicitly asking everyone to participate, as avatar systems do.
A feature that allowed the sharing of private tagsets on request would go some way to help with duplication of effort, but also sounds potentially quite clique-y.
Thanks for the link about Dunbar's number. I'd read about the general limit in Sapiens without knowing it had a name.
I totally agree. Maybe an avatar (small) and or a customizeable, either per group or sitewide flair to add a bit of "you" to your profile. Just because Reddit doesn't allow individuality doesn't mean we can't.
This would be a great way for tildes to make money—let people buy a custom icon to put next to their name.
i would like a little fez next to my username.
I would love to have a little profile pic icon thing. The only problem with this is that people can post NSFW images...
What we say is obviously the focus and primary means of expression but that doesn't mean we have to be disembodied voices.
Our usernames provide an identity but it's a limited one--things like avatars help to build recognition and I think provide a valuable bit of community building. I'm interested in what people say but I'm also interested in who they are, in making connections and feeling like I'm a part of a group. I think Tildes can provide both of those things. For those who feel very strongly about it, a per-user enable/disable for avatars could be implemented. They could even be disabled by default, along with other controversial features like individual group-based CSS/styling.
What if you decentralized the upvote system? Not only does a user have a net karma, but it has karma earned from you