Hello, beautiful humanoids! I am the user formally known as @Kat, if you were around and remember me from forever ago. I was the original Tildes power user, according to some people who shall not...
Exemplary
Hello, beautiful humanoids! I am the user formally known as @Kat, if you were around and remember me from forever ago. I was the original Tildes power user, according to some people who shall not be named here (largely because they are now a dear friend of mine; funny how things work).
During my original tenure, my best contribution to Tildes was, IMO, my regular demographics surveys to check on how the community was progressing. Neither I nor anyone else seems to have done one for years now, and Tildes has been through quite a lot in that time, so I thought we were long overdue for another one!
The form will automatically close on the 1st of 2025 at midnight. You have an entire two-ish weeks to get your answers in, and your answers are even editable if something changes in that time. Soon thereafter, I will create a results topic highlighting anything fascinating, along with aggregate answers. I look forward to seeing everything y’all have to say. 😸
ETA2: Despite my best efforts, there is already one person who is addressing me as though I created and own Tildes. I think this legally means that @Deimos has to transfer the domain to me.
Per De Vaan (2008), from Proto-Indo-European *l(H)u-(s)tro- (“dirty place”), from Proto-Indo-European *le(H)w- (the same root as lutum (“mud, dirt, clay”)). Valpy (1828) proposed instead a borrowing, with change of *d to /l/, from Ancient Greek *δύστρον (*dústron), from δύω (dúō, “to plunge”).
Etymology 2
From Old Latin *loustrom, of uncertain origin, with multiple theories proposed:
from Proto-Indo-European *lewkstrom, from *lewk- (“to make bright”) (whence lūceō),
or from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃strom, from *lewh₃- (“to wash”) (whence lavō),
or from Proto-Indo-European *lewHstrom, from *lewH- (“to expiate, set free”) (whence luō).
Question 1: so how did any of these meanings turn in 5 years? :/ Question 2: I always forget which is which, etymology vs entomology. Can you help me find an easy way to remember? @..@
Question 1: so how did any of these meanings turn in 5 years? :/
Question 2: I always forget which is which, etymology vs entomology. Can you help me find an easy way to remember? @..@
The Wikipedia article I linked in my first comment explains the connection: p.s. Ants live on Ents, who study them using Entymology. ;)
The Wikipedia article I linked in my first comment explains the connection:
The lustration was originally a sacrifice for expiation and purification offered by one of the censors in the name of the Roman people at the close of the taking of the census. The sacrifice was often in the form of an animal sacrifice, known as a suovetaurilia.
These censuses were taken at five-year intervals, thus a lūstrum came to refer to the five-year inter-census period. Lustrum (from luo, Ancient Greek: λούω) is a lustration or purification of the whole Roman people performed by one of the censors in the Campus Martius, after the taking of the census was over. As this purification took place only once in five years, the word lūstrum was also used to designate the time between two lustra.
p.s. Ants live on Ents, who study them using Entymology. ;)
How I remember them is as follows: Ent sounds like Ant, antomology is the bug one. I learned the vowels as a e i o u and sometimes y. EtYmology deals with the sometimes y, so it's the word one.
How I remember them is as follows:
Ent sounds like Ant, antomology is the bug one.
I learned the vowels as a e i o u and sometimes y. EtYmology deals with the sometimes y, so it's the word one.
From explain XKCD. Yes it would be much funnier, but more tragic when Im about to die from the giant ant invasion and @cfabbro shows up
In the title text, we find out the scientists accidentally call another superhero focused on Adam in the Biblical book of Genesis. This is probably Adam-ology-Man, a pun on Etymology-Man, but might be Etiology-Man (the study of causation and attribution), Ontology-Man (the study of being and existence), Ethology-Man (the study of human character, with a focus on its formation and evolution). Or perhaps Anthropology-Man or Anthropogeny-Man.
From explain XKCD.
Yes it would be much funnier, but more tragic when Im about to die from the giant ant invasion and @cfabbro shows up
Weirdly, not the first time I've gotten this. Not a Mandela effect—just a decent memory of what actually happened somewhat degraded by time. :) I was dying from atlantoaxial instability, and I...
Weirdly, not the first time I've gotten this.
Not a Mandela effect—just a decent memory of what actually happened somewhat degraded by time. :) I was dying from atlantoaxial instability, and I talked pretty candidly about that on Tildes at the time. Luckily, I had life-saving surgery before it actually killed me—but after I deleted my Tildes account.
Damn, do you have any links to a post or a blog where you talk about that? I have a friend with craniocervical instability that is fortunately not bad enough to warrant surgery (spinal fusion I...
Damn, do you have any links to a post or a blog where you talk about that? I have a friend with craniocervical instability that is fortunately not bad enough to warrant surgery (spinal fusion I assume?), but might be interested to read about it nevertheless.
I don't yet! I've wanted to plenty of times, but just never had the... ability, I guess? I am still considering it, though. You're free to give my contact information to your friend, though! :)...
I don't yet! I've wanted to plenty of times, but just never had the... ability, I guess? I am still considering it, though.
You're free to give my contact information to your friend, though! :) You can PM me to ask for it.
People who get properly diagnosed and successfully treated with these issues seem to still be so uncommon that I'm sure it would be valuable to many other patients. No pressure, just saying that...
People who get properly diagnosed and successfully treated with these issues seem to still be so uncommon that I'm sure it would be valuable to many other patients. No pressure, just saying that some interest exists, I would certainly read it as well. Regarding contact information, I'll ask if she's interested - I think she's currently in a phase where pretty much all of her energy is occupied by just trying to live a semi-normal life and there's no energy left for things that feel like actively doing something, I assume you might know what that's like.
I just wanted to let you know that the survey form is failing when submitting for me. I don't imagine there is much you can do about it since you are not the one hosting it, just making you aware....
I just wanted to let you know that the survey form is failing when submitting for me. I don't imagine there is much you can do about it since you are not the one hosting it, just making you aware.
Edit: it looks like someone else figured out the issue, the captcha was being blocked.
Uh oh. My ssssssecret is out! Also, welcome back Kat. We missed you! :)
As always, this is completely unofficial and not approved or run by @Deimos or his shadowy council of lizardpeople. (I know what you truly are, @cfabbro.)
I've always wondered this about the cabal of lizardpeople who secretly rule the world, so perhaps you can elucidate: When you shed your skin, does it come off in one big sheet, or does it come...
I've always wondered this about the cabal of lizardpeople who secretly rule the world, so perhaps you can elucidate:
When you shed your skin, does it come off in one big sheet, or does it come away piecemeal like? Also, are you folks true ectotherms? How does that affect the number of orphan hearts you need to eat to survive?
Bah, how primitive do you think we are to just let our skin slough off like that!? Our dead scales are atomized during our daily laser showers! And as for orphan hearts, those are unfortunately...
Bah, how primitive do you think we are to just let our skin slough off like that!? Our dead scales are atomized during our daily laser showers! And as for orphan hearts, those are unfortunately only a rare delicacy these days. Charles Dickens really ruined that for us by making all you humans start to care about what happens to the little morsels! Nowadays we have to get by on lab grown orphan organs. :(
The world is in a sorry state indeed if our reptilian overlords have been brought so low as to sustain themselves through ethical means. Here's hoping some brash up-and-comer runs on a platform of...
The world is in a sorry state indeed if our reptilian overlords have been brought so low as to sustain themselves through ethical means.
Here's hoping some brash up-and-comer runs on a platform of MLPEA: "Make Lizard People Evil Again."
Filled out the survey! We've never met and I am now curious about your history on Tildes (the original power user??), but the survey was fun to fill out. Got a little laugh at some of the small...
Filled out the survey! We've never met and I am now curious about your history on Tildes (the original power user??), but the survey was fun to fill out. Got a little laugh at some of the small text.
Thanks so much for filling it out! There was a point in time where I had the most comments in every sub-community except ~sports, ~comics, and ~anime (at least for the ones that existed back...
Thanks so much for filling it out!
We've never met and I am now curious about your history on Tildes (the original power user??)
There was a point in time where I had the most comments in every sub-community except ~sports, ~comics, and ~anime (at least for the ones that existed back then), and the most topics in a solid chunk of them. This displeased some people, and the resulting tension and Discourse™ is why my original account was vaporized.
All I remember, is someone trying to steal the vote for what tildes users should be called. I am glad we aren't going to see a repeat of the great Tilderino scandal of 2018.
All I remember, is someone trying to steal the vote for what tildes users should be called.
I am glad we aren't going to see a repeat of the great Tilderino scandal of 2018.
oh my god that is such a throwback. I am astonished anyone remembers that (in a positive way). I still strongly maintain it should've been waves, but I am gracious enough to admit when the...
oh my god that is such a throwback. I am astonished anyone remembers that (in a positive way).
I still strongly maintain it should've been waves, but I am gracious enough to admit when the ignorant masses vote incorrectly in numbers greater than my own.
Nice to meet you 😊. Thanks for the survey. I didn't know what controversy would result when I asked people's preferences for a name for users. Many people replied 'users' thanks but about half had...
Nice to meet you 😊.
Thanks for the survey.
I didn't know what controversy would result when I asked people's preferences for a name for users. Many people replied 'users' thanks but about half had suggestions.
I don't know who you are, but I see you are SOMEBODY for a lot of people that I recognize. Just for this very reason it was my pleasure to fill out the form for you. If you mean so much for those...
I don't know who you are, but I see you are SOMEBODY for a lot of people that I recognize. Just for this very reason it was my pleasure to fill out the form for you. If you mean so much for those people, you mean so much for me as well.
(and also because I'm quite curious what will come out of it)
Thank you! I've been a lurker for quite a while and this comment was the push to finally change that. The normal path seems to be to request an invite from within another platform, such as Reddit,...
Thank you! I've been a lurker for quite a while and this comment was the push to finally change that.
The normal path seems to be to request an invite from within another platform, such as Reddit, but as someone that doesn't use those platforms it can be difficult to find invites.
Welcome to the land of the speaking, (up)voting and post-submitting! Just to clarify, as per the docs, and as far as I understand it, you do not need to use another platform for an invite. Unless...
Thank you! I've been a lurker for quite a while and this comment was the push to finally change that.
Welcome to the land of the speaking, (up)voting and post-submitting!
The normal path seems to be to request an invite from within another platform, such as Reddit, but as someone that doesn't use those platforms it can be difficult to find invites.
Just to clarify, as per the docs, and as far as I understand it, you do not need to use another platform for an invite. Unless email counts as a platform. :P
I actually did try an email to the invites address back in November. I'd previously heard that those do take a few days to get replies, but it's been a few weeks without success. Maybe I'd...
I actually did try an email to the invites address back in November. I'd previously heard that those do take a few days to get replies, but it's been a few weeks without success. Maybe I'd eventually get a reply, but I also didn't want to harass the invites inbox about it by sending multiple requests. So from that experience I got the impression that a DM to someone on r/tildes was likely a more reliable path.
I got my invitation from the email address, but Deimos is the single point of contact. The justification is privacy but it leads to long delays. The reddit interaction is much faster. I'm glad you...
I got my invitation from the email address, but Deimos is the single point of contact. The justification is privacy but it leads to long delays. The reddit interaction is much faster.
The Official Invite rounds on /r/tildes are always an option too. I still check /r/tildes every day and send out invites to nearly* everyone who requests one there. I posted the latest one 13 days...
I’ll ask now: any long-running, upstanding members of the community with strong data visualization skills? The opportunity to have someone make some fancy graphs (beyond what I can whip up in...
I’ll ask now: any long-running, upstanding members of the community with strong data visualization skills? The opportunity to have someone make some fancy graphs (beyond what I can whip up in office software) is the entire reason for that part of the disclaimer. 😸
You will receive a .csv copy of the data, after the survey has closed and contents have been altered according to user request from the final freeform text box. You will be asked to guarantee that you won't share those contents. You will be paid in, uh, my begging the other waves to give you Exemplary labels. 💸
PM me if you wish to take me up on this fabulous offer.
A few days in, and it's going quite well! I thought I would update every now and then by replying to some freeform comments that are directed more at me than at giving opinions re: Tildes. I'll...
A few days in, and it's going quite well! I thought I would update every now and then by replying to some freeform comments that are directed more at me than at giving opinions re: Tildes. I'll reply to this comment whenever I do. Also, I just published a short psychological horror story.
Please note: all freeform comments have been rewritten, whilst maintaining the core intent/message, to help disconnect comments from writing style and heighten privacy.
Up to 426 responses. 🎉 I am particularly fascinated at the sheer number of people who replied that they don't actually have an account, yet. Remember that you can contact me if you want an invite....
Up to 426 responses. 🎉 I am particularly fascinated at the sheer number of people who replied that they don't actually have an account, yet. Remember that you can contact me if you want an invite. 😺
I would have answered "varies" to the question about how many days you check Tildes, but it appears to have some sort of sanitization that keeps me from typing more than one character.
Indeed; it would be quite difficult to analyze later if it was a series of unquantifiable descriptions. The explanatory text below clarifies it's more an average based on "feel" than anything else.
I have never before had a text box ask for my race and ethnicity, just checkboxes; I usually fall into a few different categories, so this forced me to think more about it than I'm used to. I spent some time staring at the backs of my hands just to answer. I'm not sure whether my response is really accurate, but it's how I feel, so... I suppose I'm grateful.
This is my favourite comment so far. Like I mentioned in the explanatory text: healthcare makes it quite clear that this is not a super useful thing to reduce to checkmarks. In contrast to the previous question, I'm willing to deal with it being much harder to quantify in order to actually reflect how people see themselves.
... There's a difference between "sexual orientation" and "romantic orientation"?
Indeed! They align for the grand majority of people, but not everyone. Inclusivity, yo.
The sexuality question feels a bit incoherent outside of the gender binary. As a non-binary person, I always struggle defining my orientation when it's just a series of options.
And yet another contradiction to my previous statement, as this was also intentional. 😅 This is why designing surveys is so hard!
There are a few different avenues to approach this, and previous Tildes surveys have tried using the Kinsey scale in years I wasn't running them. The thing is... I don't actually think this improves their inclusivity at all. You're still, ultimately, defining your sexuality on a scale of "same gender" to "opposite gender," and the range of non-binary identities makes this almost equally incoherent.
I don't know of a perfect solution, other than providing a space for you to clarify in freeform text why you answered (or didn't answer) the way you did (as was the case here!). Thanks to this comment, I know to modify how I quantify and report on the data, and I think that's as best as we can get at the moment.
It's ironic that I have to help train hCaptcha's AI after writing a long statement about why I hate AI.
I agree. OpnForm doesn't yet let you change CAPTCHA providers, sorry. :( I would have chosen a better alternative if I could have. Ultimately, I decided to favor privacy (hCaptcha is much better than reCAPTCHA) over... well, that particular issue.
I wish there was a question that let me state I was polyamorous.
I don't get why you're asking for my sexual orientation. How is that relevant?
I really appreciate the question about being a plurality! I've never seen a survey that includes my partner, so thank you.
Tildes's leftism is absurd when it gets to the point where you felt the need to include a question for fake DID self-diagnosers.
😵💀 help me squirtle i'm dying--
I hope you get exactly what you wanted for Christmas.
😸💖
Of all the surveys I've ever taken, this is by far the most recent.
Okay, that's enough updating for now. I feel like I'm losing it.
I'm simply marveling at the people who complained about the inclusion of questions that they didn't have to answer. It was right there in bold at the top: all questions are optional. Also do...
I'm simply marveling at the people who complained about the inclusion of questions that they didn't have to answer. It was right there in bold at the top: all questions are optional. Also do people even know what demographics are?
It gives off real "I'm reminded that different types of people exist and I don't like it, even though they're over there not bothering me" energy.
I hope you got more pleasant/neutral responses than critical ones.
My wife does research, and has had multiple projects she’s been on where she has looked at her research partners and had to say something like “I don’t actually have an option on the...
My wife does research, and has had multiple projects she’s been on where she has looked at her research partners and had to say something like “I don’t actually have an option on the race/ethnicity question that I could accurately answer”.
In response to a lot of comments asking for a third option for the generative AI question: the lack thereof was intentional, as it's all too easy (in my experience) to have people tend to...
In response to a lot of comments asking for a third option for the generative AI question: the lack thereof was intentional, as it's all too easy (in my experience) to have people tend to "default" to the easy option of not having to pick a side. If you're truly 50/50 ambivalent, that's why the questions are optional. :)
I'm not sure how a master's degree ranks in your question about education. The instructions seem very American to me.
I specifically tried to un-Americanize it as much as possible by using terms like "secondary education" and "undergraduate/postgraduate." Are those not terms other places use? They're certainly not terms we usually tend to use. I apologize if that's the case! For reference: Masters would be postgraduate but not doctorate.
This survey is quite well done. However, I’m unsure how my gender and romantic orientation are relevant to the topic at hand, especially concerning Tildes.
It's a demographics survey, to help get a feel for who's using Tildes! The survey would look very different if it were more aimed at... just gathering opinions.
Yo mama is so fat, she has smaller fat mamas orbiting her.
:(
I don't actually know why I filled out this survey.
Neither do I, my friend, though I am glad you did.
It seemed fine to me, some surveys will distinguish between post graduate and "terminal degrees" but my Masters is a terminal degree in its field and that's just another level of confusion. But...
I specifically tried to un-Americanize it as much as possible by using terms like "secondary education" and "undergraduate/postgraduate." Are those not terms other places use? They're certainly not terms we usually tend to use. I apologize if that's the case! For reference: Masters would be postgraduate but not doctorate.
It seemed fine to me, some surveys will distinguish between post graduate and "terminal degrees" but my Masters is a terminal degree in its field and that's just another level of confusion. But that's the only other "odd" way of asking I've seen. /Higher ed
Yeah, the educational options seemed pretty standard for surveys with a more international intent. If anything "master's" would feel more American to me (though I think they're pretty...
Yeah, the educational options seemed pretty standard for surveys with a more international intent. If anything "master's" would feel more American to me (though I think they're pretty international by now).
You misunderstood my Gen AI comment. It makes perfect sense that you forced everyone else on here to pick a binary yes/no option. I'm just a tad miffed that I had to pick a binary option also.
You misunderstood my Gen AI comment.
It makes perfect sense that you forced everyone else on here to pick a binary yes/no option.
I'm just a tad miffed that I had to pick a binary option also.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know Three Cheers existed when I started writing the survey. That totally would've been a question if I had. Not a mistake in construction, but maybe a...
I wish you had a question about how many people use Three Cheers; I'd be curious to see how many of us there are.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know Three Cheers existed when I started writing the survey. That totally would've been a question if I had.
Why do the OS questions ask for desktop but then follow up with a more detailed question about mobile OSes? It feels like you make a mistake when constructing the survey.
Not a mistake in construction, but maybe a mistake in clarity. It feels like people typically own more mobile devices these days than they do "real computers," and so I decided to structure them slightly differently. I apologize for the confusion!
I appreciate the survey. For whatever reason, I love filling out things that ask for personal information (yes, really). Maybe it's just because I'm lonely.
Just for you, next year's survey will ask for your credit card numbers and home addresses. 💖
Thanks for the survey! Always love learning about my fellow Tilderinoes. ;)
And just for you, I'm going to print out your answers and then shred them into a fireplace.
Data about app usage would be really compelling. I was a diehard “the site is fine in a mobile browser” user for years (and it genuinely is!), but I more often access it through Three Cheers these...
Data about app usage would be really compelling. I was a diehard “the site is fine in a mobile browser” user for years (and it genuinely is!), but I more often access it through Three Cheers these days. I’m curious what the breakdown looks like for the wider Tildes population.
Just for you, next year's survey will ask for your credit card numbers and home addresses. 💖
Don’t forget any government ID numbers, Mothers’ maiden names, and the street(s) we grew up on.
The app truly is stunning. I use it now, myself. I only wish it had notifications (though yes, I do know the philosophical reason it does not). I donated some money to the developer, and you...
Data about app usage would be really compelling. I was a diehard “the site is fine in a mobile browser” user for years (and it genuinely is!), but I more often access it through Three Cheers these days.
The app truly is stunning. I use it now, myself. I only wish it had notifications (though yes, I do know the philosophical reason it does not). I donated some money to the developer, and you (general you, not @kfwyre) should consider doing so as well!
Anyone else complete the survey only to get a clipart pic of a potted plant and a link to "go home" with 404 in the title of the page? I should have screenshotted it but instead went back to the...
Anyone else complete the survey only to get a clipart pic of a potted plant and a link to "go home" with 404 in the title of the page?
I should have screenshotted it but instead went back to the thread to see if that was normal, now I can't get it back without compromising the scientific validity of your survey.
Oh well, I'm the user as the past 4 surveys so just add my results from them onto this one thx.
I got a CAPTCHA at the end asking me to identify all the images that matched the example... which appropriately enough was of a cat, since this was made by Kat. :P It sounds like the CAPTCHA...
I got a CAPTCHA at the end asking me to identify all the images that matched the example... which appropriately enough was of a cat, since this was made by Kat. :P
It sounds like the CAPTCHA failed to load for you though, unfortunately. :(
Thanks so much! Uh... that should most definitely not happen. This is what the submission page looks like. If you PM me an example answer you would have made that I could use to identify your...
PS: Great to see you back! :)
Thanks so much!
Anyone else complete the survey only to get a clipart pic of a potted plant and a link to "go home" with 404 in the title of the page?
Uh... that should most definitely not happen. This is what the submission page looks like. If you PM me an example answer you would have made that I could use to identify your response, I could verify that it actually went through, if you'd like?
Sure, though if cfabbro's guess is right it wouldn't have gone through. I responded "IT Generalist" to occupation, which should narrow the results a fair bit.
Sure, though if cfabbro's guess is right it wouldn't have gone through.
I responded "IT Generalist" to occupation, which should narrow the results a fair bit.
I can confirm that there's no entry with that as the occupation. :( I apologize for the error. If you so desire, you're welcome to try submitting your answers again.
I can confirm that there's no entry with that as the occupation. :(
I apologize for the error. If you so desire, you're welcome to try submitting your answers again.
Hey, thanks for including a question for people with dissociative disorders. It's the first time I've ever seen a question like that. It meant a lot for my partner and was very validating.
Hey, thanks for including a question for people with dissociative disorders. It's the first time I've ever seen a question like that. It meant a lot for my partner and was very validating.
I tried my best to fill it out honestly, hope it helps. The exception was the “are you human” question at the end, it seemed like I had to lie to finish the survey.
I tried my best to fill it out honestly, hope it helps. The exception was the “are you human” question at the end, it seemed like I had to lie to finish the survey.
Thanks for the survey! I haven't been here long enough to remember you but I enjoyed reading through your website after the survey (clever self promotion at the end 😉) I love your writing style....
Thanks for the survey! I haven't been here long enough to remember you but I enjoyed reading through your website after the survey (clever self promotion at the end 😉) I love your writing style. The "repeat after me" poem was great. Definitely enjoyed the non-standard text effects while reading it.
Is that the name your parents gave you, or did you change it, and if you changed it, was that before or after it was your internet identity? My husband's internet identity is his real first name...
Is that the name your parents gave you, or did you change it, and if you changed it, was that before or after it was your internet identity?
My husband's internet identity is his real first name with a fake last name, and when we got married we both wanted to take a new name but couldn't agree on one. His internet last name sounds great with both of our first names, but he doesn't want to reverse doxx himself.
My full legal name also sounds like a character someone didn't put that much thought into. Think Summer O'Seasons.
I changed it--I'm trans, and it's what I went for when I legally changed my name and gender. The idea of reverse doxxing is hilarious. I will say that I have yet to run into any negative effects...
I changed it--I'm trans, and it's what I went for when I legally changed my name and gender.
The idea of reverse doxxing is hilarious. I will say that I have yet to run into any negative effects from people online knowing my actual name, for whatever it's worth.
That's a pretty cool name to pick! He works at a video game design studio and he's worried about disgruntled players, but also I'm pretty sure it would take 4 seconds on Google to find his real...
That's a pretty cool name to pick!
He works at a video game design studio and he's worried about disgruntled players, but also I'm pretty sure it would take 4 seconds on Google to find his real name, so he's almost certainly just being silly.
Welcome back @TheMeerkat ! I've missed these surveys! I mentioned that we hadn't had one in quite a long time to another user a while back and thought that we might get another one, but it never...
I've missed these surveys! I mentioned that we hadn't had one in quite a long time to another user a while back and thought that we might get another one, but it never happened.
I would have done it myself but... Let's be real, I don't have those skills- and you always did a great job of it back in the day. Glad to have you back (and not just because I missed the surveys)!
banker's rounding means round to nearest, and if you have a tie, then you round to the nearest even number. so 1.49 -> 1; 1.5 -> 2; 2.5 -> 2; 3.5 -> 4. so the difference between round to nearest...
banker's rounding means round to nearest, and if you have a tie, then you round to the nearest even number. so 1.49 -> 1; 1.5 -> 2; 2.5 -> 2; 3.5 -> 4. so the difference between round to nearest (with unspecified tiebreaker) and banker's rounding only matters if you've been on tildes for exactly x.5 years, but it is impossible for anything in the real world to be exactly x.5 years, so there's no need to specify how ties should be broken, so specifying it is redundant
Distance is also continuous, but it's possible for something to be exactly half a meter long. If you find yourself in this situation, just think about kittens for a moment. The kittens are...
Distance is also continuous, but it's possible for something to be exactly half a meter long.
If you find yourself in this situation, just think about kittens for a moment. The kittens are irrelevant, but they're cute, and then you can round up, taking comfort in the knowledge that the moment you paused took you over the halfway point.
there is uncertainty to spatial measurements though. and supposing there weren't, there would be particular lengths with a nonzero probability of being measured, indicating discontinuity. (time...
there is uncertainty to spatial measurements though. and supposing there weren't, there would be particular lengths with a nonzero probability of being measured, indicating discontinuity. (time measurements/distributions tend to be discretised but with uncertainty too; that also suffices)
to clarify—by continuous/discontinuous i mean the distributions, not the actual ranges. so it's not relevant that a length measurement could be any real number (if we assume that's actually true)
to clarify—by continuous/discontinuous i mean the distributions, not the actual ranges. so it's not relevant that a length measurement could be any real number (if we assume that's actually true)
About 43.13% of total respondents, so far, are from anywhere outside the US. There's not a particularly large number in any one country (I'll be more specific about that when the survey closes),...
About 43.13% of total respondents, so far, are from anywhere outside the US. There's not a particularly large number in any one country (I'll be more specific about that when the survey closes), though.
I'm looking forward to comparisons of this data and the older data. Has it become more or less US centric over time? (I know it's not comparable til it's done :shrug:)
I'm looking forward to comparisons of this data and the older data. Has it become more or less US centric over time? (I know it's not comparable til it's done :shrug:)
More than you might think. Off the top of my head, I already count four account names whose owners are residing in a radius under ≈500km from Berlin (myself included) across three countries. :P...
More than you might think. Off the top of my head, I already count four account names whose owners are residing in a radius under ≈500km from Berlin (myself included) across three countries. :P
And just FYI: those are people of which I know the very approximate location (like, the country) through public comments on Tildes and remembered them by chance. There’s bound to be more.
But we can just wait for the survey results to come in and we’ll be wiser!
Edit: Canada isn’t the US either, presumably. So I could add some more names to that list, haha.
Me too, but I’m also an EU-citizen. Maybe we could at some point organize a Tildes meetup in Berlin. Like ten years ago I used to go to the reddit ones and they were chill. I’d probably organize...
Me too, but I’m also an EU-citizen.
Maybe we could at some point organize a Tildes meetup in Berlin. Like ten years ago I used to go to the reddit ones and they were chill.
I’d probably organize it slightly differently though, we could all just go play billiard.
I've met up with someone else from Tildes in person (albeit not in Berlin) and it was a great time! I'd totally be down to do some kind of hangout (though I will warn you I've never played...
I've met up with someone else from Tildes in person (albeit not in Berlin) and it was a great time! I'd totally be down to do some kind of hangout (though I will warn you I've never played billiards lol)
I just moved to the Frankfurt area 3 months ago (from Minnesota/North Dakota area), and I will have to travel to Berlin once a month or so for work, any excuse to go at a specific time and have...
I just moved to the Frankfurt area 3 months ago (from Minnesota/North Dakota area), and I will have to travel to Berlin once a month or so for work, any excuse to go at a specific time and have something to do outside of work would be welcome!
Hello, beautiful humanoids! I am the user formally known as @Kat, if you were around and remember me from forever ago. I was the original Tildes power user, according to some people who shall not be named here (largely because they are now a dear friend of mine; funny how things work).
During my original tenure, my best contribution to Tildes was, IMO, my regular demographics surveys to check on how the community was progressing. Neither I nor anyone else seems to have done one for years now, and Tildes has been through quite a lot in that time, so I thought we were long overdue for another one!
The form will automatically close on the 1st of 2025 at midnight. You have an entire two-ish weeks to get your answers in, and your answers are even editable if something changes in that time. Soon thereafter, I will create a results topic highlighting anything fascinating, along with aggregate answers. I look forward to seeing everything y’all have to say. 😸
ETA: it’s hosted by OpnForm, and you can review their privacy policy here.
ETA2: Despite my best efforts, there is already one person who is addressing me as though I created and own Tildes. I think this legally means that @Deimos has to transfer the domain to me.
Welcome back!
:)
Thanks, @nic! I remember you. 😸
Omg Kat hiiiiii! Super looking forward to the results of the survey! Thank you for setting this up, it was always a highlight imo.
Thanks so much, @eve! 💖
🎵 The Kat came back 🎵
🎵 The very next
dayyeardecade? 🎵Better late than never! Welcome back!
Apparently a 5 year period is called a lustrum. TIL.
"lust" + "rum" is the most Roman Empire word everI love that word, actually. I wish it stuck around as well as fortnight has. I feel like we need something between "year" and "decade".
Since I couldn't resist (and love etymology):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lustrum#Latin
Question 1: so how did any of these meanings turn in 5 years? :/
Question 2: I always forget which is which, etymology vs entomology. Can you help me find an easy way to remember? @..@
The N is in Entomology, you might say it's "in-sect" the word?
The Wikipedia article I linked in my first comment explains the connection:
p.s. Ants live on Ents, who study them using Entymology. ;)
Ooh I like this one the best, might finally sort it out :D thanks for answers to both
How I remember them is as follows:
Ent sounds like Ant, antomology is the bug one.
I learned the vowels as a e i o u and sometimes y. EtYmology deals with the sometimes y, so it's the word one.
Don't! It's much funnier to remember incorrectly.
From explain XKCD.
Yes it would be much funnier, but more tragic when Im about to die from the giant ant invasion and @cfabbro shows up
Thank you so much! 💖
Am I the only one who thought you died? Is this the first tildes Mandela effect?
Weirdly, not the first time I've gotten this.
Not a Mandela effect—just a decent memory of what actually happened somewhat degraded by time. :) I was dying from atlantoaxial instability, and I talked pretty candidly about that on Tildes at the time. Luckily, I had life-saving surgery before it actually killed me—but after I deleted my Tildes account.
So yeah, pretty reasonable assumption to make.
Damn, do you have any links to a post or a blog where you talk about that? I have a friend with craniocervical instability that is fortunately not bad enough to warrant surgery (spinal fusion I assume?), but might be interested to read about it nevertheless.
I don't yet! I've wanted to plenty of times, but just never had the... ability, I guess? I am still considering it, though.
You're free to give my contact information to your friend, though! :) You can PM me to ask for it.
People who get properly diagnosed and successfully treated with these issues seem to still be so uncommon that I'm sure it would be valuable to many other patients. No pressure, just saying that some interest exists, I would certainly read it as well. Regarding contact information, I'll ask if she's interested - I think she's currently in a phase where pretty much all of her energy is occupied by just trying to live a semi-normal life and there's no energy left for things that feel like actively doing something, I assume you might know what that's like.
Delighted to see you here again, /u/TheMeerkat! Merci beaucoup for another year's survey, I'm curious who all is here.
You as well. 💖
Welcome back! Hope you are feeling healthy and well :)
Thank you so much, @Thales! 💖
I just wanted to let you know that the survey form is failing when submitting for me. I don't imagine there is much you can do about it since you are not the one hosting it, just making you aware.
Edit: it looks like someone else figured out the issue, the captcha was being blocked.
Uh oh. My ssssssecret is out!
Also, welcome back Kat. We missed you! :)
👥🔍🌾🪓🔱🐍
I missed you too, @cfabbro!
I've always wondered this about the cabal of lizardpeople who secretly rule the world, so perhaps you can elucidate:
When you shed your skin, does it come off in one big sheet, or does it come away piecemeal like? Also, are you folks true ectotherms? How does that affect the number of orphan hearts you need to eat to survive?
Merry Fnordsmass to you and your clutchbrood!
Bah, how primitive do you think we are to just let our skin slough off like that!? Our dead scales are atomized during our daily laser showers! And as for orphan hearts, those are unfortunately only a rare delicacy these days. Charles Dickens really ruined that for us by making all you humans start to care about what happens to the little morsels! Nowadays we have to get by on lab grown orphan organs. :(
The world is in a sorry state indeed if our reptilian overlords have been brought so low as to sustain themselves through ethical means.
Here's hoping some brash up-and-comer runs on a platform of MLPEA: "Make Lizard People Evil Again."
Does that make it vegan?
The way we acquire the cell cultures is most definitely not "cruelty free", so I think not. 😈
I think depends on if the lab is growing the orphans who themselves grow the organs. Or if the lab is growing the organs directly from orphans' cells.
ಠ︵ಠ
I have a complaint.
.
.
.
⚡ (@_@) ⚡︎
I have no complaints
Thanks for the survey!
💪⚡️🔨
Of course. :)
o no
I'm gonna just go down to one to avoid any uncomfortable comparisons. It looks better on my phone.
Yeah I think it's a Windows 10 thing. A ton of emojis either display just a square or the emoticon version (if that's what it's called)
There were two "emoticon" style lightning bolts and I did pic the one that looked the least like.. a rune. But unfortunately fonts gonna font.
Filled out the survey! We've never met and I am now curious about your history on Tildes (the original power user??), but the survey was fun to fill out. Got a little laugh at some of the small text.
Looking forward to the results!
Thanks so much for filling it out!
There was a point in time where I had the most comments in every sub-community except ~sports, ~comics, and ~anime (at least for the ones that existed back then), and the most topics in a solid chunk of them. This displeased some people, and the resulting tension and Discourse™ is why my original account was vaporized.
Girlbossed too close to the sun 😔
90% of Icaruses quit just before they reach the sun.
All I remember, is someone trying to steal the vote for what tildes users should be called.
I am glad we aren't going to see a repeat of the great Tilderino scandal of 2018.
oh my god that is such a throwback. I am astonished anyone remembers that (in a positive way).
I still strongly maintain it should've been waves, but I am gracious enough to admit when the ignorant masses vote incorrectly in numbers greater than my own.
Tildoes heh, sounds like dildos unite!
Hey, @cfabbro, you're basically an admin. Totally unrelated question: how do I mark something as Malice more than once?
PM Deimos repeatedly. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. ;)
(and suddenly there was one less user on the site opposed to Tildoes! mwahahah)
I'm new here but someone told me if I waited past midnight and then @ Deimos 6 times I'd get banned right,?
We Tilders salute you!
If we keep adding content to Tildes, that makes each of us a TilderBuilder.
I would love to dig out and see this argument/discussion.
Ask and you shall receive.
Also.
At a quick glance I giggled at Tilbros , maybe only because of how much I don't like bro as a salutations
The official 2018 vote.
@cfabbro I forgot that Tildoes got zero votes. Honestly. <shakes head>
Nice to meet you 😊.
Thanks for the survey.
I didn't know what controversy would result when I asked people's preferences for a name for users. Many people replied 'users' thanks but about half had suggestions.
I don't know who you are, but I see you are SOMEBODY for a lot of people that I recognize. Just for this very reason it was my pleasure to fill out the form for you. If you mean so much for those people, you mean so much for me as well.
(and also because I'm quite curious what will come out of it)
It's just because I've been here longer than almost anyone. 👵🏻
Thanks so much for the kind words! I truly appreciate it. 💖
Attention, person who lamented being a lurker because they've never been invited to Tildes: contact me and I'll shoot one your way, if you'd like.
Thank you! I've been a lurker for quite a while and this comment was the push to finally change that.
The normal path seems to be to request an invite from within another platform, such as Reddit, but as someone that doesn't use those platforms it can be difficult to find invites.
No problem! Happy to help, and welcome. 💖
Welcome to the land of the speaking, (up)voting and post-submitting!
Just to clarify, as per the docs, and as far as I understand it, you do not need to use another platform for an invite. Unless email counts as a platform. :P
I actually did try an email to the invites address back in November. I'd previously heard that those do take a few days to get replies, but it's been a few weeks without success. Maybe I'd eventually get a reply, but I also didn't want to harass the invites inbox about it by sending multiple requests. So from that experience I got the impression that a DM to someone on r/tildes was likely a more reliable path.
I got my invitation from the email address, but Deimos is the single point of contact. The justification is privacy but it leads to long delays. The reddit interaction is much faster.
I'm glad you are here.
You can join without an invite by shooting an email at someone or something, it's how I joined.
The Official Invite rounds on /r/tildes are always an option too. I still check /r/tildes every day and send out invites to nearly* everyone who requests one there. I posted the latest one 13 days ago:
https://old.reddit.com/r/tildes/comments/1h2n5wc/official_invite_requests_round_35_leave_a_reply/
* Excluding obvious spammer accounts.
I have extra Tildes invites as well if you need more :3
I’ll ask now: any long-running, upstanding members of the community with strong data visualization skills? The opportunity to have someone make some fancy graphs (beyond what I can whip up in office software) is the entire reason for that part of the disclaimer. 😸
You will receive a .csv copy of the data, after the survey has closed and contents have been altered according to user request from the final freeform text box. You will be asked to guarantee that you won't share those contents. You will be paid in, uh, my begging the other waves to give you Exemplary labels. 💸
PM me if you wish to take me up on this fabulous offer.
ETA: No definitive volunteers yet.
A few days in, and it's going quite well! I thought I would update every now and then by replying to some freeform comments that are directed more at me than at giving opinions re: Tildes. I'll reply to this comment whenever I do. Also, I just published a short psychological horror story.
Please note: all freeform comments have been rewritten, whilst maintaining the core intent/message, to help disconnect comments from writing style and heighten privacy.
Up to 426 responses. 🎉 I am particularly fascinated at the sheer number of people who replied that they don't actually have an account, yet. Remember that you can contact me if you want an invite. 😺
Indeed; it would be quite difficult to analyze later if it was a series of unquantifiable descriptions. The explanatory text below clarifies it's more an average based on "feel" than anything else.
This is my favourite comment so far. Like I mentioned in the explanatory text: healthcare makes it quite clear that this is not a super useful thing to reduce to checkmarks. In contrast to the previous question, I'm willing to deal with it being much harder to quantify in order to actually reflect how people see themselves.
Indeed! They align for the grand majority of people, but not everyone. Inclusivity, yo.
And yet another contradiction to my previous statement, as this was also intentional. 😅 This is why designing surveys is so hard!
There are a few different avenues to approach this, and previous Tildes surveys have tried using the Kinsey scale in years I wasn't running them. The thing is... I don't actually think this improves their inclusivity at all. You're still, ultimately, defining your sexuality on a scale of "same gender" to "opposite gender," and the range of non-binary identities makes this almost equally incoherent.
I don't know of a perfect solution, other than providing a space for you to clarify in freeform text why you answered (or didn't answer) the way you did (as was the case here!). Thanks to this comment, I know to modify how I quantify and report on the data, and I think that's as best as we can get at the moment.
I agree. OpnForm doesn't yet let you change CAPTCHA providers, sorry. :( I would have chosen a better alternative if I could have. Ultimately, I decided to favor privacy (hCaptcha is much better than reCAPTCHA) over... well, that particular issue.
😵💀 help me squirtle i'm dying--
😸💖
Okay, that's enough updating for now. I feel like I'm losing it.
I'm simply marveling at the people who complained about the inclusion of questions that they didn't have to answer. It was right there in bold at the top: all questions are optional. Also do people even know what demographics are?
It gives off real "I'm reminded that different types of people exist and I don't like it, even though they're over there not bothering me" energy.
I hope you got more pleasant/neutral responses than critical ones.
My wife does research, and has had multiple projects she’s been on where she has looked at her research partners and had to say something like “I don’t actually have an option on the race/ethnicity question that I could accurately answer”.
So thank you, for having the open textbox.
In response to a lot of comments asking for a third option for the generative AI question: the lack thereof was intentional, as it's all too easy (in my experience) to have people tend to "default" to the easy option of not having to pick a side. If you're truly 50/50 ambivalent, that's why the questions are optional. :)
I specifically tried to un-Americanize it as much as possible by using terms like "secondary education" and "undergraduate/postgraduate." Are those not terms other places use? They're certainly not terms we usually tend to use. I apologize if that's the case! For reference: Masters would be postgraduate but not doctorate.
It's a demographics survey, to help get a feel for who's using Tildes! The survey would look very different if it were more aimed at... just gathering opinions.
:(
Neither do I, my friend, though I am glad you did.
It seemed fine to me, some surveys will distinguish between post graduate and "terminal degrees" but my Masters is a terminal degree in its field and that's just another level of confusion. But that's the only other "odd" way of asking I've seen. /Higher ed
Yeah, the educational options seemed pretty standard for surveys with a more international intent. If anything "master's" would feel more American to me (though I think they're pretty international by now).
I can’t remember the terms you used exactly on the page, but they read okay from a UK perspective. Didn’t seem to be USA specific. Not to me, anyway
You misunderstood my Gen AI comment.
It makes perfect sense that you forced everyone else on here to pick a binary yes/no option.
I'm just a tad miffed that I had to pick a binary option also.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know Three Cheers existed when I started writing the survey. That totally would've been a question if I had.
Not a mistake in construction, but maybe a mistake in clarity. It feels like people typically own more mobile devices these days than they do "real computers," and so I decided to structure them slightly differently. I apologize for the confusion!
Just for you, next year's survey will ask for your credit card numbers and home addresses. 💖
And just for you, I'm going to print out your answers and then shred them into a fireplace.
Data about app usage would be really compelling. I was a diehard “the site is fine in a mobile browser” user for years (and it genuinely is!), but I more often access it through Three Cheers these days. I’m curious what the breakdown looks like for the wider Tildes population.
Don’t forget any government ID numbers, Mothers’ maiden names, and the street(s) we grew up on.
The app truly is stunning. I use it now, myself. I only wish it had notifications (though yes, I do know the philosophical reason it does not). I donated some money to the developer, and you (general you, not @kfwyre) should consider doing so as well!
No no, I can use the callout directly! 😁 I have donated money to the app, but with how much I use it, I should definitely give more.
Thanks for doing this! I love these sorts of things. Excited to see the results.
Anyone else complete the survey only to get a clipart pic of a potted plant and a link to "go home" with 404 in the title of the page?
I should have screenshotted it but instead went back to the thread to see if that was normal, now I can't get it back without compromising the scientific validity of your survey.
Oh well, I'm the user as the past 4 surveys so just add my results from them onto this one thx.
PS: Great to see you back! :)
I got a CAPTCHA at the end asking me to identify all the images that matched the example... which appropriately enough was of a cat, since this was made by Kat. :P
It sounds like the CAPTCHA failed to load for you though, unfortunately. :(
Ah, that makes sense. I use uMatrix to disable 3rd party js, so I always have problems with captchas on sites I've never been to before.
Thanks so much!
Uh... that should most definitely not happen. This is what the submission page looks like. If you PM me an example answer you would have made that I could use to identify your response, I could verify that it actually went through, if you'd like?
Sure, though if cfabbro's guess is right it wouldn't have gone through.
I responded "IT Generalist" to occupation, which should narrow the results a fair bit.
I can confirm that there's no entry with that as the occupation. :(
I apologize for the error. If you so desire, you're welcome to try submitting your answers again.
Yes, I also got that.
hCaptcha is being blocked in some way; you're free to take the survey again, but please ensure anything that might block hCaptcha is off.
Survey completed, but I would like to complain about the lack of packaging options on the lightening, I'd prefer mine in a bottle please
Hey, thanks for including a question for people with dissociative disorders. It's the first time I've ever seen a question like that. It meant a lot for my partner and was very validating.
Of course. 💖
I tried my best to fill it out honestly, hope it helps. The exception was the “are you human” question at the end, it seemed like I had to lie to finish the survey.
Thanks for the survey! I haven't been here long enough to remember you but I enjoyed reading through your website after the survey (clever self promotion at the end 😉) I love your writing style. The "repeat after me" poem was great. Definitely enjoyed the non-standard text effects while reading it.
btw if anyone wonders what Meerkat looks like just google Kat Suricata like I did...
You have found my horrible secret! Meerkats are known scientifically as Suricata suricatta.
... that is probably why your name seemed oddly familiar but I couldn't place it.
It's actually my legal name. Whether you find that more or less pathetic than it simply being an internet pseudonym, however, is entirely up to you.
Is that the name your parents gave you, or did you change it, and if you changed it, was that before or after it was your internet identity?
My husband's internet identity is his real first name with a fake last name, and when we got married we both wanted to take a new name but couldn't agree on one. His internet last name sounds great with both of our first names, but he doesn't want to reverse doxx himself.
My full legal name also sounds like a character someone didn't put that much thought into. Think Summer O'Seasons.
I changed it--I'm trans, and it's what I went for when I legally changed my name and gender.
The idea of reverse doxxing is hilarious. I will say that I have yet to run into any negative effects from people online knowing my actual name, for whatever it's worth.
That's a pretty cool name to pick!
He works at a video game design studio and he's worried about disgruntled players, but also I'm pretty sure it would take 4 seconds on Google to find his real name, so he's almost certainly just being silly.
Not sure what that is, and afraid to ask.
I assure you that it's very SFW
Welcome back @TheMeerkat !
I've missed these surveys! I mentioned that we hadn't had one in quite a long time to another user a while back and thought that we might get another one, but it never happened.
I would have done it myself but... Let's be real, I don't have those skills- and you always did a great job of it back in the day. Glad to have you back (and not just because I missed the surveys)!
Thank you, @Arthur! 💖
buh—time is continuous so the tie cases have zero measure! i protest this redundancy!
You can tell how I made that error by the fact that I genuinely don't understand what those words mean or where the problem lies.
banker's rounding means round to nearest, and if you have a tie, then you round to the nearest even number. so 1.49 -> 1; 1.5 -> 2; 2.5 -> 2; 3.5 -> 4. so the difference between round to nearest (with unspecified tiebreaker) and banker's rounding only matters if you've been on tildes for exactly x.5 years, but it is impossible for anything in the real world to be exactly x.5 years, so there's no need to specify how ties should be broken, so specifying it is redundant
Distance is also continuous, but it's possible for something to be exactly half a meter long.
If you find yourself in this situation, just think about kittens for a moment. The kittens are irrelevant, but they're cute, and then you can round up, taking comfort in the knowledge that the moment you paused took you over the halfway point.
“Exactly” — to how many significant figures?
Infinitely many zeroes, of course. Exactly half a meter after all, duh! :P
there is uncertainty to spatial measurements though. and supposing there weren't, there would be particular lengths with a nonzero probability of being measured, indicating discontinuity. (time measurements/distributions tend to be discretised but with uncertainty too; that also suffices)
to clarify—by continuous/discontinuous i mean the distributions, not the actual ranges. so it's not relevant that a length measurement could be any real number (if we assume that's actually true)
Looking forward to seeing the results in a month or so
Thanks for doing this! I'm curious how many non-'Muricans there are on here and where they're all from. (I reside in Berlin for example.)
About 43.13% of total respondents, so far, are from anywhere outside the US. There's not a particularly large number in any one country (I'll be more specific about that when the survey closes), though.
The survey doesn't ask where we're from, only where we live.
This was intentional, to help gather less personally identifiable information. :)
That makes sense actually!
I'm looking forward to comparisons of this data and the older data. Has it become more or less US centric over time? (I know it's not comparable til it's done :shrug:)
Thus far, actually slightly less.
More than you might think. Off the top of my head, I already count four account names whose owners are residing in a radius under ≈500km from Berlin (myself included) across three countries. :P
And just FYI: those are people of which I know the very approximate location (like, the country) through public comments on Tildes and remembered them by chance. There’s bound to be more.
But we can just wait for the survey results to come in and we’ll be wiser!
Edit: Canada isn’t the US either, presumably. So I could add some more names to that list, haha.
I also live in Berlin, but I'm an American soooo
Me too, but I’m also an EU-citizen.
Maybe we could at some point organize a Tildes meetup in Berlin. Like ten years ago I used to go to the reddit ones and they were chill.
I’d probably organize it slightly differently though, we could all just go play billiard.
Ngl, despite being in NL I could see staying a weekend in Berlin for a meetup. Sounds pretty awesome all things considered.
I've met up with someone else from Tildes in person (albeit not in Berlin) and it was a great time! I'd totally be down to do some kind of hangout (though I will warn you I've never played billiards lol)
I just moved to the Frankfurt area 3 months ago (from Minnesota/North Dakota area), and I will have to travel to Berlin once a month or so for work, any excuse to go at a specific time and have something to do outside of work would be welcome!
The survey doesn't actually ask! I'm an American citizen but that survey doesn't know that. It only knows that I live in Sweden now.
Luckily there are those of us who moved to America, so perhaps it all averages out in the wash?