Invite request spam problem - vet through other social media?
For most of the history of Tildes, if someone came across the site and decided they wanted to join, but didn't know anyone already on, they could email Deimos with an invite request. However, with the rise of LLMs, the noise-to-signal ratio has become so high this is no longer a way to join Tildes - explanation by Deimos: https://tildes.net/~tildes/1vl3/is_there_any_interest_in_building_a_tildes_successor#comment-if6r
I've read the recent discussions on Tildes being maintained as is and not actively grown, but I think most of us believe the community is up for many more years of enjoying each other's company, and would like to pick up a few more members along the way if they seek us out. That just requesting to join isn't possible anymore makes me a little sad.
I had the thought that larger sites are able to invest more resources into spam account filtering, many of us have active accounts on other social media sites (or other types of sites with community interactions), and I speculate that almost everyone who finds tildes and is interested in joining has already been active in some other online community. Some of us Tilderinos could post here our handles in other communities, and offer to consider sharing one of our invite requests to Tildes if DM'd in our other community. We'd have to reject requests from new accounts, and use some judgement on established ones, but I am thinking having people go through the filtering process those other communities use would reduce the spam requests enough to make it workable.
What do you guys think?
I think people inviting people they know is the best way to avoid bots.
We've got the site locked down like Fort Knox and we STILL have drama. Without more mods, an idea that's already been shot down, I don't think we can handle an influx of new users.
Is drama bad? I’m gonna be honest - a little drama is fun. My philosophy is to never cause drama. But I’m not able to hurt anyone by reading a thread for entertainment. I’m pretty sure most people like drama. But less are careful not to cause it.
However, too many users would be an eternal September problem, which would be a big issue.
Yes, drama is bad.
Conflict and differing opinions can exist without drama. When it gets far enough to qualify for drama, there's always someone at whose expense it happens. That's not an acceptable price to pay for other people's fun, not even if those people are careful to not cause the drama.
Let's find other ways to enjoy our lives and online activities.
I’m not sure about on Tildes, but from what I’ve seen with in person community is there’s often one person causing drama and simultaneously getting themself pushed out/burned out. It’s often a final act of self sabotage. Once they start it’s a good opportunity to let them burn themselves out and bring things to their natural conclusion.
I suspect on Tildes it may not work out so cleanly as often. I wonder what we’re missing. In person you can cold-shoulder someone. Maybe online communities need bottom-up shunning.
Funny you should mention being able to cold-shoulder people as a solution since being able to block users is one of the recently requested features that preceeded some of our recent departures.
I think you'd also want to make sure there's some path to redemption. I love giving people second chances when I can understand they didn't act with malice. Too many people won't give a second chance, or won't try to explain to someone why they did something wrong. But if someone's acting nefariously, intentionally harmed someone, etc. - fuck 'em.
Imo drama builds community!
But theres a couple long time users who left recently over drama and thats super sad.
I don't know if it's still a thing, but r/Tildes used to have regular posts set up as a request thread. That's how I got my invite. We've basically been doing what you suggest for a while now.
This, I went a step further and claimed a referral posted openly since I don't have any sort of social media networking going on. It was easier than trying to put an email together to Deimos that might or might not be read, especially given the alternative of lurking Tildes since there's no paywall here, unlike certain other forums and Discord are to those without an account.
Also for those who aren't aware, newer users don't
seem to get invitesget invites until a new set are sent out, so its only the users who have been here in a non-lurking capacity who may have codes to give out.@Deimos - I have seen speculation in a variety of threads on current invite policy implied by invites not appearing without request anymore, neither for new users or for people who use up their most recent set of 10. Everything from a change to on-request-only invite generation just to reduce your maintenance overhead (i.e. no policy change), to new user probation policy, to intentional growth restriction. Are you willing to share an official statement on availability of invites?
I've given everyone 10 invites now. I'll try to remember to check in on how many get used and can refill them occasionally (or anyone can always message me if they need some more).
From the beginning of tildes, everyone is refreshed to 10 invites when Deimos decides. That’s how it always worked. Nothing was automatic. Usually he would post a thread, or combine it with an announcement. So the only thing that changed is that they haven’t manually done that in a while.
Neat to learn, thanks for the pointer! It looks like @cfabbro is still holding down the fort over there. I am thinking of starting something similar on lemmy, and will look over that sub reddit setup for ideas.
If you need some extra invites, I'd be willing to give up most of mine. Holding out hope that a couple of people I know would be interested in joining eventually, but besides that I don't have anyone else I think would be a good fit or may be interested in joining.
I’ve got 55 invite codes to give out. I should figure out how to use them (responsibly).