16
votes
Filtering specific users
Currently, we can filter posts based on topic tags, is there any chance we could get the same based upon users? Preferably for comments and topics. There are times when I might be interested in a sub-tilde group, but for one reason or another, not a specific user's content in that group. Is this a bad idea?
Outdated.
See the unofficial wikiThis comment originally had a list of uBlock filters which allowed people to hide a bunch of things on Tildes. See below.
2 Feb 2019: FYI due to the latest changes you need to update your topic filters!
21 Apr 2020: In case anyone didn't know, Tildes has its own wikis editable by any user who asks Deimos for editing privileges. Please check out the latest uBlock filters on the wiki!
IDK anything about Tildes software internals, but could this be solved easily by tagging all posts with a hidden tag like
@<username>?This is a feature I'd support BTW. As we grow, this might become very useful.
What makes you want to filter out users? I'm curious because a lot of the possibilities I come up with could probably also be covered by the upcoming trust system or by proper tagging.
I've previously added Ublock rules for certain users because I'm simply not interested in the content they post. What they post isn't against any rules, I just think their content is poor quality.
I can tell you there's one person I would love to filter out! Their content is inane and annoying, in my opinion. (And, no, I'm not going to name them, or even hint.)
Conversely, there are probably one or two people who would love to filter me out. :P
The problem with tagging is it's optional. Say I was into politics but I did not want to see news on wars on my feed, especially videos, but there is this one guy who's posting such footage/articles. It's not illegal or inherently off-topic, but I'd rather not see them because they trigger certain fears in me, so I don't want to even encounter it momentarily (some sort of hypothetical PTSD). The two options are to depend on the guy to tag properly, or just block them out in ~news. The second is more effective, in combination with tagging, in this sort of scenario.
You would be better off tagging those posts as "war" and then filtering out posts tagged "war". If someone who doesn't normally post war-related news posts an article about war, you'll still see it. If the person who posts war-related articles posts something about linguistics or Turkish politics, you won't see it.
If you want to filter out a certain type of posts, you're better off filtering by tag than by user.
Sure, but what is the user is not tagging them properly (e.g. not tagging war news as such).
BTW this is a made up scenario to back the argument, it is not relevant to me, nor do I need the feature currently. I just think that it is hypothetically useful.
Then someone like me or Deimos or the other people who can change tags will do it.
If the problem is that posts about a topic aren't able to be filtered, then the solution is to tag the posts so they can be filtered, not to filter the users.
Tagging is not very standardized. I sometimes see posts with no tags, posts with tags I disagree with, or posts that I think are missing tags. Sometimes tags are subjective, and there is no right or wrong. Asking a curator or the author to change tags is annoying to both them and me, and I just don't bother. This system does not give me complete control over what I want to see. A hide post button would be a big improvement, especially for posts that attract days-long arguments which keep bumping it up to the front page.
You are absolutely correct that tagging is not yet standardised.
Please keep in mind that we are participating in the alpha-testing stage of this website's development; while Deimos writes the code that underpins Tildes, the rest of us are creating the seeds of policies and practices for the future operation of Tildes. Part of that process involves us working out what tags to use and when. We're also waiting for an autocomplete feature to be built for tags, which will prompt users by showing them what tags have previously been used.
As the site continues to develop, both in code and conduct, tagging will become more standardised.
I don't think we should build a tool to fix the wrong problem when the tools to fix the right problem are still on the "to do" list.
You are correct, tags are used to filter out a category of posts. However I want the ability to filter out individual posts, not a certain category, or a certain user. Because the activity sort tends to promote controversial posts, sometimes I see the same post up for days, filled with people arguing back and forth. I remember that ~tildes was so bad in a period of time that I totally unsubscribed from it, resorting to only check up on it every now and then to avoid clogging up my page. Being able to permenantly hide posts would have been much easier.
If you have a specific need to hide individual posts, fine. I thought you were suggesting the 'hide' feature as a work-around for inconsistent tagging, rather than as a solution for an entirely different problem.
This seems useful now, but I wonder if something like that will remain necessary when we have way more users, and the presence of a single poster becomes diluted.
I can’t remember a single Reddit username by heart.