If you want to make the site diverse then people need to stop writing as though the audience is one country. Obviously it doesn't count if they're posting in a geographically relevant group eg. ~news.usa

You guys should add the ability to review the posting history of yourself and other users!

I really love the site so far tho, and I'm super happy to express any ideas I have. So far I'm really impressed with what you have here

Would there be a way to show the number of new posts on a topic since the last time you read it? I find a lot of threads tend to linger for a couple days, and I forget how many comments there were the last time I checked. It would be awesome if it could display something like '10 Comments (2 new)' on a topic I'd visited before.

It would also be awesome if there was a way to highlight the new comments on the page when you click through as well to make it easier to find them.

P.S.: Sorry if this has been covered somewhere else. Still not sure what the best way to find old topics without manually reading every post is.

I noticed that Tildes docs make a point out of using words instead of labels. The stated reason is that icons may be difficult to understand, and I honestly don't get how is this the case.

Icons, when used right, are much more usable and intuitive than any text labels. They are small, distinct, they draw attention and you can tell what they do just by looking at them instead of reading them.

Take the classic upvote/downvote scrollers used on Reddit, Imgur, etc. It uses icons for upvotes and downvotes, but there isn't a single person I know who doesn't know what those mean. It's intuitive and usable. It doesn't require localization. It just works.

In contrast, the "Vote (10)" button on Tildes. It uses text, on a page full of text. It's an important UI element, one of the most used UI elements really, but it's not visually highlighted in any way. The amount of votes, which is an important metric, isn't distinct, making it hard to read. The "text button" style it uses is usually reserved for buttons that are used rarely, such as "Edit" or "Delete", or buttons that open more menus, such as "Edit" or "Reply". It's not intuitive.

Yes, this is a minor thing, but it's minor things that make the overall experience pleasant or unpleasant. And it shows how icons (and highlights), when used right, make user experience better.

I know that users can manually set this option as default, but it can be confusing for newcomers to only see, say, 4 threads in the whole group when there are many more than that. This makes it easier to navigate content (especially with a smaller community with less being submitted), is two less clicks for someone who wants to see older submissions, and is easier for new users who may have not found the ‘time sorting’ setting.

So far, I haven’t seen too much moderation aside from bans, etc. dealt out by the admins (unless I’m wrong here and a moderation system is currently in place, please correct me if I’m wrong), but how will this work once Tildes is fully released to the public? Will people who show interest in a certain community be reached out to and asked?

I was posting a something earlier and tried to use an apostrophe in a tag, and it told me off for doing so. Well, kind of, it didn't mention what was wrong, but it was pretty easy to deduce. Can the "tags: Invalid tags" maybe point/link somewhere about what is or isn't allowed?

(also I'm just really curious, what are the limits? I just found out accents [or at least 'tést'] aren't allowed either)

Did you consider putting the name on the bottom of the comment? As tildes invites for high quality discussions witch tend to incent longer comments than elswhere i think it might be better suited to have the name on the end of the comment.

This has some advantages:

• It's easier to notice the autor of a good long text
• When starting to read a comment you don't now the autor yet, so its easier to rate the content instead of the person
• It looks a lot more like a letter, which suits tildes well I think

Maybe it's just me coming from reddit where you close to never meet the same autor twice, so reading the names of the autors does not really matter, and as tildes uses a very similar design I just never seem to notice the name and always have to scroll back up afterwards.

Hello there!

I just received my invite a few minutes ago and I'm happily exploring the site right now.
As many others, I came over from Reddit looking for a better alternative.
I tried to find some information about the current guidelines but wasn't really able to find anything of substance.

Apart from being civil with each other, what's the official ruleset and how can we as testers contribute?

It would be nice to have that functionality (at least as an option), so that the thread doesn't close. I personally instinctively close the tab after I am done reading instead of going back, which can be really frustrating after the realization I have nothing to read now (yeah, I know, CTRL+SHIFT+T, reopen last closed tab etc etc, but it's much more convenient to hit CTRL+W and be back where you stopped reading the thread).

Someone on reddit came up with this idea:

a thread statistics page that would show the average age of accounts replying, the top subreddits those accounts use, the frequency of posted replies and how they group up

This would be interesting to see as Tildes scales up as a defensive measure against bots and brigading (once invite-only goes away...if it does)

I've been watching the history of M.I.T., STS 050, which repeatedly makes the point that the M.I.T. course catalogue is (mostly) ordered by date of creation, particularly through the first 15 or 16 items.

There are some twists. Materials (3) was originally "Mining and Metallurgy", Brain & Cognitive Science (9 was originally "Psychology". But as an outline of technology, and possible ~tildes topic organisation framework, it is useful.

I'm mostly very appreciative of everything @Deimos has accomplished here; so far, it's been a very smooth and interesting alpha experience. I'm seeking some clarity on how the eventual reputation and trust system he proposes might eventually materialize, and would like to start a discussion among other users as to what mechanic they're seeking. [My apologies if this has been addressed previously - search functions are also anxiously awaited.]

There are multiple social sites (Slashdot, HN, Reddit, etc.) which use new/active/upvoted categorization for ranking front-page comments. This seems to be reproduced here, and generally, I don't have a problem with it as long as the permitted posts don't become just a reproduction of inflammatory click-bait available elsewhere, dank memes, etc.

However, on a per-user-basis, the first reasonably-well composed comment on a thread collects most of the votes. My observation is that in an active post thread, the best-reasoned/researched posts may occur after dozens/hundreds of comments, as people who don't spend their entire lives camping on a social site (highly-engaged!) join, read through prior material, and comment. These users don't garner the votes and reputation points which highly-engaged users might, even though they're working harder as quality participants. Threads die, potentially prematurely, because there's no reward for late arrivals or continuing disputation.

While this phenomenon hasn't become egregiously manifest on Tildes yet, there's certainly potential for it to arise. Would it make sense to age out the votes on the "first post!" comment, so that there's some encouragement for deeper or longer posts to continue on an active thread?

Since Tildes is ostensibly built to discourage the "engagement" tactics required to optimize for maximum ad views (e.g. https://www.bitcatcha.com/blog/instagram-tools-strategies-no-ones-talking/), is there another system which might further encourage participants to engage in thoughtful discussion and high-quality posts instead?

Ok, so I'm relatively new here on tildes, so I'm not even sure if I'm posting this in the right place, and if I am, I apologize. One of the things that I've noticed about tildes is that it doesn't have a search bar. I've looked through some posts but can't seem to find anything about it (it was made difficult by the lack of the search bar :P), so I'm wondering is there a reason we don't have one, have we not gotten round to getting one yet or do we just not want one? What are your thoughts on a search bar?

Aside from the existing conversations already going on about handling fluff and generally unwanted content, I would like to start (yes, I know, another) discussion on what we want to see on Tildes. Whenever one of these postings come up, there's generally a lot of "what we don't want to see" and not "what we want to see". So keeping that in mind, let's start...

Specifically I want to discuss Every Episode of "The Flash" Ever. The first, and currently top, comment suggests this is not content that belongs here.

I disagree. We're not anti-fun, and the comments in that thread kinda felt that way.

OP (@RamsesThePigeon) created a critic of a comic book based show in a comic book style depicting tropes and other character flaws in a easy-to-consume and humorous fashion. They correctly had it in ~tv.

This is exactly the sort of content Tildes needs.

It is not low-effort, and will still not be even if not directly created by OP (though bonus points there for sure). It had full potential to generate good discussion on the show itself, other similar shows, writing tropes and characters, and so on.

Thoughts?

Hello, it's exciting to be here during the formation of this amazing new site! After interacting with the site for a short period of time it became increasingly apparent that the ability to comment on a thread at the highest level requires the user to scroll to the very bottom of the page.

There are benefits of this approach, to be sure, such as encouraging the user to actually read some of the existing comments before adding their own ideas to the discussion. It's possible, and ever more likely, that what they are trying to say has already been said and they would be better off joining an existing high-level thread to further the discussion rather than fragment it.

Personally, I think the placement of the comment-box feels hidden when it's so inaccessible in a large thread. This feeling would only become more prevalent as additional users join the site and fill the comments-section to the point where you aren't sure it's worth scrolling.

There are definitely pros and cons but I strongly believe users would approve of a more accessible way to submit top-level comments.

Last night I posted a topic called "real sad boi hours", a ritualistic kind of post I've carried over from Reddit. I chose to post it in ~talk since the description for the group says it is for "Open-ended discussions with fellow Tildes users, casual or serious", and I felt there is nothing more open-ended or casual than real sad boi hours. At first, the topic was meant just as it usually does on Reddit. Got a few responses in which people talked about their day and how they were feeling. But right now, the most voted comment is complaining about how we need to restrict invitations to prevent low effort users like me from joining. One thing the user said was that is is obvious there are users joining who have not read the manifesto. I'm just going to spew my own opinion on a few points here:

1. I don't think gatekeeping is a solution, especially since iirc this site is not going to be permanently invite-only. Not to mention that's just a childish solution anyway.

2. I don't know what is expected from ~talk. As I said before, I legitimately believe my nightly "real sad boi hours" posts fit exactly what the description of the group says. However, that is up to interpretation I suppose.

3. If my post was against some rule (which apparently roughly 17 users believe it is), there should be some kind of rule set or moderation set in place (though I understand why there isn't, the site being private still and all). My impression so far has been that if you don't like content, you just ignore it. But now I'm seeing that apparently, people don't like to ignore it. They want me gone.

4. Is every user expected to read the manifesto? You may be able to get away with this while it's private (and even then, there is still users like me who only read a few pages) but if/when this site goes public, expecting every user or even just most the users to read the manifesto is a pipe dream. As far as I can tell, the reddiquette (which I have also not read) is shorter than the manifesto and nobody reads that either unless they need to. The only reason I know the reddiquette is because I've picked up on bits of it as time went on.

Maybe I'm just a butt-hurt bitch that people complained about me and I can't take criticism. I'm sure people who disliked my post will think that is it. I also may have a skewed perception of what this site is. I view it as an improvement upon Reddit and honestly I think some of this innovation may work great, which is why I'm here in the first place. I want to hear your take on what I said, and anything else you'd like to add.

Decided to drop down here and quickly ask what is Tildes' policy on piracy. Namely, should we be openly discussing, linking, directing users towards pirated content? Is it something that's strictly forbidden?

Apologies if I'm missing something, but if there isn't a statement on this already then what do you guys think the policy should be?

A lot of the time I'll see a discussion I don't have the chance to participate in the moment I see it. It would be nice to be able to "save" it so I could revisit later without having to hunt. Similarly, being able to do the same for comments would be handy for when someone links to something I want to follow-up on or fully explore when I have more time at hand.

Even if only implemented in localStorage per client, I feel it would be a useful addition.

Could we get new post ordering: something like reddit Hot system?

Now, the ordering by activity is great, but the big issue with it is, that when you go to less-active ~, you only see two or three topics. Even on front page, there are just 15 or 20 topics. I know, it's because I limit threads to only several days, but there is problem when I set limit up to week, or two: there are very old threads on the front page right at the top.

So could we get something like reddit has? Display posts according to upvotes/time (comments?), but do not limit them to few days and show them at least +- chronologically - so no two weeks old posts at the top of front page.

Maybe this could be achieved just by tweaking the current activity order by boosting young threads more and vice versa.

In governance, sortition (also known as allotment or demarchy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates. The logic behind the sortition process originates from the idea that “power corrupts.” For that reason, when the time came to choose individuals to be assigned to empowering positions, the ancient Athenians resorted to choosing by lot. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was therefore the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of true democracy.

Today, sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common law-based legal systems and is sometimes used in forming citizen groups with political advisory power (citizens' juries or citizens' assemblies).

The mechanics would be something like this: users report a post/comment, when there's enough reports the systems randomly selects 3/5/7/... currently active users and ask them to determine if the reported post contravene to the rules. The decision is then automatically taken with a majority rule.

Why ?

1. It's the only system that scales (to my knowledge). More users mean more content to moderate, but since the users are also moderators the system works at any scale. Systems that don't scale lead to all kind of problems when the number of users become large.
2. It's very robust to manipulation. As moderators are chosen randomly it's very hard to coordinate or try to influence the decisions.
3. It promotes a participatory attitude and a sense of responsibility in the users. There's no "them against us" (the bad mods against the users).

I would like the ability to save threads or comments, especially if they have links. Something within the platform that would allow me to go back later and watch a linked video or re-read someone's long synopsis would be super useful.

I'm sure as tildes gets bigger, security will continue to be a matter of discussion.

The dev GodEmperors of tildes have (quite awesomely) taken a big position on security already by disallowing breached passwords from being used.

I'm not much of a hacker myself, but it's an armchair interest and I'm sure others more skilled would love to be able to give back to Tildes and help keep the site as secure as possible.

What's the policy on bug hunting, and searching for exploits?

Thanks!

I think it would be sensible to have an option to tell a user if a link was already submitted to a particular group recently. I don't think they should be stopped from posting it, but these reminders would be helpful to avoid needless duplication.

Example of what happens without this. u/cfabbro said this was planned for the future but I can't find it in the docs.

Thoughts?

Not sure if this has already been suggested, but can we get an ability to add ourselves to a post as a "listener" so that we get notifications similar to "N new reply"? For cases where we're interested in following the discussion, but may not have anything to add, or just interested in someone else's thread in the discussion.